Last month I posted a comment on the NUJ Left blog after a public meeting they held about media ownership.
I think ownership of the media is the key to the future of journalism. Newspapers aren't just commodities - they're a badge of identity. People make a conscious effort to purchase a particular paper over others - they want to associate themselves with it.
So the readership of a paper is a ready-made community. Could we tap into that? Could newspapers be owned by the communities that identify themselves with them?
Here's a thought that I stuck up on Facebook a wee while ago about The Herald. This was in light of the row over job cuts there.
"The Herald's ABC is about 100,000. Purchase price for the group will be about £180m. That's £1800 a head.
"A loan for that amount would cost about £9 a week for five years for each of those 100,000.
"The Herald Group makes about £20m a year.
"Say as a reward for our generosity we all give ourselves a free Sunday Herald each week. That'll cost about £8m. The other £12m could be reinvested in the papers.
"OK, paying £9 a week for a paper is excessive, But we could make it for life. After five years, you'd stop paying the loan, but you'd keep getting your papers free. Say you live for 30 years, ignoring inflation, a Sunday Herald each week would cost you £2340. You've saved money!"
Looks like Polly Toynbee thinks some kind of not-for-profit local trusts could be a way forward too. Of course, my ideal would be to have the community not only owning the paper but electing the board and making decisions about investment and broad editorial policy. Being owned by an unelected trust isn't enough to safeguard local papers.