Paying for newspaper reporters

“ …it is surely good news that certain nonprofit groups have been paying for certain local Arkansas newspapers to hire additional local reporters.”

http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/nonprofits-paying-reporters/Content?oid=2230412

Arkansas Community Foundation and the Knight Foundation put in $252,000 each and paid for five newspaper reporters for two years for five Arkansas newspapers.

The headline said ‘Nonprofits paying reporters.’ Arkansas Community Foundation, the “35-year-old nonprofit group headquartered in Little Rock,” used to be Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

I just wonder why a newspaper would even consider having an outside organization pay for a reporter. Five reporters, two years, 10 salaries drawn from the $504,000 grants.

Read the comment following the story. The writer pooched the thing all over the place.