Since March, Nonprofit Quarterly, has been offering a daily on-line news feature, “Nonprofit Newswire” — which is distributed by e-mail as “Nonprofit Headlines.”
Newswire/Headlines offers unusually thorough surveys of U.S. print media — including stories from many papers not covered by the Hauser Center’s Nonprofit News & Comment, periodicals (such as the Harvard Business Review, and on-line sources (such as Bloomberg News and ProPublica). It’s coverage of international stories is minimal, including occasional entries from the British press. It does not include coverage of broadcast media — from sources such as National Public Radio.
The feature does not offer an archive, nor does it sort stories by topic, so to use it as a scholarly resource requiring readers archive posts themselves.
So what are the key differences between NPQ’s news feature and the Harvard’s Nonprofit News & Comment blog?
- breadth of coverage: NPQ’s Newswire concentrates primarily on stoies about nonprofits in the U.S. In contrast, Nonprofit News & Comment devotes significant attention to political, economic, and social trends and policies affecting philanthropy, nonprofits, and civil society throughout the world — such as the impact of the Tory government’s “Big Society” initiative on the UK’s NGOs and the role of India’s anti-corruption cru[sader Anna Hazare on the political role of civil society in the world’s largest democracy;
- definition of the nonprofit sector: NPQ’s Newswire confines its attention to the 501(c)3 (charitable tax-exempt) organizations conventionally assumed to comprise the nonprofit sector. Nonprofit News & Comment covers the broader 501(c) universe, including mutual benefit organizations (such as clubs and fraternal entities), trade unions and trade associations, churches and religious bodies, and social movements, as well as activities and organizations on the margins of the sector, including corporate contributions and social responsibility and social enterprise;
- range of sources: NPQ’s Newswire draws primarily on the print media; Nonprofit News & Comment surveys print, broadcast, and on-line media;
- geographical reach: NPQ’s Newswire focuses primarily on the U.S.; Nonprofit News & Comment has a global scope.
That said, Nonprofit Quarterly’s news features — its web page and e-mail feeds — offer an invaluable service, the most important of which is calling practitioner and scholarly attention to the importance of media and the value to both of keeping abreast of changes in this rapidly growing and changing sector.
Newswire and Headlines also provides easy access to Nonprofit Quarterly’s outstanding coverage of the U.S. nonprofit sector.
Ultimately NPQ’s news features and Harvard’s news blog should be viewed as complementary to one another, not as rivals.
Peter Dobkin Hall, Senior Research Fellow, Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations
Dear peter:
We were a bit surprised by the tone and inaccuracies of this post (for instance, the assertion that we confine ourselves to 501 (c) 3′s) “conventionally assumed to be the nonprofit sector”. We have never done so and do so now less than ever, covering philanthropy, non-institutionalized movements and even business and governments involvement in civil society. Or the suggestion that we do not cover general economic, political and social trends affecting civil society… that particular claim might cause more than a bit of cognitive dissonance among our readers! I would say that type of coverage may be one of the things we are most well known (and occasionally reviled) for.
But Peter, again, we are surprised because there is indeed room in this sector for the both of us. As you say we are not rivals in the least. I fear that someone has given you that impression. It never occurred to us.
There are some major differences between Nonprofit News and Cooment and us . NPQ purposefully works with practitioners as lay journalists spread all over the country and their reporting and commentary is mixed in with voices of “experts” and academics. This brings something different and wonderful to our mix to be sure. Just as you have someything different and wonderful here.
I would encourage anyone reading this post to check out the Newswire and our website for themselves (Peter was nice enough to provide a link). You may come away with a different impression than might be taken away from this post.
Respectfully,
Ruth McCambridge
Editor in Chief
Nonprofit Quarterly
Ruth: I am sorry that you took as criticism my comparison of NPQ’s Newswire and Hauser’s Nonprofit News & Comment.
The comparison was intended to highlight the differences between the two features in order to highlight the ways in which they complement one another.
In comparing on a daily basis the stories each feature gleans from the media, I find very little duplication — in large part because Newswire is able to survey US newspaper coverage far more thoroughly than News & Comment can because of its more global focus.
Newswire is made all the more valuable because it is nested in the magazine’s website, which links it to your on-going commentaries on a wide variety of important topics relating to the sector, including matters (like law and public policy) to which the news feed itself gives relatively little attention.
Finally, as you know, I’m an old friend of NPQ, dating back to when it was the New England Nonprofit Quarterly (on whose advisory board I once served). The magazine, both hard copy and on-line, offers the most informed and independent-minded coverage of the nonprofit sector. Newswire is yet another gift to all if us who are concerned about the future on nonprofitdom.
Write on!
Peter Dobkin Hall
Moderator, Nonprofit News & Comment
and Senior Research Fellow, Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations,
Harvard University