Colorado news industry experts are recommending a cautious approach to Longmont-area residents who might be attracted to a news outlet funded by a proposed library district.

Scott Converse, co-founder of local news nonprofit the Longmont Observer, is among those pitching a news operation funded by a library district encompassing the city that would be supported by a new tax on those in its boundaries. The district, which would take over library services in Longmont, would be created only after garnering voter approval.

Longmont City Council’s agenda for Tuesday includes an update on the possibility of forming a library district.

Converse said he believes a news outlet funded by the library district government structure, should it be voted into existence, would fill a need in Longmont created by massive job cuts in the news industry over the past two decades that have impacted newsrooms across the country, including the Times-Call, Boulder Daily Camera and Denver Post.

But news industry experts are urging journalism consumers to consider the implications of relying on a government-funded news source — a library district is a form of government.

“Readers do need to understand the difference between a government-run news source and a nonprofit or an advertising/subscription-supported news organization,” Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition Executive Director Jeffrey Roberts said. “A vital function of the news media is to provide the public with an independent source of information, one that doesn’t just report what public officials say. It goes deeper. It examines the records, looks for other points of view and acts as a watchdog over government activities and spending. It seeks the truth about all sorts of issues of public interest. While a city-run or a library district-run site might offer some useful and interesting community news, it’s not an adequate replacement for independent, professional journalists covering municipalities, school districts, counties and library districts.”

Converse, after hesitating to agree to an interview, saying, “I believe the Times-Call is a hostile entity when it comes to this story,” contends such a library district-run news platform could be protected from being influenced by its funding source via provisions in the district’s bylaws that would preserve journalists’ independence from the government organizations they would cover.

“You have to make sure there is something out there that keeps the spirit of what journalism is all about alive,” Converse said. “I feel for you guys, I really do. I honestly feel for the people that are working at the Times-Call and Daily Camera. I look at what the papers used to be and what they are today, and it breaks my heart.”

A Columbia Journalism Review story explaining how publicly funded “community information districts” might fill the void created in local journalism by recent widespread editorial staff layoffs helped spark Converse’s desire to push for a library-run newsroom, he said.

“The Longmont Observer won’t be around that much longer if it doesn’t secure funding,” Converse said. “You can’t run on volunteers forever. … The way that all the nonprofit (newsgathering) entities have successfully started, they have had an injection of initial funding to get them going.”

He added it would be “a scare tactic” to describe a library district-run newsroom as “government-funded.”

Disclosing how newsrooms are underwritten is essential for adhering to journalistic standards, according to the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition’s Roberts and Colorado Press Association CEO Jill Farschman.

“However this proposal proceeds, the relationship between the news service and its funding source and anyone who has control over editorial content should be made clear for readers, listeners and viewers,” Roberts said.

Farschman said it is unlikely a library district-run news outlet could qualify for Colorado Press Association membership or credentials.

Nonprofit and for-profit journalism groups, including those supported by grant funding and partnerships with outside reporting outfits such as ProPublica, are “very different from having something that is funded by a governmental entity,” Farschman said.

In case of the latter, she said, “there is a great potential for conflict of interest and a real undermining of the important role the press has to hold those in power, and particularly government-funded agencies, to account.”

Converse said a library district could still be formed without adding a newsroom component.

Local journalists outside of Prairie Mountain Media — owner of the Times-Call and Camera — also are circumspect about the possible implications of a library district steering readers toward its own news publication.

“I heard about Longmont’s library district initiative while reporting on the potential Boulder library district, and I am both intrigued and wary at the same time,” Left Hand Valley Courier editor Jocelyn Rowley said. “Clearly local journalism is in trouble, but my inner-libertarian hears ‘government-run news source’ and thinks Pravda (the Russian newspaper formerly run by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union).

“Of course, a library district isn’t exactly the Politburo, but it isn’t exactly viewpoint-neutral, either,” Rowley said.

Those in need of Longmont news already have options for supporting existing local outlets by donating to the Observer and subscribing to or advertising in the Times-Call, or by simply pitching stories to either, Farschman said, adding experimental newsroom funding methods could be applied to those newsrooms.

“My preference would be if we’re going to look at alternative business models, is how people can underwrite the excellent community news that is being produced already by our members, in some cases for more than a century,” Farschman said. “That isn’t just advertising, that’s also editorial. We get great stories from local leaders who are doing something interesting.”