From Thursday's Chicago Sun-Times we hear that one of the answers to the failing market for traditional newspapers (like the Sun-Times) is to go non-profit.

"Go non-profit"? Yes, nonprofits fill market voids where the government has no demand and there's no financial incentive for for-profits. But, is there really hope for newspapers in the nonprofit sector? Essentially this message is that newspapers need subsidy to be viable -- just like nonprofits. Is this really the purpose of nonprofits?

Newspapers clearly need another model to be viable particularly given the role of the internet, but becoming nonprofit certainly doesn't strike me as the best answer -- essentially saying "we failed to make money" so let's become donor subsidized. And let's be realistic, how many nonprofit community newspapers have been successful?