Are newspapers the new charities?

BusinessWeek has a story entitled "What David Geffen Sees In The New York Times." And it ain't a financial windfall:

[A] Times investment would be deeply personal for the billionaire. Geffen came from New York, having been born to immigrant parents who lived in Brooklyn, and he has become for the last three decades a fixture in the power structure of the city. He grew up reading The New York Times, and knows its power as a national oracle....

With its annual haul of Pulitzer Prizes, The New York Times is a journalistic giant and a national treasure. And, as I am sure that Geffen knows well, it is also an impassioned voice for the liberal causes that Geffen likely holds dear. Would he like to make sure it continues as the Oracle of the Big Apple?

More here.

Even five years ago, would anyone have envisioned that the next charitable cause to interest the wealthy would be...newspapers?

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