A public radio model for newspapers?

In my recent piece on buying local for holiday giving, I suggested that Rhode Islanders buy subscriptions for the ProJo if they want to help ensure the future of the newspaper. As previously reported, Kath Connolly started a Facebook group to try to drum up support for local news.

One wonders if we'll see the start of a public radio model, in which readers are asked to contribute to saving a newspaper.

Meanwhile, today's NYT has a story about a different approach, in Denver:

In what staff members said was possibly the first effort of its kind, they decided to start a Web site, iwantmyrocky.com, so that readers could voice their support for the paper and The Rocky’s own employees could publicly make the case for its survival.

“Our thinking is twofold,” said John C. Ensslin, a longtime reporter and the group’s spokesman. “We want to drive home how bereft our customers would feel if The Rocky would go away. And beyond that, we want to show any other person that acquiring The Rocky would be a valuable asset.” . . .

The site says staff members want to “preserve and protect” the legacy of The Rocky and “fight for the jobs of more than 200 Coloradans and the many others that would be affected by the newspaper’s closure.” It also urges readers to write to Scripps and Colorado’s Congressional delegation.

In the site’s first posting, the Rocky columnist Mike Littwin wrote: “We meet in this strange place in a noble effort to save The Rocky Mountain News. And if we can’t save The Rocky, we can, at minimum, make some noise before we go.”

So far, hundreds of people have posted comments.