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Archive of posts from February 5, 2019

trends | Jul 27, 2026

Is this Reddit’s moment for local news? The social media platform’s tools for publishers has piqued the interest of newsrooms

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

Last October, the Big 12 conference issued a rule change that only really makes sense if you watch Big 12 football: Fans at Texas Tech’s Jones AT&T Stadium were no longer allowed to throw tortillas onto the field during the opening kickoff. In another era, it’s a story that the Dallas Morning News — located roughly 350 miles southeast of Lubbock, Texas — likely would’ve given less priority. But the paper’s coverage of Texas Tech...

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news | Jul 8, 2026

A Cross Section of Illinois News Entities Get $4.3 Million from State

by John Volk | volk_maps

Fifty-five Illinois local news organizations operating 130 outlets have received $4.3 million in state tax credits so far this year under a law designed to encourage the retention and hiring of journalists, according to records obtained through a Freedom of Information request by the Medill Local News Initiative. It matches the total disbursed in all of 2025, the first year of the program. Just under $700,000 budgeted for this year remains available to local news...

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Podcast | Jul 7, 2026

Lenfest Institute CEO Jim Friedlich on What’s Working in Local News: Beneficial Ownership Combined with Strong User Revenues Jim Friedlich of the Lenfest Institute discusses the transformation of The Philadelphia Inquirer, how AI is reshaping the future of journalism and what an ecosystem approach to local news looks like.

In the sixth episode of the State of Local News Podcast, host Tim Franklin—Professor, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News, and founding director of the Medill Local News Initiative—speaks with Jim Friedlich, CEO of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Friedlich joins Tim Franklin on the State of Local News Podcast to reflect on the Lenfest Institute’s decade-long journey to becoming one of the most influential journalism organizations in the country: investing more than $117...

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news | Jul 7, 2026

The Daily Herald Deal Even Illinois’ Model Local News Infrastructure Couldn’t Slow Alden’s Expansion in Chicago

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

By many counts, Illinois has among the most robust infrastructure to support local news in the country. It passed legislation in 2024 that provides tax credits to local news organizations to support hiring and retaining journalists and a sale notice law to create opportunity for local news outlets to stay under control of local owners. The state is also home to philanthropic organizations that have contributed millions of dollars to support local journalism. Despite this,...

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trends | Jun 23, 2026

Struggling in the Suburbs The Daily Herald’s sale to Tribune Publishing is the latest example of suburban newspapers’ struggles

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

Few suburban newspapers have existed as long as the Daily Herald, founded as the Cook County Herald just seven years after the end of the Civil War. But now, the news organization that prides itself as “Suburban Chicago’s Information Source,” is facing a major transition. On Monday, Alden Global Capital, the private equity firm which owns Tribune Publishing and is the second-largest newspaper owner in the United States, officially took ownership after acquiring the state’s third-largest newspaper...

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Podcast | Jun 22, 2026

Axios Local's Holly Moore on Newsletters, Networks, AI and the “Whole Buffalo”

In the fifth episode of the State of Local News Podcast, host Tim Franklin—Professor, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News, and founding director of the Medill Local News Initiative—speaks with Holly Moore, Executive Editor of Axios Local. Moore joins Tim Franklin on the State of Local News Podcast to discuss Axios Local’s evolution from a single acquired newsletter in Charlotte to a rapidly expanding local news network serving 37 markets across the United States,...

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news | Jun 12, 2026

Paddock closes at least 13 Illinois newspapers, adding five new news deserts Alden-owned Tribune Publishing will take over Paddock’s Daily Herald later this month

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

With little advance notice or explanation, Paddock Publications has ceased publishing at least 13 of its 20 newspapers in Illinois this month. In May, the company entered into an agreement to sell its Arlington Heights-based Daily Herald newspaper to Tribune Publishing, owned by the investment firm Alden Global Capital. The Daily Herald would be under new ownership after a scheduled closing on June 22. The Paddock closures create an additional five news desert counties in...

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research | Jun 2, 2026

Insights on Chicago’s Local Media Consumers A look at local news organizations’ quests to best serve their audiences

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

This text was adapted from our report on Chicago’s Local Media Consumers. Download a full PDF version of the report. Beginning in December 2025, 38 newsrooms across the Chicago area came together to gather bespoke insights from the vast audiences they reach. Over the course of five months, Press Forward Chicago sponsored research as part of a collaboration with the Northwestern University Local News Accelerator (LNA) at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing...

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Podcast | May 27, 2026

NPR CEO Katherine Maher Discusses Recent Restructuring and Adapting to Federal Defunding

In the fourth episode of the State of Local News Podcast, host Tim Franklin—Professor, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News, and founding director of the Medill Local News Initiative—speaks with Katherine Maher, President and CEO of NPR. Maher joins Tim Franklin on the State of Local News Podcast to discuss the rapidly shifting landscape of public media amid federal funding cuts, audience fragmentation, and technological disruption. Maher outlines NPR’s restructuring efforts, the importance of...

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trends | May 13, 2026

Saving Legacy Newspapers What value do investors see in print media?

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

Stewart Bainum Jr. just committed $30 million over five years to prevent the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from shutting down. David Hoffmann and his media company spent $50 million to take majority control of Lee Enterprises, which owns more than 100 newspapers across the country. And several organizations swept in to save a few dozen newspapers across Iowa and Illinois that were part of News Media Corp. and Mid-America Publishing that would’ve otherwise gone extinct. These major...

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Podcast | May 4, 2026

Chuck Todd on rebuilding trust through local news

In the third episode of the State of Local News Podcast, host Tim Franklin—Professor, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News, and founding director of the Medill Local News Initiative—speaks with veteran journalist and podcaster Chuck Todd. They discuss the erosion of trust in national media and how it ties into the decline of local news. Todd shares insights from his recent conversations with local news entrepreneurs, exploring emerging business models, the role of community...

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research | Apr 30, 2026

On U.S. Military Bases, Fewer and Fewer Options for Local News New Medill research shows how the beat of local military reporting is changing as newsrooms contract.

by Zach Metzger

Across the United States, nearly 2.5 million people, more than the entire population of New Mexico, live on or near military bases. Over the past year, researchers at the Medill Local News Initiative have studied these communities and their local news access. The results have shown that the personnel stationed at these installations, along with their families and the wider population, are dramatically underserved by local news sources. Since 2005, newspapers in these areas have...

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trends | Apr 23, 2026

Local TV News is Consolidating and Contracting Can it adapt to major changes in audience and business model?

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

For months, there was uncertainty. Then on March 31, there was shock. Employees at WRTV, the ABC affiliate local TV station in Indianapolis, gathered together for a meeting they’d found out about just an hour before. Their station, owned by E.W. Scripps Co., had just officially been sold to Circle City Broadcasting. But, they thought, they’d still keep their jobs for at least a period after the acquisition. “We’re all expecting answers, about health coverage...

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research | Apr 21, 2026

Nominate a Local News Bright Spot We are collecting nominations for Local News ‘Bright Spots’ to feature in our 2026 State of Local News Report.

by Jennifer Kho

While our challenges as an industry are large, so is our capacity for innovation – and for inspiration. Now in its fourth year, the Bright Spots section of Medill’s State of Local News report aims to highlight some of the most promising things happening in local news outlets around the United States. Send us your nominations here. In just a few examples, we checked in on The Post and Courier’s post-pandemic efforts to strengthen local...

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news | Apr 16, 2026

Baltimore was just the start for local-news champion Stewart Bainum Jr.

by Brier Dudley

After creating a successful local-news startup, The Baltimore Banner, Stewart Bainum Jr. and his team began exploring opportunities in other places. Last fall, they ranked 40 cities east of the Mississippi “and the number one was Pittsburgh,” Bainum said in a phone interview Tuesday. When he reviewed the study in December, Bainum thought it’s interesting but “we’ve got our hands full” in Baltimore. “Well hell, 30 days later it was announced the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was...

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Podcast | Apr 14, 2026

Ben Cotton on lessons at the New York Times on growing digital subscriptions

In the second episode of the State of Local News Podcast, host Tim Franklin—Professor, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News, and founding director of the Medill Local News Initiative—speaks with Ben Cotton, General Manager for News at The New York Times. They discuss how the Times has grown its digital audience through a subscription-first strategy, the rise of product bundles like games, cooking, and sports; and how video, creators, and shifting audience habits are...

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research | Apr 6, 2026

Searching for sustainability New report finds nonprofit news outlets need to develop robust revenue outside philanthropy to succeed long term

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

Digital-first nonprofit newsrooms are generating only a fraction of the revenue of the newspaper industry from 20 years ago, and their “earned revenue” through things like subscriptions and memberships make up only about a quarter to a third of their total funding. Those are the findings of a report released on Thursday from the Wyncote Foundation, which concludes that philanthropists likely will need to support these outlets for an extended time to preserve their sustainability. That...

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trends | Mar 31, 2026

Going Underground What local newsrooms can learn from informal news networks

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

Over the course of human history, write Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel in “The Elements of Journalism,” the spread of news and information was quite basic. “They wanted people who could run swiftly over the next hill, accurately gather information, and engagingly retell it,” they say of how people valued the idea of “journalism” centuries ago. In other words, the concept of people relying on their friends and neighbors to find out what’s happening around...

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Podcast | Mar 24, 2026

Steve Grove on AI, Building Trust and Reinventing the Minnesota Star Tribune Introducing the Medill State of Local News Podcast with Tim Franklin

In the inaugural episode of the Medill State of Local News Podcast, host Tim Franklin—Professor, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News, and founding director of the Medill Local News Initiative—speaks with Steve Grove, CEO and publisher of the Minnesota Star Tribune. They discuss Grove’s unconventional journey from Google executive to leading one of the nation’s largest regional newsrooms, the Star Tribune’s approach to rebuilding trust during Operation Metro Surge and how AI, shifting audience...

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news | Mar 19, 2026

Researchers document AI firms' pilfering of news sites

by Brier Dudley

If they were stealing jewels or pirating movies, AI companies might be prosecuted. But they face few consequences for ripping off news publishers, using copyrighted work and rarely providing even attribution. This pilferage is documented by an “AI news audit” released Monday by Canadian researchers at McGill University in Montreal. It found AI models to be quite knowledgeable about current news stories. But in queries involving web searches, they provided no source attribution in 82%...

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news | Mar 18, 2026

Medill awards funding to Chicago local media organizations The Bigs takes home a $10,000 first-place prize

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

Terrence Tomlin and Eugene McIntosh didn’t expect to walk away from a week at Medill’s Media Innovation and Leadership Academy (MILA) with a check for $10,000. But as they’ve learned through their decade of pioneering their sports media company The Bigs, they’ve carved out a space for themselves in the Chicago media landscape. The Bigs began as an idea in McIntosh’s one-bedroom apartment in Hyde Park in 2015. Fast forward to 2026, the Black-owned sports...

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news | Mar 15, 2026

Big donors get blinkered view of local journalism crisis

by Brier Dudley

A new report, commissioned by funders of local news, offers provocative suggestions for saving the industry. It includes some sharp observations. They should be valuable to the national philanthropies, allied as a group called Press Forward, that in 2023 pledged more than $500 million to help save local journalism. The more research the better, because saving local news is a big, complicated problem. But I suggest Press Forward and other donors don’t rely too much...

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news | Mar 5, 2026

Chicago-area publications join Arizona State’s NEWSWELL Growing Community Media donates its four publications, seeks long-term sustainability

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

Last summer, interim executive director Max Reinsdorf knew Growing Community Media (GCM) needed to find a more sustainable path forward. The financials simply weren’t adding up. GCM, which includes four newspapers in the west suburbs and West Side of Chicago, already had converted these titles from commercial to nonprofit status six years ago, but that wasn’t enough. Now he believes he’s found a pathway to sustainability: NEWSWELL, a nonprofit associated with Arizona State University. On...

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news | Feb 26, 2026

Other states making progress on saving local journalism

by Brier Dudley

New Mexico is poised to become the latest state to save local newsroom jobs through policies approved by its Legislature. The Land of Enchantment offers another model for states that believe local journalism is essential to their civic health and want to help their news industries survive and grow. While the vast majority of Americans trust and appreciate local news, only a few states so far have enacted tax credits and other measures to help news...

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trends | Feb 24, 2026

All in on high school sports At the Minnesota Star Tribune, an investment decades in the making takes shape

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

There’s no shortage of reasons why Chris Carr loves high school sports — the community, the joy and the camaraderie, among them. For 25 years, he’s worked at the Minnesota Star Tribune, mostly in the sports department, and now he’s helping lead the way for the paper’s latest endeavor: Strib Varsity, a high school sports desk that not only writes stories but tracks stats and scores and broadcasts live streams for hundreds of schools around...

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research | Feb 19, 2026

The Media Ecosystem Chicago A deep dive into the Windy City’s innovative and expansive media landscape

This text was adapted from our report on the Chicago Media Ecosystem. Download a full PDF version of the report. In early 2025, Project C, an organization that works to equip independent journalists with tools to succeed in the independent creator economy, introduced the News Ecosystem Framework — a visual tool that charts a comprehensive continuum of news industry models. The aim of the framework was to contextualize creator-model journalism as part of a broader and...

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research | Feb 10, 2026

With no local news, those in news deserts turn to social media feeds, influencers and gossip Medill Local News Initiative survey shows America’s fraying relationship to reliable information.

Roughly half of people in news deserts relied on non-journalistic sources, not news organizations More than 200 news desert counties in the U.S. predominantly located in rural areas Many in news deserts don’t think of themselves as being deprived of local news sources In local news deserts in the U.S., residents rely heavily on social media and other non-journalistic sources to stay informed, according to a comprehensive survey by the Medill Local News Initiative at...

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news | Feb 9, 2026

Alden Global Capital makes push to buy Daily Herald in Chicago suburbs Full-page ad argues investment firm will pay the highest price

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

Alden Global Capital, the private equity fund that owns the Chicago Tribune and more than 160 other newspapers across the United States, wants to add the Daily Herald to its portfolio. The company, which operates through MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing, is the second largest local news publisher in the U.S. behind Gannett. Alden published a full-page ad in Sunday’s edition of the Chicago Tribune to express interest in acquiring the employee-owned Daily Herald, which...

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news | Jan 26, 2026

Washington newspapers saved at last minute, ‘a small miracle’

by Brier Dudley

It took a few weeks but a Christmas miracle is coming true near the Canadian border, in Washington’s Whatcom County. The Northern Light, a weekly newspaper serving more than 10,000 households in Blaine and Birch Bay, was saved by a remarkably generous gift over the holidays. It was about to close until the family owners decided, after a last-minute conversation, to donate their business to a fledgling nonprofit newspaper operator. Publication paused briefly but resumes...

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Q&A | Jan 20, 2026

Los Angeles’ local news experiment New startup looks to combine old-school and new-school journalism

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

On Sunday, L.A. Reported launched as the latest startup in the country’s second-largest city. The organization was founded by Scott Woolley, formerly Forbes’ West Coast bureau chief, and David Dreier, former chairman of the Tribune Publishing Company who previously spent 32 years in Congress. Along with inaugural editor Karin Klein, who worked at the Los Angeles Times for 35 years, the outlet aims to bring a mix of old-school style to a new-school platform. Primarily distributed...

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news | Jan 16, 2026

Pittsburgh’s next steps How the Post-Gazette’s closure could impact the local media landscape

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

In May, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — founded three years before George Washington became the first president of the United States — will cease operations. The paper’s owner, Block Communications Inc. made the announcement on Jan. 7, following a court ruling that ruled against the company in a protracted dispute with an employee union. Over the last 20 years, the announcement said, the paper has lost over $350 million. It’s the latest high-profile case of a legacy newspaper...

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news | Jan 14, 2026

Newspaper family saves Oregon paper

by Brier Dudley

Saving local journalism isn’t always straightforward, as a turnabout in Oregon demonstrates. Two newspapers in Linn County just about failed after they were sold to a former employee. But veteran owners and community support jolted them back to life this month. I wrote in November that selling local newspapers to employees should be an option for owners who might otherwise shut them down or sell to parsimonious chains. The goal is to preserve independent newspapers, which...

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trends | Jan 6, 2026

Turning Back the Clock At Newsday on Long Island, a nostalgia beat brings massive traffic

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

In another era, Long Islanders fell asleep hearing the frantic commercials for Crazy Eddie (“His prices are insane!”) and the dry humor from Coronet’s Furniture (“No talking orangutans”) on their TV sets; they spent their summers in share houses on Fire Island and enjoying ice cream sundaes at Jahn’s; they celebrated birthdays at United Skates; and they flocked to clubs to see musicians, from reggae icon Jimmy Cliff to Long Island-native rock-and-roll pianist Billy Joel. For many, those memories are still vivid decades...

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research | Dec 19, 2025

Troubled local news outlets face a new risk: climate change New research identifies the U.S. communities facing the double jeopardy of climate disaster and a lack of news sources.

by Srishti Bose

KCHU, the public radio station in Valdez, Alaska, is used to living on the edge. For two months, its AM transmitter leaned precariously over the Valdez Glacier Stream as seasonal flooding from melting glaciers, called “glacial outburst events,” caused unprecedented erosion on its banks. The transmitter was removed in August to prevent it from imminent collapse, ending KCHU's AM transmission. To make matters worse, in July, KCHU also lost the bulk of its budget when Congress eliminated more than...

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research | Dec 11, 2025

When federal might meets local resistance Chicago is case study in using solutions journalism for rapid response coverage of ICE enforcement nationally

by Deborah D. Douglas

A palpable tension mixed with anticipation filled Chicago-area newsrooms this fall when journalists found themselves suddenly pressed into the service of covering the White House’s immigration enforcement surge. Local journalists worked around the clock to cover community responses to a militarized and sometimes violent presence in neighborhoods in and around the city. Federal immigration policing has escalated across the nation, including cities like Los Angeles, Houston, Memphis and Charlotte, North Carolina. The unprecedented effort continues...

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trends | Dec 2, 2025

Rapidly Expanding Local News Networks Nonprofit and for-profit news networks are expanding local news in places that need it

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

When Michael Shapiro started TAPinto, you couldn’t miss him around town. He was president of the Rotary Club, on the board of the chamber of commerce and at any event you could think of around New Providence, New Jersey, a suburb of roughly 14,000 about the distance of a marathon west of New York City. “If you were in town, you couldn’t go to any kind of function in the town without seeing me,” Shapiro...

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trends | Nov 17, 2025

Email over algorithms: how newsrooms are reclaiming their audiences

by Jackie Spinner

It was big NBA news when the San Antonio Spurs signed a $229 million contract extension with star point guard De’Aaron Fox this summer. But for the San Antonio Express-News, the timing of the four-year deal was lousy: The paper’s Spurs newsletter had gone out the day before. Not long ago, the newspaper would have counted on push alerts or social media posts to draw readers to its website. But as habits shifted, newsrooms across...

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news | Nov 12, 2025

Paths to sustainability New LION report says local news organizations need to focus more on business side

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

News organizations with staff focused on revenue generation had a median revenue 700% higher than news outlets without it, according to a report released by Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers on Wednesday. The exhaustive LION report of its members’ activities outlines a framework for thinking about the future of sustainability for local independent online news organizations. “One of the first things that I was excited about that we did at LION — and this really took...

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research | Nov 10, 2025

Baltimore bucks the trend Local outlets are withering across the country – but not in Charm City

by Paul Farhi

The appointment of a new inspector general isn’t typically the sexiest local-news topic, but it may have been the hottest story going this summer in Baltimore County. Amid suggestions of political favoritism and backroom deals, the county executive pushed out the incumbent inspector. Intense media coverage ensued. The Baltimore Sun and its upstart competitor, The Baltimore Banner, published dozens of news stories and editorials. The Baltimore Brew, a scrappy digital news site launched in 2010, scored a few...

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research | Nov 3, 2025

Northwest publishers avoiding consolidation or closure, maintaining independence As independent newspapers shutter across the U.S., a handful of Northwest publishers defy the trend.

by Brier Dudley

Publisher Les Zaitz spent three years trying to save his pride and joy. His Malheur Enterprise weekly newspaper on Oregon’s eastern border had an acclaimed reputation for hard-hitting investigative reporting. To keep it open, Zaitz was willing to make a deal. He even offered to train his successor to smooth the transition. Eventually, his patience ran out. Unable to lure a new owner to rural Malheur County, Zaitz took the excruciating step of closing The...

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trends | Oct 28, 2025

With news creators and influencers on the rise, what’s next for local news? ‘It’s just much more approachable’

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

Jonah Fialkow has never considered himself to be a sports journalist. He sells beer and hot dogs as a vendor at Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs, after all. But he also has a TikTok account with more than 50,000 followers. There’s little objectivity in his work (he’s such a big Cubs fan that he wrote his college admissions essay about Wrigley Field), and some of his commentary, that sometimes include clips of him selling...

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research | Oct 27, 2025

Keeping Voices from Vanishing Public radio, long a lifeline, is at risk in Alaska and rural areas around the country

by Liam Scott | liamjscott

In the remote Arctic town of Kotzebue, Alaska, some residents still talk about the Dairy Queen that closed several years ago. They also talk about what’s at risk of closing next: the region’s lone radio station. Since 1973, KOTZ has delivered the news to Kotzebue, population 3,102, and several other small, sparse villages that collectively are home to about the same number of people. Some 30 miles north of the Arctic Circle, KOTZ is the only source of local news for...

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news | Oct 8, 2025

Illinois Press Association CEO Resigns After Dispute Over ICE Lawsuit

by Mary Randolph

The CEO of the Illinois Press Association, who had joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration for actions toward journalists outside a Chicago-area ICE facility, resigned this week following a dispute with the IPA's board over the litigation. Don Craven, who had led the IPA since 2021, added the organization to the lawsuit Sunday alongside other Illinois news outlets and advocacy groups. The IPA board disagreed with the decision and told him “to do whatever...

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trends | Oct 8, 2025

The Marvel in Mullen Gerri Peterson’s Nebraska Paper Bucks the Trend in Rural America, Finds Pathway to Success

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

Try searching the McDonald’s website for the restaurant closest to zip code 69152, and you’ll receive an apology: no restaurants in that area. Try the same search for a Walmart, and you’ll receive a similar message. Zip code 69152 belongs to Mullen, Nebraska, a village of roughly 465 residents tucked into Hooker County, population 698. Located in the western part of the state in the Nebraska Sandhills, the closest McDonald’s and Walmart are a three-hour...

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news | Sep 19, 2025

Sale of Illinois newspapers puts new state law to the test

by Ben Szalinski

SPRINGFIELD – A newspaper publisher in central and southern Illinois has sold eight of its Illinois papers to a Kentucky-based company, testing a new state law designed to keep newspaper ownership local. The Strengthening Community Media Act took effect on Jan. 1 as part of a package of legislation aimed at boosting local journalism. Its supporters said it was a response to growing news deserts that have been worsened by national media companies purchasing and...

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trends | Sep 17, 2025

Going cold turkey Is the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Gambit to Dump Print a Harbinger?

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

When Julia Wallace heard the news, she had a flashback to 20 years ago. On Aug. 28, president and publisher of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Andrew Morse made the seismic announcement: As of Jan. 1, 2026, the AJC would become a fully digital operation. It would stop printing a physical newspaper, something it has done since shortly after the Civil War. “The fact is, many more people engage with our digital platforms and products today than...

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update | Sep 11, 2025

Medill launches shared services hub to continue strengthening Chicago local news

The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications announced the creation of a shared services hub, which will provide expertise and infrastructure support to news outlets in the Chicago region. Thanks to a grant from The Robert R. McCormick Foundation, the new hub will work directly with local news organizations in the Chicago area on critical needs, including consumer research, audience strategy, product development, revenue diversification and legal services. “We’re grateful to the McCormick...

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research | Sep 10, 2025

The Medill survey 2025: How the Chicago area gets its news Second annual examination of the public’s interest in and reliance on local news

This text was adapted from the introduction of our report on how Chicago-area residents consume local news. Download a full PDF version of the report. The relationship between the news business and consumers of news is breaking down and reforming at a dizzying pace as digital technology gives audiences new ways to engage with information. Certainly, every journalism era is transformational. Newspaper domination gave way to radio and broadcast television, followed by cable TV with...

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news | Sep 4, 2025

Wincing at ‘The Paper,’ a Newspaper Spinoff of ‘The Office’

by Brier Dudley

It’s not as hilarious as “The Office” but the spinoff series “The Paper” often hits its mark, painfully. That was my take after watching several episodes of the new show, debuting Thursday on NBCUniversal’s Peacock, about a struggling Midwest newspaper. Like “The Office,” it’s a deadpan workplace documentary. The setup is that Dunder Mifflin, the setting of “The Office,” was sold to a corporation that owns the fictional Toledo Truth Teller newspaper. The newspaper’s skeleton...

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news | Sep 2, 2025

Too many Americans are losing faith in the role of journalists

by Brier Dudley

Further evidence that we’re living in a bizarro world, where wrong is right and down is up, came in a recent Pew Research Center survey. It found a shockingly large number of Americans don’t strongly believe journalists should hold public figures accountable, by calling out false and misleading information. Did they skip civics and history lessons? Are people so fatigued by awful national and global news, they don’t care anymore? Or maybe this is just...

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policy | Aug 28, 2025

Does the decline of local news influence our politics? This former U.S. Senator thinks so Decreased ticket splitting, less accountability more common with local news outlets disappearing

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

When Montana voters sent Jon Tester to the United States Senate for the first time in 2006, the Democratic Party also won Senate elections in North Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri, Ohio and West Virginia. At the time, the party’s senators also included members from Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana and South Dakota. Republicans, meanwhile, represented states including Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon and Virginia. Nearly 20 years later, Maine is the only one...

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research | Aug 27, 2025

Lack of Local News Tied to Government Secrecy, New Report Says

by John Volk | volk_maps

The loss of local news is linked with increased government secrecy, according to a new study conducted by the Brechner Center for the Advancement of the First Amendment at the University of Florida. The findings lend the first empirical evidence to the connection long intuited between the declining health of local news ecosystems and decreased government transparency. They add to the growing body of research that demonstrates the impact of news deserts on democracy, including...

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news | Aug 21, 2025

A verdant news desert in Skamania County

by Brier Dudley

On election nights, there should be electricity in a newsroom — and pizza bought by the editor. Yet on the evening of Aug. 5, the night of a busy primary in Skamania County, the lights were out at the county’s only local newspaper. The Skamania County Pioneer’s storefront office, a few blocks from the courthouse in Stevenson, is now a bookstore. There are old papers in back, and the store collects subscription payments. But the...

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news policy data | Aug 7, 2025

Illinois Newsrooms Receive $4 Million from State

by John Volk | volk_maps

Forty Illinois local news entities operating 120 outlets are receiving $4 million in state tax credits under a new law designed to encourage the retention and hiring of journalists, according to documents released this week. The organizations that have received credits represent a cross section of Illinois’ local news ecosystem, according to records obtained through a Freedom of Information request by the Medill Local News Initiative. They span major legacy organizations, small community newspapers, digital...

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news | Aug 7, 2025

This tech CEO wants to save local news from the AI onslaught

by Brier Dudley

Local newspapers have an intriguing new ally in their quest to get paid by AI firms hoovering their stories and putting their future at risk. Matthew Prince, CEO of San Francisco-based Cloudflare, believes his company has a tool that may solve this dilemma for both news publishers and tech firms. Prince has skin in the game beyond Cloudflare. He and his wife, Tatiana, own The Park Record, an award-winning newspaper in his hometown of Park...

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news | Aug 4, 2025

Stop the Presses? Does Print Have More of a Future in Media Than We Think?

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

Stephen Crane knows some people think he’s out of his mind. It’s July 2025, and he’s celebrating the second anniversary of his passion project: the Morgan County Correspondent, a weekly newspaper he started to provide coverage of his hometown county to the southwest of Indianapolis. A county of 73,000 people with both suburban and rural enclaves, Crane couldn’t stand seeing the two papers in his community — the Gannett-owned Mooresville Times and the Reporter-Times —...

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news | Jul 31, 2025

Oregon newspapers close, Dallas paper rejects Alden bid

by Brier Dudley

Cuts to Oregon’s newspaper industry continue this month with the closure of two newspapers east of Portland. Cuts to Oregon’s newspaper industry continue this month with the closure of two newspapers east of Portland. I wonder if Oregon legislators regret not passing Senate Bill 686 in June. The legislation would have required tech giants profiting from news to pay $122 million a year to local news outlets, with payments allocated based on the number of journalists...

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news | Jul 28, 2025

Hitting Reset After Months of Turbulence, the National Trust for Local News Seeks Stability

by Liam Scott | liamjscott

Two days after Tom Wiley joined the National Trust for Local News in May as its new CEO, the organization announced that it was selling 21 of its Colorado newspapers to a for-profit Arizona-based company. The large sale had been in the works long before Wiley joined the nonprofit, but it marked perhaps the biggest disruption at the Trust following what had already been a turbulent few months. In January, the organization’s co-founder and CEO Elizabeth...

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discussion | Jul 23, 2025

Local News Summit Chuck Todd Talks Local News with Michigan Press Leaders

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

Public media cuts, increased collaboration and the importance of local sports headlined a panel at a Local Media Association’s summit in Detroit on Wednesday aimed at raising the visibility of the challenges facing local news, potential solutions and its impact on communities. Over the last two decades, Michigan has lost about 40% of its newspapers, well above the national average of about 33%, according to Medill’s State of Local News Report. The event aimed to...

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news | Jul 17, 2025

Local Public Broadcasting Cuts As Congress Moves to Slash Public Media Funding, Local News Outlets Brace for Impact

by Brier Dudley

Public broadcasters are glued to their screens this week, watching Congress move toward eliminating their funding as requested by President Donald Trump. “I actually have a link to the Senate floor so I usually have that on the background,” Cara Williams Fry, general manager of Pullman-based Northwest Public Broadcasting, told me on Tuesday. Clawing back the $1.1 billion already promised to public broadcasters will have a ripple effect across the local news industry. It does...

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trends | Jul 10, 2025

Journalist Deserts The Number of Local Journalists Has Plummeted 75% Since 2002, Study Says

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

The United States has seen a staggering 75% decline in local journalists since 2002, according to a report released on Thursday by Rebuild Local News and Muck Rack. In their research that creates the Local Journalist Index, they found that more than 1,000 (of the 3,141) U.S. counties do not have even one full-time local journalist, and the shortage isn’t limited to rural areas. Even in densely populated cities like Los Angeles, there are very few...

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trends | Jul 10, 2025

Meeting Your Audience Where They Are – Literally Local News Outlets Adding Events to Grow Engagement, Revenue

by Hannah Carroll

A WWE-style belt decorated with The Pilot logo, donned by a proud Southern Pines electrician, is a sight one could only bear witness to at the ‘Best of the Pines’ awards event. From small town celebrations like this one to nationally-known annual festivals like that at The Texas Tribune, intimate information-based conversations hosted by Mirror Indy, and networking nights by Block Club Chicago, hosting events is increasingly playing a key role in publications’ audience and...

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news | Jul 3, 2025

Government Agency Buys Newspaper Does The New Owner Represent A Savior, A Conflict Or Both?

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

Joe Turnham knew it would be cataclysmic if The Tuskegee News closed its doors. He’s seen all the maps showing the collapse of local news. He’s seen what happens in communities that lose their local paper. He didn’t want Macon County, Alabama to join the list. So when Gayle Davis, the then-owner of the paper in her mid-80s, was prepared to shut things down in the absence of a buyer, Turnham convinced his employer to...

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policy | Jun 26, 2025

Tech Giants Win Again An Oregon Bill Requiring Tech Platforms to Compensate Local News Stalls in Senate

by Brier Dudley

An Oregon policy that could have created a model for saving local journalism died in Legislature, amid another round of newsroom layoffs in the state. An Oregon proposal that would have saved newsroom jobs and revived its ailing local-news industry died on Tuesday. Oregon was poised to set a precedent and become the first state requiring tech giants to fairly compensate publishers for the value local news ads to their online platforms. But a slim majority...

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Q&A | Jun 26, 2025

Meet the Local Press Champion Former “Meet the Press” anchor Chuck Todd Thinks Local Sports Can Help Save Local News

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

Few people have as much experience in political media as Chuck Todd, who hosted NBC’s public affairs program “Meet the Press” for nine years and worked at the network for almost two decades. He stepped down as anchor of “Meet the Press” in 2023 following a change in management at NBC News and left the network earlier this year. In 2024, he’d criticized NBC on the air for hiring former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel...

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experiments | Jun 18, 2025

Shifting Sandboxes Two Legacy Local News Outlets Are Finding New Audiences and Revenue in Nontraditional Places

by Eric Rynston-Lobel

Melanie Jongsma still smiles when you call her a ‘YouTuber.’ It’s not a title she would’ve imagined being associated with when she took over as publisher of The Lansing Journal in 2020. All she wanted at the time was to keep local news afloat in her hometown in the south suburbs of Chicago. But as recently as nine months ago, some of the videos she posted to The Lansing Journal’s YouTube channel received north of...

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Q&A | Jun 9, 2025

AI Progress Report Are local news organizations benefiting from or getting crushed by artificial intelligence? Maryland Prof. Tom Rosenstiel weighs the impact and potential

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

In April 2024 the Local News Initiative, in conjunction with the Knight Lab at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Communications and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung USA, published a report titled, “Impact of AI on Local News Models: AI Is Disrupting the Local News Industry. Will It Unlock Growth or Be an Existential Threat?” Based on discussions with more than 25 local news and AI experts worldwide, the report explored the potential benefits and perils presented by...

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policy | Jun 2, 2025

Trump’s Public Radio Cuts Could Mean Calamity for Local Outlets Smaller stations would face major cutbacks; some wouldn’t survive

by Paul Farhi

As Hurricane Helene ravaged the mountain communities of western North Carolina last fall, Blue Ridge Public Radio remained a beacon in the storm. With power knocked out throughout the region, the organization turned to portable generators to keep its two stations on the air. For days during and after the deluge, BPR was the only source of lifesaving news: weather updates, road closures, potable water locations. BPR now confronts a different kind of calamity. Ele...

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Q&A | May 12, 2025

Paving the CherryRoad Jeremy Gulban dreams of creating a national network of community papers–but first must make 2/3 of his own outlets profitable

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

With the 2020 purchase of the Cook County News Herald in Northeast Minnesota, Jeremy Gulban launched the fast-growing CherryRoad Media chain of community newspapers. The company’s portfolio has ballooned to 94 newspapers—all but one print, most weekly—as CEO Gulban tries on the fly to make his business model sustainable for CherryRoad and a greater local news industry working in the shadows of Big Tech. CherryRoad Media is an offshoot of CherryRoad Technologies, the information technology...

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policy | May 5, 2025

The Big Tech News Bills Five states join California in pursuing compensation from Google and Meta for local journalism

by Hannah Carroll

Oregon, Washington State, Illinois, Hawaii and New York all have proposed legislation this year to recoup money from Big Tech platforms, mainly Google and Meta, for revenue gained from publishing local news content. These bills follow California’s handshake deal with Google, announced last August, that would allocate about $125 million over five years from the state and Google toward California’s local journalism. Additional funds would establish a National AI Accelerator. This deal designated the UC...

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research | Apr 9, 2025

Students on the Beat A growing movement of news-academic partnerships aims to fill local coverage gaps

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

The old formula went like this: Journalism undergrads would learn in classes and maybe work on the school paper and then get professional experience via internships or summer jobs at news outlets. But with the local news industry reeling, this dynamic has flipped. Instead of news organizations giving boosts to students, students are supporting often-short-staffed outlets by providing coverage as part of their curricula. This shift is happening as an expanding network of universities step...

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research | Apr 8, 2025

Tell Us Who Should be a Local News Bright Spot We are collecting nominations for Local News ‘Bright Spots’ that will be featured in our 2025 State of Local News Report

by Autumn Brewington

Last year’s State of Local News Report featured a dozen “Bright Spots.” For our second edition of this Local News Initiative project, we highlighted 12 media outlets around the country that are building sustainable models by providing original reporting on their communities while they experiment with news collaborations, digital subscription offers, and other efforts to diversify revenue and engage audiences. In just a few examples, we checked in on the Salt Lake Tribune’s transition from for-profit newspaper to digital-first...

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trends | Mar 3, 2025

Maine Pages National journalists go local as Midcoast Villager combines legacy papers to boost region’s news

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

Alex Seitz-Wald was a high-profile NBC News national political reporter for 10 years when he made a dramatic shift in his professional life: He became deputy editor of the Midcoast Villager, a digital-print outlet created from the combination of four coastal Maine community papers and an online site. Not only is the Midcoast Villager trying to show that a regional approach can improve local news coverage while sustaining a viable business model, but it also...

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update | Jan 22, 2025

Deserted By Fact-Checking Meta policy reversal could mean more misinformation for communities lacking local news

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Facebook is eliminating fact-checking may amount to a double whammy for people living in this country’s ever-expanding news deserts. Having lost their primary local news sources, these communities often turn to social media and other alternatives to try to stay informed. Now one of those key sources is removing safeguards against the spread of misinformation. “It’s absolutely correct that it’s in areas that are underserved by professional journalism that this move...

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research | Dec 12, 2024

Haunted By Ghost Papers Can Massachusetts hyperlocal startups reconnect communities to the news–and each other?

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

PLYMOUTH, Mass. – Mark Pothier was wrapping up the young-adult phase of his music career, including a 1983 stint as keyboardist for the then-synthy band Ministry, when he took a $5 an hour job for the Pembroke Reporter, a recently launched community paper along Boston’s South Shore. Pothier rose through the ranks of the umbrella Memorial Press Group (MPG), a chain of suburban newspapers, and in 1986 was named executive editor of the flagship, the...

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research | Dec 5, 2024

In news deserts, Trump won in a landslide But what does this election-result correlation mean?

Donald Trump won the 2024 election with one of the smallest popular-vote margins in U.S. history, but in news deserts – counties lacking a professional source of local news – it was an avalanche. Trump won 91% percent of these counties over his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, according to an analysis of voting data by Medill Journalism School’s State of Local News project. While Trump’s national popular-vote margin was just under 1.5%, his margin in news...

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research | Nov 21, 2024

Sustainable Startups Emerging local news outlets take varied approaches while sharing sense of purpose, need for funding

by Jackie Spinner

Bob Gough has worked in local news nearly his entire life, and he knows this: Everybody wants to see their kid or grandkid in the paper. The trouble is that truly local news in his western Illinois town of Quincy is getting harder to find. Starting this year, radio listeners no longer can catch the Quincy Senior High School football games on Friday nights. The legacy newspaper, the Herald-Whig, has changed hands two times since 2021...

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research | Oct 29, 2024

All the News That’s Missing in Cairo When a paper disappears, what happens to the community, and where do people turn for their news?

by Paul Farhi

During 152 years of publication, the Cairo Citizen covered the Illinois town’s boom years, its long, grinding decline, its near-death from floods, its tumultuous racial history and its high-school championships and homecoming pageants. Launched just after the Civil War as the Cairo Bulletin, it published through the heyday of the steamboat, the railroad and the interstate. It didn’t survive Facebook. When the paper folded in 2020, there wasn’t much in the way of civic mourning....

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policy | Oct 28, 2024

A Big Tech Local News Precedent? New York, Illinois among states waiting to see how California-Google deal shakes out

by Hannah Carroll

As California works to finalize a settlement with Google that could allocate about $250 million toward local journalism, legislators in other states are considering whether to follow California's lead or to continue to pursue revenue-sharing bills on their own. As announced by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks in late August, California’s deal would allocate about $250 million over five years from the state and Google toward journalism across California. Google would provide about $110 million, and the state would...

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trends | Oct 22, 2024

Writer Underwriting Writer After the Chicago Tribune didn’t replace retiring architecture critic Blair Kamin, he funded his own successor

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

Blair Kamin ended his 28-year run as the Chicago Tribune’s Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic with a Jan. 13, 2021 column that concluded: “Imagine Chicago without a full-time skyline watchdog. Schlock developers and hack architects would welcome the lack of scrutiny.” That kicker was Kamin’s way of urging the Tribune’s editors and owners to replace him, just as he had succeeded another Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic, Paul Gapp. The job was a vital one in a...

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update | Sep 20, 2024

Report rings public media alarm bell Ralph Nader group calls for more government funding, less corporate influence to boost local news

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

Public media funding has become so inadequate in supporting local news reporting that it needs a drastic overhaul, a report released Thursday by the Center for Study of Responsive Law concludes. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who founded the Center in 1968, supplies the lengthy, alarm-bell-ringing introduction for the report, which is written by Michael Swerdlow, a researcher for the Center and a Columbia University law student. “This lack of funding for public media, at a time...

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update | Sep 9, 2024

Medill Launches News Bureau To Cover Illinois Government Students to produce content to be distributed to about 700 local news outlets

by Medill Staff

The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications announced Monday the creation of the Medill Illinois News Bureau, which will provide local news outlets with coverage of the state legislature and government agencies. Working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois (CNI), Medill graduate and undergraduate journalism students will develop expertise in covering state government, producing stories and multimedia content that will be distributed to news organizations statewide and in bordering states. CNI is a nonprofit,...

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research | Aug 29, 2024

Do Homepages Still Matter? With social and search traffic down, news outlets aim to get readers back on their platforms

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

The homepage was the entry point, the digital equivalent of the front page, before social media and search engines became the dominant means for readers to find content. But now that X/Twitter, Facebook and Google are directing less traffic to news sites—all while AI summaries to online queries allow readers to bypass news links altogether—news organizations have rediscovered the value of keeping readers on their own platforms. Or as Local Media Association Chief Innovative Officer...

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research | Aug 6, 2024

Can Local Journalism Find Fatigue Cure? New Medill survey shows U.S. adults already ‘tired’ of election, avoiding news

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

The 2024 presidential election remains months away, yet a new Medill survey shows that as of May almost half of surveyed adults already were sick of hearing about it—a finding that could have significant implications not only for national news organizations but also local ones. The national poll, commissioned by the Medill School at Northwestern University and conducted in May by NORC at the University of Chicago, measured news fatigue and avoidance among American adults....

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Q&A | Jun 18, 2024

After the Raid: Lawsuits, Boosted Circulation, Fallout from the Death of a 98-Year-Old Mother Kansas’s Marion County Record drew national support following a police action with a fatal aftermath, but the small weekly still needs journalists willing to work there

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

The Marion County Record in Marion, Kan., a city of fewer than 2,000 people, hit the national spotlight last August when the town’s police raided the small, weekly newspaper’s office and publishers’ home and, in the course of lengthy searches, seized computers and cell phones. Marion County Record Publisher/Editor Eric Meyer’s 98-year-old mother, Joan Meyer, was in her home during the police action and died the following day. During the raids Eric Meyer told officers,...

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update | May 30, 2024

Illinois Passes $25 Million in Tax Credits To Boost Local Journalism Legislation package offers ‘pretty significant solutions to a pretty wide variety of challenges’

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

The Illinois legislature has approved measures that provide $25 million in tax credits over the next five years for local news organizations to hire and retain journalists, becoming the second large state in two months to try to bolster the ailing local news industry with tax incentives. In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the Illinois House gave final passage to two other components of a larger package designed to address the local news crisis....

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research | May 28, 2024

The Medill survey: How the Chicago area gets its news An examination of the public’s interest in and reliance on local news, as well as consumption habits

This text was adapted from the introduction of our report on how Chicago-area residents consume local news. Download a full PDF version of the report. The financial pressures on journalism are plain to see in the digital age as the print newspaper industry shrinks, reporting jobs disappear, and online competitors struggle to develop footholds. A news transformation is underway, with many winners and losers to be determined. More difficult to observe are the changing day-to-day news...

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history | May 28, 2024

News in Chicago: A brief history How Chicago has made journalism history — and isn’t done yet

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Chicago has always been a great news town. Its innovative journalism brought us the first live radio broadcast of a trial in U.S. history. It brought us the first televised presidential debate. It brought us a newspaper’s clarion call for Black Americans to migrate north from the Jim Crow South. It helped put Abraham Lincoln in the White House and helped push Richard Nixon out of it. Chicago journalism is still making a difference today,...

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Q&A | May 16, 2024

A ‘News Pioneer’ Looks Back and Ahead Penny Abernathy tells why the study of local news became her mission, why she chose the term ‘news deserts’ over ‘news vacuums,’ and what signs of hope she sees amid an ailing industry

If Penny Abernathy’s sole accomplishment had been identifying and raising awareness of “news deserts” across the country, her legacy in the local news world would have been secure. But she has done much more than that in a career that has spanned decades and culminated in her oversight of the State of Local News Project at the University of North Carolina and, over the past three years, at the Medill School of Journalism, Media and...

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research | May 8, 2024

Impact of AI on Local News Models AI is disrupting the local news industry: Will it unlock growth or be an existential threat?

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

This text was adapted from the introduction of our report on the impact of AI on local news models. Download a full PDF version of the report. Journalism has experienced its share of revolutions, from Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the movable-type printing press in 15th century Germany to the high-speed presses of the 19th century to the disruptions of radio, network television and cable television as primary sources for live, breaking news. Yet even as...

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research | May 6, 2024

Tell Us What’s Working in Local News The 2024 State of Local News Report seeks new ‘Bright Spots’

by Autumn Brewington

Last year’s State of Local News Report featured a new segment on “Bright Spots.” It highlighted 17 media outlets across the country that are building sustainable models by providing nuanced coverage while they experiment with news collaborations, digital subscription offers and other efforts to diversify revenue and to engage audiences. We want to share more of these success stories in our 2024 report later this year, so we’re asking for your input. Please tell us about...

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policy | Feb 19, 2024

‘The Most Ambitious Package of Local Journalism Policy’ New Illinois bills propose incentives to fund news organizations, repopulate newsrooms

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

The ailing local news industry in Illinois would receive compensation from Big Tech companies and benefit from state tax incentives and a new journalism scholarship program under sweeping legislation introduced in the General Assembly this month. “It is the most ambitious package of local journalism policy that I’ve seen,” Anna Brugmann, policy director for the nonprofit Rebuild Local News, said of two bills introduced by State Sen. Steve Stadelman, a Democrat who chaired the bipartisan...

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Q&A | Jan 30, 2024

Finding ‘What Works’ Veteran journalists Clegg, Kennedy spotlight local news outlets that chart path forward

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

Ellen Clegg and Dan Kennedy brought much hands-on experience and perspective to their quest to find, as their new book puts it, “What Works in Community News.” Clegg was a three-decade Boston Globe veteran who, as editorial page editor, oversaw Pulitzer Prize-winning work for editorial writing and commentary. More recently she helped launch and is a top executive at Brookline.News, a nonprofit hyperlocal outlet based in her Boston suburb. Kennedy is a Northeastern University journalism professor who...

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policy | Jan 18, 2024

Applying Breaks to a Crisis Illinois task force suggests tax credits, incentives, other steps to boost local journalism

by Rick Reger

The bipartisan Illinois Local Journalism Task Force has announced a series of possible legislative steps, including tax credits, exemptions, grants and other measures, to address a local news crisis that has hit the state particularly hard. “Illinois has lost 232 newspapers since 2005,” Task Force Chair and Illinois State Sen. Steve Stadelman said at the Jan. 17 news conference announcing the recommendations, which are included in a newly released task force report on the issue. “The state has lost 85% of...

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research | Jan 18, 2024

Saving Community Journalism: The Path Ahead

by Penelope Muse Abernathy | businessofnews

A good newspaper is an anchor in a community. It reminds a community every day of its collective identity, the stake we have in one another, and the lessons of its history. Ron Heifetz, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University Two decades ago, few of us envisioned how quickly and decisively the internet would demolish the economic model that had supported local news in this country for almost two centuries. In 2004, newspaper stocks...

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research | Dec 19, 2023

Churning Toward Disaster Subscriber Engagement Index data shows ominous drop in reader retention

by Rick Reger

Having determined that reader regularity is the most important factor in getting people to pay for news, Medill Spiegel Research Center Director Edward Malthouse sees trouble on the local-journalism horizon based on newly collected data. Since 2020, the Subscriber Engagement Index (SEI), a tool built by the Spiegel Research Center at the Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications, has measured the health of newspapers by tracking how regularly newspaper subscribers consume news...

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research | Dec 12, 2023

Tipping Point for Public Support? As local reporters vanish and news deserts expand, more leaders from both parties see why America’s founders ‘understood that the press was central to the foundation of a self-governing system’

by Laura Colarusso

When Identidad Latina launched in 2001, it was a free biweekly newspaper with a circulation of about 10,000 that covered Hartford and the surrounding areas for the Spanish-speaking population of Connecticut. But by 2009, it had cut back to 7,000 copies, because, like most local news organizations, its advertising revenue had declined substantially after the Great Recession forced widespread small business closures. To weather COVID-19 and skyrocketing printing costs, Identidad Latina had to downsize again....

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research | Dec 5, 2023

How Local News Fares in the Cities More than half of all newspapers lost since 2005 were located in and around major metro areas. Some of the nation’s largest cities have been able to counter the trend, relying on digital-only news outlets to fill the gap

by Bill Arthur

The nation’s cities and its suburbs are home to 287 million people, more than 85% of our population, representing a myriad of cultures, affiliations, concerns and interests. To get the news they need to navigate city and suburban life, the residents of these urban areas can turn to a variety of local media outlets: television as well as print and digital media. Yet their options in many inner city neighborhoods and bedroom communities are shrinking....

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research | Dec 5, 2023

Rural Mirages: Shattered papers and ‘ghosts’ without local news Hundreds of weeklies have been shuttered, and many of the survivors have become ‘ghost papers’ with no staff reporters. But in some small and mid-sized communities, promising new business models are emerging.

by Al Cross

The Hutchinson News in central Kansas greeted its subscribers Sept. 5 with a front-page feature about the Hutchinson Senior Center that included a big photo of seniors kayaking – on a lake with a thickly forested shore. That’s not the landscape of Hutchinson, some 50 miles northwest of Wichita. And that’s not the name of its senior center. The “local” centerpiece instead told baffled readers all about activities offered by the senior center in Hutchinson,...

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Q&A | Oct 26, 2023

On the Lookout for Local News News business analyst Ken Doctor puts his expertise to work, learns new lessons in Santa Cruz

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

Veteran journalist Ken Doctor had been analyzing “Newsonomics” for many years when he jumped back into the game to launch a new local digital news outlet, Lookout Santa Cruz, which debuted in 2020. With the Santa Cruz Sentinel having been taken over and downsized by the Alden Global Capital-controlled Media News Group, Doctor declared that Lookout was entering a news desert, which rankled some journalists in town. But to Doctor the proof is in the...

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trends | Oct 10, 2023

Newsrooms on the Run What happens to journalism when journalists work and meet remotely instead of together?

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

The classic newspaper newsroom maintains a powerful mystique among journalists and non-journalists alike. You need not have set foot in one to conjure up vivid images of reporters working the phones, banging on typewriters or computer keyboards, smoking cigarettes (in the olden days) or chugging coffee and barking at colleagues while trying to nail down The Story. The grit, hard work and ink-stained glamor are tangible in movies such as “The Front Page” (originally a...

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Q&A | Sep 21, 2023

The Promise vs. Fear of AI Medill’s Jeremy Gilbert envisions a future where tech leads to better journalism without destroying it

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

Overseeing the Knight Lab at Northwestern University, Jeremy Gilbert has been exploring the intersection of technology and news media, a topic that has become urgent amid the rocket-like rise of artificial intelligence. Gilbert has worked with AI since 2009, when he and fellow Northwestern professors and their students created StatsMonkey, a tool to tell automatic baseball stories. During a subsequent stint at the Washington Post, Gilbert devised Heliograf to cover sports, politics and more. Now...

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research | Sep 6, 2023

Teens Tuning In New Medill survey shows higher-than-expected news engagement among young people

by Rick Reger

An oft-cited factor in the continued struggles of traditional news outlets has been the sense that young people are disengaged from the news. But the News Socialization Study, a new survey commissioned by the Medill School at Northwestern University, reveals that teenagers may be keeping up with current events more than previously thought. “The survey found more engagement with news among teens than we were expecting,” says Stephanie Edgerly, professor and Associate Dean for Research...

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update | Aug 28, 2023

Sarah Stonbely Named Director of Medill’s State of Local News Project The research director at the Center for Cooperative Media has been studying local news for years

by Medill Staff

Sarah Stonbely, the research director at the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University, has been named director of Medill’s State of Local News Project. In that role Stonbely will oversee Medill’s nationally cited research on the growing spread of local news deserts and the emergence of new models to address the crisis. She will work closely with Medill Visiting Professor Penny Abernathy, the pioneer of this local news research, and Tim Franklin, the...

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trends | Aug 10, 2023

Restart the Presses? Plant closures and consolidation prompt earlier deadlines, longer drives, higher costs as papers scramble to stay in print

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

Every newspaper printing-press closure is another shoe dropping on the local news landscape, and a big one dropped in June. That’s when Gannett announced that it will shutter its Pueblo Chieftain printing operation in Pueblo, Colo. The plant is scheduled to print its final Chieftain issues this Sunday, Aug. 13. The following day the Denver Post, owned by Alden Global Capital’s MediaNews Group and located about 110 miles north of Pueblo, will take over the...

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Q&A | Aug 2, 2023

Pursuing Facts in the Time of Lies In Pt. 2 of interview, Marty Baron discusses winning the public's trust, maintaining a pipeline of talented journalists and using AI intelligently

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

Marty Baron led the Washington Post through a period of dramatic change. Not only did billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos buy the newspaper months into Baron’s eight-year tenure as executive editor, but President Donald Trump declared the press to be “the enemy of the people” and, with allies outside and inside the media, worked to undermine trust in mainstream news outlets as well as in facts themselves. Yet while the economics of running an aggressive...

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Q&A | Aug 1, 2023

Local News Can’t Be ‘Damsel in Distress’ In Pt. 1 of interview, Marty Baron calls on journalists to stop the nostalgia and doom-and-gloom and to focus on solving problems and making tough choices

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

As executive editor of the Washington Post, Marty Baron not only guided the newspaper through a transformative ownership change (with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos taking charge) and the turbulent Trump presidency, but he also oversaw an aggressive expansion of its journalistic mission, accompanied by significant growth in readership, revenues and influence. Rallying behind its slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” the Washington Post re-established itself as a national force in journalism at a time of rising...

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Q&A | Jun 13, 2023

Investigations, Collaborations and Alligators Exceeding its DNAinfo origins, Block Club Chicago hits 5th anniversary doubling down on the power of neighborhood reporting

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

Block Club Chicago—a nonprofit newsroom that has been accumulating reporters, readers and accolades—hit one milestone last month and reaches another one Tuesday. Last month, Block Club Chicago officially outlasted its predecessor, DNAinfo, a Chicago online news startup that operated for four years and 11 months before billionaire owner Joe Ricketts abruptly shuttered it (and the Gothamist network of sites) in November 2017. Newly lacking funding and employment, DNAinfo editors Shamus Toomey, Jen Sabella and Stephanie...

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research | Jun 6, 2023

Is Local News Failing To Hold Public Officials Accountable? Medill poll shows reader distrust as they get daily news from TV, social media, not newspapers

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

Fewer than one third of Americans believe that local news media hold public officials accountable, a finding that calls into question whether local journalism is fulfilling one of its primary missions, according to national poll commissioned by the Medill School at Northwestern University The survey, conducted on behalf of Medill by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, collected responses from more than 1,000 Americans about their consumption of and attitudes...

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research | Jun 6, 2023

How the Medill Local News Poll was conducted

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

The survey of 1,015 US adults was fielded by NORC’s AmeriSpeak® Omnibus panel from April 27 to May 1, 2023. The local news survey questions were developed by Medill undergraduate students in the class “J390 Collecting and Analyzing Audience Data.” The margin of sampling error based on the full, weighted sample is +/- 3.78%. The response rate (AAPOR3) is 2.4%, and the design effect is 1.51%. AmeriSpeak® is a probability-based panel designed to be representative...

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research | May 4, 2023

Are news outlets using the wrong metrics to assess sites’ success? Data shows reader habits, not page views or time spent, may be key to subscriber retention

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

News organizations seeking to measure their websites’ success typically have focused on two metrics: page views and time spent on the site. But data collected and analyzed from the Medill Subscriber Engagement Index indicates that such an approach is misguided. The data, collected from 106 outlets in various-sized markets, shows that the most important factor in trying to get people to pay for news is reader regularity. What’s more, increases in page views and time...

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research | Mar 28, 2023

As ‘pink slime’ aims to fill local news vacuum, is anyone reading? A Stanford study finds little consumption of politically driven, faux local-news sites

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

It sounds like an alarming equation: While local news outlets shutter and news deserts expand nationwide, so-called “pink slime” sites are filling the void with political propaganda disguised as legitimate news. For anyone who believes democracy is built on a foundation of truth, this is a disturbing trend. But most of the attention on pink-slime journalism has focused on its production, such as the “1,300 community news sites” that Metric Media, Chicago businessman Brian Timpone’s company...

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Q&A | Mar 1, 2023

The case for government support of local journalism A conversation with Anna Brugmann of Rebuild Local News

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

Many journalists would prefer a tall wall separating the state from the fourth estate, yet with local news outlets disappearing at an alarming rate, there have been increased calls for journalism to receive public support in order to survive. The nonprofit Rebuild Local News advocates for public policies “to counter the collapse of local news and revitalize community journalism.” Founded in 2020 by Steven Waldman, former president and co-founder of Report for America, it includes...

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| Jan 31, 2023

Ralph Nader’s Latest Targets: News Deserts Aging consumer activist launches print newspaper in his Connecticut hometown

by Greg Burns | LocalNewsIni

Ralph Nader is starting a newspaper. Yes, that Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate, former presidential candidate and scourge of corporate interests. At age 88, Nader is still going strong and, beginning with his hometown in northwest Connecticut, he’s determined to do something about the “news desert” crisis in local journalism. The WInsted Citizen is launching its inaugural edition this week, and, in some ways, it is following a familiar playbook. It is forming a 501(c)(3) non-profit,...

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update | Jan 10, 2023

Media Strategy Executive Will Lead Local News Accelerator

by Medill Staff

Mackenzie Warren, a top news executive at the nation’s largest local news publishing company, has been named director of the new Local News Accelerator at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Warren has been a senior member of Gannett’s news executive team for more than a decade. In his two most recent posts, he focused on news strategy and career-development for journalists. He will bring those leadership experiences to Medill’s downtown...

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trends | Dec 6, 2022

More Newspapers Consider Pivot to Postal Delivery to Cut Costs and Ease Headaches But the ride to the mailbox may be bumpy

by Greg Burns | LocalNewsIni

Switching newspaper delivery from costly carriers to the U.S. Postal Service seemed like a no-brainer for Jordan Brechenser, president and publisher of Vermont News and Media. But things quickly got complicated, and that was before a local postmaster obtained an order of protection and moved to a new post office after a confrontation in a local bar. The decline of print journalism has left penny-pinching publishers with fewer and fewer levers to pull. Stepping back...

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research | Nov 21, 2022

Subscriptions Still on the Rise at Most Newspapers in the Medill Subscriber Engagement Index

by Susan Chandler

One ray of good news during the Covid pandemic: More U.S. consumers read and subscribed to local news publications. But industry experts feared that rising tide might ebb in 2022 as people headed back to work and inflation began to crimp household budgets. Indeed, there have been signs that readership was falling off. In September, the Poynter Institute for Media Studies reported that pageviews and unique visitors have fallen about 20 percent at local newspaper sites in...

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trends | Oct 31, 2022

Pro-Journalism Legislation Faces a Make-or-Break Session The JCPA has a shot at passage in lame-duck Congress, advocates say

by Greg Burns | LocalNewsIni

The clock is ticking on the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act. With the midterm elections coming up on Nov. 8, the lame-duck session could be the last realistic chance for Congress to pass this bipartisan effort to make Google and Facebook pay for local news content on their platforms. U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., a lead sponsor of the measure, believes the legislation is likely to win approval in a matter of weeks, he said...

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Q&A | Oct 31, 2022

Q-and-A: U.S. Rep. David Cicilline Predicts JCPA Will Win Approval Lead sponsor sees pro-journalism legislation passing in lame-duck session after midterms

by Greg Burns | LocalNewsIni

David Cicilline serves Rhode Island’s First Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Prior to his election to Congress in 2010, Cicilline served two terms as mayor of Providence and four terms in the Rhode Island House of Representatives. The Congressman is a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Committee on the Judiciary. As Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, he oversees efforts to...

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research | Sep 21, 2022

Gannett Positions for the Future by Cutting Today

by Greg Burns | LocalNewsIni

Earlier this month, Gannett’s Michael Reed had an opportunity to set a new course for the nation’s biggest newspaper company after disappointing financial results in August. Instead, he doubled down. Reed doubled down on cost-cutting, promising to cut $200 million to $240 million from “declining parts” of the business – primarily print. He doubled down on paying off debt, which tops $1.34 billion. Most of all, he doubled down on boosting digital subscriptions, while also...

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update | Aug 23, 2022

What’s New in Local News? Four case studies showcase innovative business models

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

While local newspapers shutter at an alarming rate and news deserts expand, it’s important to seek out the emerging oases that may point to a brighter future. That was the theme of a webinar organized July 26 by the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung USA. The webinar highlighted creative approaches to deliver vital, useful news and information to a diversity of communities. These efforts are taking place in urban, suburban and rural...

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trends | Aug 18, 2022

Battles over Newspaper Legal Notices Intensify Publishers urged to do more to increase visibility

by Susan Chandler

They are usually not the most scintillating content in a newspaper: the small-print legal notices that state and federal governments are required to publish to inform constituents of what they are doing. But from a business point of view, the notices, which cover everything from rezoning requests to sidewalk café permits, are a vital stream of revenue for U.S. newspapers at a time when other traditional advertising revenue continues to decline. Since 2005, the U.S. has...

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trends | Jul 13, 2022

What’s New in News? Panel to Spotlight Innovation Case studies of news models show bright spots in bleak landscape

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

The news about local news has grown bleak, with an alarming number of communities worldwide losing their newspapers and the reliable information they provide. In its recently published State of Local News 2022 Report, the Medill Local News Initiative found that two newspapers a week are shuttering in the U.S., creating ever-expanding news deserts. When legitimate news sources disappear, misinformation and disinformation campaigns often fill the vacuum, with dark implications for democratic societies. But bright...

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research | Jul 11, 2022

Medill Subscriber Engagement Index Expands to More than 100 Publications Redesign Better Highlights Key Metrics

by Susan Chandler

Launched last year to help local newspapers retain their subscribers and attract new ones, the Medill Subscriber Engagement Index has grown to include more than 100 news organizations that are funneling their reader data to the project. The list runs the gamut from small to large media organizations and includes regional powerhouses such as the Chicago Tribune, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Dallas Morning News, the Seattle Times, the Miami Herald and the Tampa Bay Times....

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Q&A | Jun 14, 2022

New Top Leader of Tampa Bay Times Thinks Digital A talk with Conan Gallaty

by Greg Burns | LocalNewsIni

Conan Gallaty took over for the long-serving Paul Tash as the Tampa Bay Times’ CEO in mid-January and will succeed Tash as board chair of the Times Publishing Co. on July 1. Gallaty, who became president of the Times in 2020, will be just the fourth person to lead it since legendary publisher Nelson Poynter’s death in 1978. The 46-year-old Gallaty joined the Times after a 20-year career focused on digital media. He graduated with...

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research | May 26, 2022

Reading Frequency Outweighs Page Views and Intensity: Medill Analysis Business Weekly Data Show Value of Regular Readers

by Susan Chandler

How should a weekly business magazine determine the long-term value of its subscribers: by how many stories they read or the number of times they visit the website? Contrary to the usual preoccupation with page views, it turns out that frequent readers are more valuable than those who only stop by occasionally and read a lot, according to a recent analysis of reader data from the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. For...

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research | Apr 19, 2022

Medill Survey Shows Difficulty of Getting Some Local News Consumers to Pay Survey Finds Even Engaged Audience Can Be Reluctant

by Greg Burns | LocalNewsIni

The diverse neighborhoods of Chicago’s South and West sides make a lot of news, and a survey of their residents has found intense interest in coverage of crime and other top issues – as long as it’s free. Of the 820 people who completed the new online survey from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, 647 said they don’t pay anything for access to local news and 583 said no one should...

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research | Apr 19, 2022

How Medill Surveyed News Consumers in Chicago

by Greg Burns | LocalNewsIni

The survey of news consumers on the South and West sides of Chicago, conducted online from Oct. 15 to Dec. 28, 2021, measured the opinions of 820 adults who completed a questionnaire they received by email. Qualtrics, a national market research company, conducted the survey on behalf of the Medill Metro Media Lab at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Project Manager Sam Cholke oversaw the survey. Providing logistical support was...

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research | Mar 29, 2022

Small, Local Newsrooms Slow to Adopt Artificial Intelligence, AP study shows

by Greg Burns | LocalNewsIni

Small newsrooms have fallen behind larger ones in adopting Artificial Intelligence, and the technology is under-used at the local level mainly because of time and resource constraints, a new report shows. Interest is high in automation that could free journalists from routine tasks, streamline production and make better use of content, but the latitude to experiment is limited, and local news providers could benefit from additional training, according to the Associated Press study, which is...

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trends | Mar 23, 2022

Go Big or Go Home: The Baltimore Banner Readies for Launch Nonprofit start-up charts course for local-news donors

by Greg Burns | LocalNewsIni

While many other local media organizations operate out of basements, spare bedrooms and the stripped-down offices that replaced once-mighty newsrooms, the hottest new nonprofit in local journalism is moving into swanky new digs overlooking Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The Baltimore Banner’s much-anticipated debut is going to be different than those of other nonprofit journalism experiments, not least because it has ample funding from the start. As many as 50 staffers will be on-hand for the office...

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Q&A | Mar 23, 2022

Stewart W. Bainum Jr. Sees a Future for Nonprofit Journalism A talk with the donor behind The Baltimore Banner

by Greg Burns | LocalNewsIni

Stewart W. Bainum Jr., the wealthy donor backing The Baltimore Banner, has been Chairman of Choice Hotels International since 1997 and has overseen its growth into a global enterprise with thousands of hotels in more than 40 countries. Bainum previously served as chairman and CEO of Manor Care from 1987 to 1998 and founded two other assisted-living companies. He was a delegate and a senator in the Maryland General Assembly from 1979 to 1987. He...

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research | Mar 3, 2022

Want to Retain Subscribers? Take the Wire Medill Subscriber Engagement Index Finds Gold in Syndicated Content

by Greg Burns | LocalNewsIni

When newspaper editors decide to “take the wire” instead of assigning staff to report a story, some consider it a compromise that could discourage regular readers. Turns out, readers don’t mind at all. A first-of-its-kind analysis using data from Northwestern University’s Medill Subscriber Engagement Index reveals that wire-service and syndicated content can help to develop reading habits and retain subscribers among light and very light readers. Even for the most ardent, heavier readers, wire content...

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trends | Feb 22, 2022

Local News Struggle in Southern New Mexico: How a Start-up Ended

by Anandita Bhalerao

When Diana Tittle retired to Sierra County in southern New Mexico in 2012 with her husband, she never imagined she would be working eight-hour days, seven days a week without ever taking a paycheck. And yet that is how Tittle spent the past year working for the Sierra County Sun, an online nonprofit news outlet focused on investigative journalism that holds local government accountable. Sierra County Sun editor Diana Tittle. Tittle’s official title was editor,...

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trends | Feb 14, 2022

Alaskan newspaper surviving after owner gave it away for free

by Fiona Skeggs

When former teachers Melinda Munson and Gretchen Wehmhoff took over The Skagway News in Alaska, its future looked bleak. Poor quality and bad economics had run down a newspaper that for decades served a historic port city hosting throngs of tourists in a typical year. A would-be savior who bought the paper intending to run it from afar had concluded his plan wouldn’t work. Then the pandemic crippled its cash cow: A travel guide popular...

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research | Feb 9, 2022

Journalists Give Thumbs Down to Social Media Medill Survey Details Negative Impact of Social Platforms

by Greg Burns | LocalNewsIni

Journalists say social-media platforms have hurt their industry, contributing to inaccurate and one-sided news accounts by exerting too much control over the mix of news that people see, according to a recent survey. More than nine of every 10 survey respondents said social-media companies deliver a “worse mix of news” to their users, according to the online survey of journalists by Northwestern University’s Medill school of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. The survey also found...

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research | Feb 1, 2022

Medill Survey Respondents Say Their News Organizations Are Making Diversity Efforts Changes Coincide with Social Justice Protests in 2020

by Greg Burns | LocalNewsIni

More than a year after social-justice protests called attention to the lack of diversity in newsrooms, journalists report notable changes at their media organizations, including new training programs, hiring procedures and policies related to language used about communities of color, a survey shows. Nearly four of every five survey respondents said the new efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have positively affected the journalism industry, according to the survey by Northwestern University’s Medill...

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research | Feb 1, 2022

Journalists Feeling Pressure from Pandemic Medill survey finds Covid-19 taking a mental toll

by Greg Burns | LocalNewsIni

Two years after Covid-19 disrupted life and work across the globe, journalists say they’re struggling to cope with the pandemic’s psychological and emotional pressures, a new survey shows. Nearly four of every five journalists said dealing with the mental toll has been either “very difficult” or “somewhat difficult,” according to the survey by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Nearly seven in 10 said they were still mostly working remotely at...

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research | Feb 1, 2022

How Medill Conducted the Media Industry Survey

by Greg Burns | LocalNewsIni

The Medill Media Industry Survey, conducted online from Nov. 30 to Dec. 31, 2021, measured the opinions of 1,543 people in the U.S. news business who completed the questionnaire. The survey was conducted by Associate Professor Stephanie Edgerly of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Edgerly collaborated with Danielle K. Brown, the Cowles Professor of Journalism, Diversity and Equality in the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of...

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research | Jan 27, 2022

Google Gives Boost to Medill’s Subscriber Index as More News Outlets Prepare to Join

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Northwestern University’s Medill Subscriber Engagement Index, a groundbreaking tool to help newsrooms track their digital subscribers, has received a major boost from the Google News Initiative: a partnership that includes expertise and $500,000 in financial backing to support the index’s operation for at least the next two years. The index, launched late last year, tells participating news outlets which aspects of their content are correlated with retention of digital-only subscribers. The index also tracks the...

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trends | Jan 19, 2022

Going Nonprofit Puts Salt Lake Tribune on Path to Sustainability Utah News Outlet at Forefront of Emerging Strategy, with Chicago Sun-Times Also Getting Aboard

by Emily Anderson

When local philanthropist Paul Huntsman took over The Salt Lake Tribune in 2016, progressive community members were rooting for a revival of this counterpoint to its conservative competitor, the Deseret News. Just two years later, the future looked bleak as Huntsman laid off one-third of the newsroom staff, under pressure from declining ad revenues. In 2019, he announced a plan to convert the newspaper into a nonprofit, charting a path that has caught the attention...

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trends | Jan 10, 2022

Local News Rebirth in Chicago: ‘More Exciting Than It’s Ever Been’ With Nonprofit News on the March, There Are Plenty of Concerns, but Also New Feelings of Optimism

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Chicago journalism is undergoing a dramatic restructuring that has turned the nation’s third-largest media market into a center for news experimentation. While the city’s media have seen brutal job cuts in recent years, including a dramatic downsizing at the Chicago Tribune, a sense of rebirth and optimism prevails. Longtime observers talk about “an explosion of media” that makes it “more exciting than it’s ever been.” The changes are attracting national attention, according to Sue Cross,...

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special report | Dec 17, 2021

How the Local News Crisis Affects Coverage of Covid and Climate – and Vice Versa 17 Experts Take Stock in ‘Local Journalism: Shrinking Resources, Growing Challenges,’ a Project of Medill and the German Foundation KAS

Huge issues face the United States and the rest of the world – issues that require rigorous local journalism to help people understand the problems and identify solutions. Yet widespread financial disruption has handicapped the news industry just as the need grows. And the news itself – including the pandemic and climate change -- has made the challenge even greater for local journalists. In a series of video interviews and a public webinar in November...

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research | Nov 15, 2021

Medill’s New Index Puts Spotlight on Rescuing At-Risk Subscribers

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Northwestern University’s new Medill Subscriber Engagement Index highlights the need to identify at-risk digital subscribers and find effective ways to reach out to them, from friendly emails to targeted social media to onboarding them better in the first place. The key to retention is to keep subscribers coming to the website regularly, as shown in past Medill School research. But Medill’s new index goes further into the issue by tracking the level of a newsroom’s...

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research | Oct 27, 2021

Medill Launches Groundbreaking Subscriber Engagement Tool 44 Local News Outlets Across U.S. Participating, With Many More Expected in Coming Months

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Northwestern University has launched the Medill Subscriber Engagement Index, a tool that allows local news organizations to see what content encourages subscribers to stick around and lets publishers benchmark their performance against outlets in comparable markets. Forty-four newsrooms of various sizes across the country are now participating in Medill’s index, and about 100 outlets are expected to be on board by early next year. Participants include large metro news organizations such as the Chicago Tribune...

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Q&A | Oct 11, 2021

40-50 New Hires ‘Expected’ after WBEZ Merger With Chicago Sun-Times Will the Deal Be a National Model? Public Radio Station’s Execs Weigh In

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Chicago Public Media, parent of one of the most prominent public radio stations in the country, WBEZ, has signed a letter of intent to acquire a legacy newspaper, the Chicago Sun-Times. The move would further transform the city’s news environment, recently shaken by a hedge fund’s acquisition of the Chicago Tribune and buyouts that dramatically cut staffing there. The Medill Local News Initiative’s Mark Jacob interviewed Chicago Public Media CEO Matt Moog and WBEZ’s Chief...

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trends | Sep 20, 2021

Is 24/7 Digital and Sunday-Only Print the Future for Local News?

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Some small weekly news outlets are getting more web-savvy, posting online when the news happens and in effect transforming themselves into daily digital publications. Some metro dailies, on the other hand, have made strides online but are cutting back on their print days. Is it possible that local news outlets of all sizes will meet in the middle? In the future, will most local news outlets publish 24/7 online but put ink on paper only once...

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trends | Sep 8, 2021

Small Publishers Have Longer Runway to Digital, but They Still Need to Take Off

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

While some major local news outlets are well along on a dramatic pivot from print to digital, many smaller newsrooms remain bullish on print, and some seem to be in no big hurry to build up their online presence. Problem is, while these small outlets may well have a longer runway to a digital-first future, they do have to get airborne sooner or later. There are significant challenges. There’s the issue of tech support, which...

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trends | Aug 19, 2021

2 News Outlets + 1 Reporter = Shared Mission National Networks Helping Local Outlets With Funding and Editing for Individual Journalists

The collaboration trend in local news is leading to a number of arrangements in which multiple news organizations work together on both the funding and editing for a single reporter. Whether you call it reporter-sharing or co-sponsored reporting or something else, these types of reporter-editor set-ups are boosting in-depth journalism at a time when local news organizations are under tremendous pressure to tighten staffing. Open Campus, a national nonprofit digital news outlet focused on coverage...

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trends | Jul 26, 2021

News Unchained: More Outlets Going Back to Local Ownership

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

As chain consolidation brings new uncertainty to an already fluid news landscape, another trend is emerging in which local investors buy news outlets from large chains and seek to reverse what they see as decades of disinvestment. Sara April, whose firm Dirks, Van Essen & April brokers the sale of newspaper companies, expects to see more news outlets go into local hands as some big chains focus on their larger products and spin off their...

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trends | Jul 6, 2021

Nonprofit Investigative Outlets Serve News Needs in Midwest Last in a Series on Medill Students’ Innovation Tour

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

As many legacy news organizations downsize, it increasingly falls on nonprofits to do the deep dives that have long been a central function of American journalism. In a new video reporting project at Northwestern University, students profiled seven innovative organizations in the Midwest, including two that conduct investigations to shed light on the biggest stories of our time. The Midwest Center for Investigative Journalism, an Illinois-based outfit, tracked how the COVID-19 pandemic affected workers in...

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trends | Jun 28, 2021

How Journalism Students Are Filling Gaps in Local News Second in a Series on Medill Students’ Innovation Tour

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

As the local news crisis grows, staffs are thinning out and gaps in coverage are widening. But reinforcements are coming -- journalism students doing the work that would otherwise go undone. University of Kansas students are operating a local news website in a “news desert” about 10 miles east of the campus. Students at Franklin College in Indiana are covering state government for a nonprofit website that is battling against civic disengagement. Both programs are...

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trends | Jun 21, 2021

How Creative Thinkers Are Reinventing Local News in the Midwest First in a Series on Medill Students’ Innovation Tour

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

An Ohio news outlet that’s owned by the readers it serves. A start-up newsletter for Iowa’s Black residents. A student-reported website bringing information to a “news desert” in Kansas. And a digital-only Ohio newsroom modeling “solutions journalism.” These are some of the innovative news organizations profiled in a new video reporting project by students at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Medill Professor Craig Duff’s class of 14 students worked in...

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trends | Jun 3, 2021

Local News Outlets Upgrading Apps and Battling App-rehension

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Local news organizations are working hard to improve their news apps and get readers to download them, touting them as a superior customer experience that boosts engagement and loyalty. While they see mobile apps as a win-win for their customers and themselves, the apps remain a niche product, with a small minority of visitors consuming their news that way. The Medill Local News Initiative interviewed executives from McClatchy, Tribune Publishing and the San Francisco Chronicle...

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trends | May 17, 2021

Journalism at Your Service: How Newsrooms Help Readers With Everyday Lives

by Grace Miserocchi | gracemiserocchi

Looking for a Covid-19 vaccine? Need your sidewalk shoveled? Who you gonna call? Your local news outlet. Many newsrooms are adopting a broader role in which they don’t just report the news — they help readers find the services they need to navigate their lives. Key to this is using effective communication methods such as texting and phone hotlines to reach the public and listen when they ask for help. Megan Griffith-Greene, a senior editor of...

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update | May 4, 2021

No, the Pandemic Didn’t Wreck News Outlets’ Hopes for Events Texas Tribune Increased Its Profit Margin on Events When It Went Virtual. And a Houston Outlet Got $60,000 in Sponsorships.

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Just when local news outlets were ramping up audience events as a way to increase revenue and engagement, the pandemic hit. So their events programs were devastated, right? Nope. While in-person events went on the shelf, many local news outlets made an impressive shift to virtual, sometimes even ramping up their level of connection to their audience. The Texas Tribune, which was known for its public gatherings before the pandemic, found that the simpler, less...

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Q&A | Apr 19, 2021

LSU’s Darr: Fight Polarization by Hiring More Local Opinion Editors

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Joshua Darr, an Assistant Professor at Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communication, has written a book with Matthew P. Hitt of Colorado State University and Johanna L. Dunaway at Texas A&M University, “Home Style Opinion: How Local Newspapers Can Slow Polarization.” The book reveals their finding that the polarization of news consumers is slowed when a local news outlet's opinion section concentrates on local issues rather than national politics. The authors believe this...

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Q&A | Mar 29, 2021

Dave Gehring: Local News Sites Can Become ‘Portals’ for Wider Web Sharing

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Dave Gehring is a former Google employee who co-founded Relay Media and then sold it to Google in 2017. Now he’s Co-founder and CEO of Distributed Media Lab, which is “building the first frictionless open web distribution platform for quality content.” DML can embed a collection of stories on any local news website that is, in effect, a portal to the wider news web without taking readers off of that site. He talked with the Medill...

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trends | Mar 22, 2021

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as a N.C. Weekly Seeks Sustainability Kentucky Professor Buck Ryan Describes His ‘Participatory Case Study’ With the Chatham News + Record

by Buck Ryan | maestrobuckryan

With community newspapers dropping like bad guys in a spaghetti Western, there’s a glimmer of hope in a weekly being transformed deep in the heart of North Carolina. Chatham County is hotter than a pistol, whether that means a rise in population, median income or traffic jams. The question is whether the fate of its weekly newspaper, the Chatham News + Record, will be so hot. Welcome to this tale fit for a movie script....

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trends | Mar 15, 2021

‘The Floor Is Collapsing’ on Local News, but Congress May Be Poised to Help

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

As the local news crisis deepens, growing awareness and shifting political dynamics in Washington are raising hopes that targeted legislation can pass to help make local journalism more financially sustainable. “This Congress is going to be the most likely to tackle local news that we’ve had in a very long time,” said Steven Waldman, President of Report for America and coordinator for the Rebuild Local News coalition. “People understand that the collapse of local news...

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trends | Mar 9, 2021

How Newsrooms Are Building Better Paywalls News Outlets Apologize Less and Innovate More, With a ‘Freemium’ Model and Dynamic Paywalls

by Hannah Farrow

Gannett’s Amalie Nash is tired of journalists apologizing when they charge money for their product. After all, other businesses don’t do that. “It’s not like at Starbucks, ‘I’d like a medium coffee.’ ‘Well, sorry, ma’am, we’re going to have to charge you $4 for that,’” Nash said. At a time when local news finances are in need of a double shot, newsrooms are getting more aggressive and less apologetic about their paywalls. And they’re trying...

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research | Mar 1, 2021

Nearly Half of Digital Subscribers Are ‘Zombies,’ Medill Analysis Finds

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Nearly half of local news outlets’ digital subscribers are “zombie” readers who visit the website less than once a month, according to a data analysis in 45 markets by Northwestern University’s Medill Spiegel Research Center. Spiegel found that 49% of digital subscribers didn’t go to the websites they had paid for even once a month, putting them in a category known in news-industry slang as “zombies.” Concern is growing about this problem because even though...

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Q&A | Feb 9, 2021

Gannett’s Gupta: ‘You Need a Culture That Thrives in Chaos’ Strategy Chief for Nation’s Biggest Newspaper Chain Puts Laser Focus on Subscriptions

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Mayur Gupta, a former executive with Spotify and Freshly, joined the Gannett USA Today Network in September as Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer. He holds this crucial role at a key time for Gannett, which merged with GateHouse in November 2019 to form the nation’s largest newspaper chain. Gannett has partnered with Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative in data analysis involving more than a dozen of its news outlets. In this interview with the...

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research | Jan 25, 2021

Medill Survey Finds News Media’s Money Worries Overwhelming, but Few See Ads as Best Answer

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

The financial distress threatening the future of the local news industry is now a pervasive concern of those working in the media business, and few of them see advertising revenue as the best path forward, according to a new survey by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. The first-ever Medill Media Industry Survey of nearly 1,400 members of the U.S. news media was conducted by Associate Professor Stephanie Edgerly of the...

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research | Jan 15, 2021

How the Medill Media Industry Survey Was Conducted

The Medill Media Industry Survey, conducted online from Nov. 30 to Dec. 28, 2020, measured the opinions of 1,387 people in the U.S. news business. The survey was run by Associate Professor Stephanie Edgerly of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Providing logistical support was Medill Senior Associate Dean Tim Franklin, who is the John M. Mutz Chair in Local News and leads the Medill Local News Initiative. Medill used Cision,...

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trends | Jan 5, 2021

Daily Yonder Seeks to Cover Rural America Without Stereotyping It Rural Perspective on COVID-19 and Election Brings Attention to Digital News Outlet

by Hannah Farrow

Farms, factories, vacation towns — rural can mean a variety of things. And in the midst of a pandemic, during presidential elections and as people live their daily lives, the Daily Yonder aims to cover it all. The digital-only rural news source faces a unique challenge: how to unify a variety of rural readers without pigeonholing them into one category, all while growing readership and seeking policy change. The Daily Yonder was started in 2007...

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research | Dec 17, 2020

‘News Deserts’ Expert Penny Abernathy Joins Medill as Visiting Professor

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Penny Abernathy, whose groundbreaking research has shown the growth of the nation’s “news deserts,” will become a visiting professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Abernathy will start next month in the position after retiring as Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics at the University of North Carolina’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media for the last 12 years. Cindy Burnham Penny Abernathy Medill Dean Charles Whitaker announced...

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trends | Dec 16, 2020

Local News Outlets Boost Digital Subscriptions by About 50% in a Year Newsroom Challenge for 2021: Keep New Customers in the Fold and Find More

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

The pandemic and other major news events have helped boost digital subscriptions dramatically at local news outlets in 2020, with a new industry analysis putting the overall increase at about 50% in a year’s time. But that encouraging news comes with questions for 2021: Can local news organizations keep those new subscribers and attract more if the news cycle quiets? Can legacy outlets establish brand affinity in an often chaotic and crowded web world? Can...

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Q&A | Dec 14, 2020

Media Advocate Nancy Lane: Philanthropy Joins Digital Subscriptions as Key Funding Source

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

As much of the local news industry hammers away on a financial strategy emphasizing digital subscriptions, Local Media Association CEO Nancy Lane says this approach should be paired with efforts to gain philanthropic support. Here’s an edited transcript of an interview of Lane by the Medill Local News Initiative’s Mark Jacob. Mark Jacob Are digital subscriptions growing fast enough to help local news outlets, especially legacy outlets, reach financial sustainability? Mark Jacob Nancy Lane Some...

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trends | Nov 18, 2020

How National Digital Networks Are Transforming Local News Axios, ProPublica, The Athletic and Chalkbeat Take Different Approaches to Going Local

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

National digital news organizations are increasingly entering local media markets, creating a new model for serving local audiences whose traditional news sources have suffered from years of disinvestment. In the last few months, Axios has announced that it is placing reporters into four local markets, and ProPublica is starting new operations in the South and Southwest while also expanding its Illinois operation to cover the Midwest. Meanwhile, The Athletic reported that its sports coverage –...

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update | Nov 12, 2020

Two Major Industry Players Join Medill’s New Subscriber Index

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Two major news industry organizations, McClatchy and Mather Economics, have signed on to the new Medill Subscriber Engagement Index, a tool designed to give local news outlets more actionable intelligence on their readers than ever before. McClatchy, one of the nation’s largest local news chains, is providing data from its 30 local outlets, including such well-known outlets as the Miami Herald, Charlotte Observer, Kansas City Star and Sacramento Bee, according to Shannan Bowen, McClatchy’s Director...

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trends | Nov 9, 2020

8 Reasons Why Email Newsletters Are a Game-Changer for Local News

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

In the early 2000s, we were supposed to write blogs. Then we weren’t. In the mid-2010s, we pivoted to video. Then we hit pause. So when people say local news outlets should go all-in on email newsletters, some degree of skepticism is understandable. Are newsletters the future, or are they just a fad? The local news industry is in the midst of a major strategic shift from reliance on shaky advertising revenue to asking readers...

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research | Oct 19, 2020

How Is Boise Like a Suburb of Nashville When It Comes to News? Professors Call for Deeper Thinking About Media Markets and Innovation

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

In a project launched at Northwestern University, researchers are working on sophisticated ways to identify news media markets that are similar to each other. The thinking: If news publishers understand which markets are like theirs, they might find success with innovations that worked in those similar markets. The Medill Local News Initiative’s Mark Jacob interviewed two of the researchers: Medill Associate Professor Stephanie Edgerly and Rachel Davis Mersey, a former Medill Professor and Associate Dean...

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video | Oct 1, 2020

WATCH Newstown: Medill Professor’s Documentary on the Closing of the Youngstown Vindicator

by Craig Duff | craigwduff

When Northwestern University professor and video journalist Craig Duff heard that the 150-year-old Youngstown Vindicator was closing, he resolved to go back to the area where he grew up in northeast Ohio and document how the community was coping with the loss of its newspaper. What the veteran of CNN, Time.com and The New York Times learned is that people from inside and outside of Youngstown were determined to take action to keep the public...

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trends | Oct 1, 2020

Local Heroes and National Solutions Discussed at Medill’s Youngstown Film Event Ohio’s Senator Brown ‘Willing to Vote’ for Exemption to Help Local News Outlets Bargain With Tech Giants

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Speaking at a Northwestern University online event to debut a new documentary on the local news crisis, Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio expressed support for a temporary anti-trust exemption that would give news publishers more leverage to negotiate with tech giants over advertising revenue. The Medill Local News Initiative event on Sept. 30 marked the first showing of “Newstown,” a film by Northwestern professor Craig Duff that examines the aftermath of last year’s closing of the 150-year-old...

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update | Sep 30, 2020

Arkansas’ Print-to-iPad Switch Inspires Loyalty, but Some Miss the Rubber Bands

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Local news publishers across the country are asking themselves this existential question: How do I convert subscribers from print to pixels? Successfully overseeing that transition would allow local news companies to save the cost of manufacturing and distributing a printed newspaper, and it would help readers build a digital habit for the long term. In early 2018, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette undertook a bold experiment. In phases over more than two years, it took away subscribers’...

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trends | Sep 23, 2020

What Happens When a Newspaper Dies? Medill Professor’s Film Looks at Impact in Youngstown

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

The Youngstown Vindicator, a 150-year-old newspaper, announced in the summer of 2019 that it was closing. The fate of the newspaper known as the “Vindy” was a painful blow to its northeast Ohio city and a grim symbol of the growing distress in America’s local news industry. The news was also the inspiration for a new documentary called “Newstown” by former Youngstown resident Craig Duff, a professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media,...

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trends | Sep 16, 2020

How Covid-19 Has Changed Beat Reporting

by Hannah Farrow

As the coronavirus spread across the country, local news outlets reacted to the economic disruption with pay cuts, layoffs and furloughs. They also made a pivot in how they covered the news. Kristen Hare, the local news innovation reporter for the Poynter Institute, cited the “reimagining” of beat reporting in which it’s less about the beat, and more about emerging areas of reader interest. As trends in society shift — or when a coronavirus spreads around the...

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research | Sep 2, 2020

Medill’s New Subscriber Index Will Help Local News Outlets Tie Readers to Revenue Index Includes a ‘What-If’ Tool Using Current Data to Predict Outcomes of Strategic Decisions

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Northwestern University researchers have completed their prototype of a Medill Subscriber Engagement Index for digital news and expect to launch the innovative tool by the end of this year. The index will show local news executives which aspects of their online content are helping them acquire and keep subscribers and which content is causing “churn” – people dropping their subscriptions. It also will highlight best practices and will allow executives to compare their newsrooms with...

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trends | Jul 27, 2020

Digital Start-ups: Great Local News Hope or Disappointment?

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

As many legacy news outlets struggle to survive, industry analysts are looking to digital start-ups as a promising way to revive coverage of local news. After all, digital-only means you don’t need massive presses or barrels of ink or fleets of trucks. The barriers to publication are low, so there’s great growth potential. Right? Well, maybe not. At least not yet. A recent update of the University of North Carolina’s “news deserts” research by Penny Abernathy...

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Q&A | Jul 14, 2020

Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan on ‘Ghosting the News’ ‘We Have to Save Journalism in Whatever Form That Is, Which May Have Nothing to Do With the Printed Page,’ says Medill Grad

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Margaret Sullivan, media columnist for the Washington Post, is out with a new book, “Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy,” published by Columbia Global Reports at Columbia University. Sullivan is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. She talked with the Medill Local News Initiative about the crisis in local journalism and how it affects citizens’ sense of community. This is an edited transcript. Mark...

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trends | Jun 15, 2020

Can Local News Outlets Ride the Wave of New COVID-19 Subscribers? ‘This Is a Moment of Reckoning’

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Local news outlets are working hard to keep the digital subscribers they’ve gained from COVID-19 coverage, and they’re seeing encouraging signs that the newcomers are sticking with them in these turbulent times. As news outlets shift away from an advertising revenue model, subscriber retention is an increasingly crucial issue. Newsrooms are engaging these new customers through personal email appeals and giving special attention to “zombies” – a nickname for people who buy subscriptions but never...

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trends | May 19, 2020

Reporters Navigate Remote-Work Challenges During Pandemic

by Hannah Farrow

Creative Loafing Tampa Bay moved into a new office last December. Editor-in-chief Ray Roa was on paternity leave while the other employees settled into an open-concept work floor with tall ceilings, exposed bricks and natural light. They’d enjoy yoga classes and team bonding experiences in the office’s event hall, CL Space, which also acts as a main revenue source as it can host up to 200-person gatherings. Soon after Roa returned to the office, the...

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research | Apr 27, 2020

Television Is Top News Source During Pandemic, Illinois Poll Finds

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

During the pandemic, Illinois residents have gotten their news most often from local and national television rather than from newspapers or radio, according to a poll commissioned by Northwestern University. The poll also showed that when Illinoisans want local information about COVID-19, news outlets in their area are the primary way they get it, rather than social media, government websites or politicians. The polling on COVID-19, conducted March 30 to April 17 with 1,845 respondents...

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trends | Apr 22, 2020

COVID-19 Accelerates Local News Trends, for Bad and Good As Financial Crisis Deepens, Newsrooms Making Quicker Shift From Print to Digital and From Dependency on Ad Dollars to Reliance on Reader Revenue

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Before 2020 even started, we knew it was shaping up as a brutal year for journalism jobs as major chains were merging and cutting staff. We knew small publications, especially weeklies, were struggling. We knew “news deserts” were growing across the country. Then came COVID-19. Now 33,000 American journalists have been laid off, furloughed or given pay cuts. The impending recession – or even depression – could take out some of the best advertising customers...

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trends | Apr 7, 2020

Beyond Diversity: Journalists Say Ultimate Goal Is Inclusivity Racial Imbalance Remains a Problem in Newsroom Staffing, but Serving a Community Is More Than a Numbers Game

by Hannah Farrow

Sadé Carpenter, who recently left Chicago Tribune as the deputy editor of food and dining, walked up to the front of Chicago’s journalism town hall at the Allegro Hotel on Feb. 23. She grabbed the mic and pointed out: “There are a lot of white men on this panel.” Of the 12 panelists, five of them were exactly that. Four of the panelists were journalists of color. Only 21.9% of newsroom employees are members of...

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research | Mar 30, 2020

Medill Study Finds Preference for Female Voices and Local Accents

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

With podcasts and smart speakers on the rise, Northwestern professor Candy Lee wondered how consumer preferences in voices and accents might affect the news business. Do people prefer a man’s voice to a woman’s? Would they rather hear a local accent or an “NPR” accent? Lee, a professor at Northwestern’s Medill School of Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, launched a research project to explore the issue. Among the findings: Female news readers...

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update | Mar 25, 2020

Local News Outlets Drop Paywalls for Pandemic Stories, but Gain Digital Subscribers Anyway

by Mark Jacob

Even though many local news organizations have moved their COVID-19 stories outside their paywalls, several are seeing encouraging boosts in their digital subscriptions during the crisis. That’s a rare bit of good news as the pandemic poses an alarming threat to the many news outlets that struggled to find financial sustainability even before the virus shut down much of the economy. Some observers are predicting that 2020 could be a disastrous year for local news...

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trends | Mar 13, 2020

Illinois Bill Would Create Local Journalism Task Force Legislation Includes Medill School in Proposed Fact-Finding Effort

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

A former television broadcaster turned legislator has filed a bill in the Illinois General Assembly that would create a task force to explore the state’s local news crisis and offer recommendations for how to address it. The task force would “review all aspects of local journalism” in Illinois, with an eye toward identifying “communities underserved” by journalism and well as “strategies to improve local news access and public policy solutions to improve the sustainability of...

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trends | Feb 24, 2020

Chicago Journalism Town Hall Tackles Tough Finances, Elusive Diversity

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

About 300 people attended a Chicago journalism town hall Sunday that was characterized by sharp comments about the search for financial stability and the need for diversity both in newsroom staffs and service to audiences. The three-hour discussion came at a time of turmoil in Chicago’s news industry, with Tribune reporters making a public call for a white-knight investor as Alden Global Capital, a firm known for slashing news staffs, takes a major stake in...

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trends | Feb 18, 2020

New Kansas City Newsroom on the Runway: ‘Start-ups Tend to Help Each Other’

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

As digital news start-ups show the ability to attract and keep audiences, they are paving the way for more such outlets to fill the gaps created by the financial distress of the nation’s legacy news chains. A case in point is The Beacon, a Kansas City start-up that plans to start publishing this summer in a media market where the 140-year-old Kansas City Star is part of the McClatchy chain, which filed for bankruptcy protection...

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video | Feb 11, 2020

What We’ve Learned About News Consumer Behavior: 5 Videos

Northwestern University’s Spiegel Research Center is conducting groundbreaking research using large data sets on consumer behavior. Spiegel’s study of 13 terabytes of data from the Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and Indianapolis Star has been one of the major achievements of the Medill Local News initiative, which was formed in the Spring of 2018 to help the news industry find financial sustainability. Spiegel is part of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications....

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trends | Jan 27, 2020

Chicago Becomes a Hotbed for News Collaboration Rather Than Competition

by Hannah Farrow

Chicago has long been known as a media battleground. While many cities are down to one daily newspaper — if that — Chicago has two, plus a wealth of niche news outlets. But as investigative resources dwindle in local journalism, Chicago has become a hotbed for collaboration rather than competition, reflecting a national trend. The goal: Serve the public and have greater impact by teaming up with other newsrooms to produce more fleshed-out, well-rounded reports....

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Q&A | Jan 21, 2020

Salt Lake Tribune’s Editor Expects ‘a Lot of Newspapers’ to Explore Nonprofit Status

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

The Salt Lake Tribune announced in November that it had received Internal Revenue Service approval to become the nation’s first legacy newspaper to go fully nonprofit. The Medill Local News Initiative interviewed the Tribune’s Editor, Jennifer Napier-Pearce, about what this transformation will mean. Here is an edited transcript. Mark Jacob Can you explain how nonprofit status is going to work? Mark Jacob Jennifer Napier-Pearce There are two parts. The Tribune itself is becoming a nonprofit....

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engagement | Jan 13, 2020

The Arkansas Gamble: Can a Tablet and a Print Replica Rescue Local News?

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Walter E. Hussman Jr., publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is pioneering a bold strategy to transition readers from print to digital by taking away their daily newspaper cold turkey and giving them a tablet with a daily online replica that mimics the print edition. Hussman’s experiment is make-or-break for the Democrat-Gazette. If successful, it may finally offer an effective way for news organizations to lure longtime loyal readers away from print editions that are expensive...

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engagement | Jan 2, 2020

News Outlets Should Build Customer Lifetime Value Into Subscription Strategy, Researchers Say

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

What should be news organizations’ top financial strategy? Growing advertising revenue? Growing subscriptions? Neither, say researchers at Northwestern University’s Spiegel Research Center, who believe there’s a better answer: Growing Customer Lifetime Value. CLV is a common forecasting tool that allows businesses to calculate how much customers will be worth for the length of their relationship. The two most important things that determine the future value of a reader relationship are the amount of profit received...

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research | Dec 19, 2019

Readers With Ad Blockers More Likely to Keep Subscriptions, Medill Study Finds Research on ‘Advertising Disengagement’ Suggests News Websites May Need to Change Ad Strategy to Keep Readers Paying

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

An analysis of subscriber behavior data by Northwestern University’s Spiegel Research Center has found that a news organization’s customers who use an ad blocker are more likely to keep their subscriptions. The new study, while limited in scope, raises important questions about whether news outlets are turning off some of their best customers with intrusive advertising, and whether their bottom line might be better served by curtailing or customizing those ads. Spiegel Executive Director Tom...

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engagement | Nov 19, 2019

How News Outlets Can Make Email Newsletters More Effective

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Everyone seems to produce email newsletters these days. But not everyone is doing it well. Which is a shame, since newsletters have been identified as a key way to build subscriber loyalty as local news operations shift from reliance on advertising dollars to a customer revenue model. Major data research conducted by Northwestern University’s Spiegel Research Center and released by the Medill Local News Initiative in February established that readers who visited news websites regularly were more...

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Q&A | Oct 30, 2019

NewStart Program Will Be ‘Matchmaker’ for Small Media Seeking New Owners

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Jim Iovino is director of a new program called NewStart at West Virginia University’s Reed College of Media. NewStart matches small media outlets with people who want to acquire them and run them. The new owners will earn a master’s degree as they receive training in journalism and business skills. Iovino, a former Deputy Managing Editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is the Ogden Newspapers Visiting Assistant Professor of Media Innovation at WVU. Here’s an edited transcript...

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update | Oct 25, 2019

Medill Local News Initiative Wins Google Innovation Award to Create Digital Reader Index

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Building on major research into the behaviors of local digital readers, Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative and its Spiegel Research Center have been named recipients of a Google Innovation Challenge award to create a Subscriber Engagement Index. The index will serve as a new tool to give local news organizations “timely, unique, actionable insights about the online behaviors of their digital subscribers,” said Medill Senior Associate Dean Tim Franklin, head of the Medill Local News...

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engagement | Oct 23, 2019

Subscriber-only Newsletters Aim to Build Local News Loyalty

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Local news organizations, which have long used email newsletters to drive readers to their websites and boost page views, are increasingly offering newsletters as destinations of their own to boost subscriber loyalty. A major data analysis, conducted by Northwestern University’s Spiegel Research Center and released earlier this year by the Medill Local News Initiative, showed that a primary factor in subscriber retention was regular reader visits. Daily email newsletters are an attempt to replicate the kind...

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research | Sep 9, 2019

Focusing: Why the Chicago Defender Went Digital-Only

The Chicago Defender, a highly influential black newspaper founded in 1905, announced in July 2019 that it would go online-only because of dwindling print circulation. The Defender was a key driver of the Great Migration, telling Southern blacks about opportunities in the North. It was also strong on such stories as the murder of Emmett Till and the election of Harold Washington as Chicago’s first African American mayor. While there is robust journalism taking place in...

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research | Sep 9, 2019

Diversifying: How a Newspaper Publisher Branched Out

Penny Muse Abernathy, a professor and the Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics at the University of North Carolina, has done groundbreaking work both documenting the rise of “news deserts” and developing sustainable business models for local news organizations. She shared a noteworthy example of diversification in her interview with the Medill Local News Initiative’s News Leaders Project. Here’s that account: With newspaper print advertising at historic lows, publishers of local newspapers, regardless of...

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research | Aug 22, 2019

Medill’s Small-Markets Study Reinforces Importance of Creating Reader Habit

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

A Northwestern University data analysis last year on three big-city news outlets showed that a regular reader habit and strong coverage of local news were the key factors for keeping subscribers. But a question remained: Was that true only for major metros, or for local news organizations in general? Now Northwestern’s Medill Local News Initiative has found part of the answer from a follow-up study on 12 small news outlets. Indeed, the results of both...

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update | Jul 25, 2019

Webinar Highlights How Gannett Is Using Medill’s Research Findings

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

A recent webinar for the News Media Alliance highlighted how research by Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative has helped the Gannett news chain come up with new strategies to attract and keep digital subscribers. Gannett’s Indianapolis Star was part of a project last year in which Medill analyzed 13 terabytes of data from the Star, Chicago Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle. The key takeaway: Creating a regular reader habit was paramount in retaining subscribers....

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update | Jul 16, 2019

Medill Going on Road Show to Share Local News Insights Medill will discuss their local news research findings at conferences for Newspaper Association Managers, News Leaders Association, and Online News Association.

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Northwestern University’s Medill Local News initiative, whose data analysis has identified reader habit as vital to retaining online subscribers, is taking its research findings on the road to help the journalism industry navigate a shift in its reliance from advertising dollars to reader revenue. Medill and its partners will discuss the research findings and the paths forward for local news at three major conferences in the next two months – the Newspaper Association Managers on...

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video | Jul 8, 2019

Global Seminar on Local News: Videos of the Sessions Medill and Germany’s Adenauer Foundation Highlight Journalists’ Challenges Worldwide

Here are videos from June 25, 2019, sessions of the Global Seminar on Local News, co-sponsored by Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative and Germany’s Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung USA foundation. The sessions were held at Medill’s facility in downtown Chicago. Part 1: The state of play for local news in the U.S. and abroad, with data on audience behaviors and attitudes. Speakers/panelists: Tim Franklin, Amy Mitchell, Joy Jenkins, Ed Malthouse, Idalmy Carrera-Colucci, Pana Janviroj Part 2: How...

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discussion | Jun 28, 2019

Common Problem for Local Journalists Worldwide: Threats and Intimidation Seminar Hosted by Medill and German Foundation Highlights Dangers to Media

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Joie Chen, a former CNN journalist who is Northwestern University’s Director of Medill Programs/Washington, was talking to the Global Seminar on Local News about how U.S. journalists feel besieged. She cited the murders of five newsroom staffers last year at the Capital Gazette in Maryland. She recalled the physical assault on a reporter by now-Rep. Greg Gianforte of Montana. And she noted President Donald Trump’s denunciations of the media as “the enemy of the people”...

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discussion | Jun 27, 2019

The Local News Crisis Circles the Globe, Seminar Finds Feeling Pressure from Tech Companies, Foreign Journalists Are Scrambling. One Outlet Is Even Buying a Tour Bus Company.

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

The financial pressures on local news are a worldwide problem, according to participants in the Global Seminar on Local News, co-sponsored by Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative and Germany’s Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung USA foundation. At the Chicago seminar June 25, Dapo Olorunyomi, Publisher and CEO of Nigeria’s Premium Times, said his country’s media were dramatically squeezed by competition from tech companies. “The true newsroom in Nigeria is Facebook,” with 25 million people in his country using...

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data | Jun 6, 2019

Sobering Reality for News Outlets: Your Readers May Be Elsewhere 99% of the Time

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Here’s a question for local news producers: What are your readers doing when they’re not visiting you? That’s the question asked by Northwestern University’s Spiegel Research Center in an eye-opening study of three metro news websites based on data from the media analytics company Comscore. And it’s a particularly relevant question because the study showed that the three news sites commanded less than 1 percent of their desktop users’ total digital time. The study, conducted...

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discussion | May 29, 2019

Medill Teams With German Foundation for Global Seminar on Local News

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

The Medill Local News Initiative and Germany’s Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung foundation will host the Global Seminar on Local News, a June conference in Chicago to discuss worldwide challenges to local journalism and their impact on democracy. The seminar will feature presentations by news executives from Bulgaria, Nigeria, Mexico and Germany as well as influential U.S.-based voices on the crisis in local news. The June 24-26 event is invitation-only, but video of the main discussions on June 25...

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design | May 9, 2019

Knight Lab’s Class Brings Design Principles to Local News

by Mark Jacob and Elaine Ramirez

A new Northwestern University class called Design for Local News isn’t trying to make minor tweaks in the current media environment. It’s going straight to the question of what information the public needs and starting there to invent new products. “It’s like a Zen beginner’s mind, a ‘first principles’ sort of thing. Pick your metaphor,” said Associate Professor Zach Wise. As local news outlets suffer from a disrupted business model that has led to widespread...

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Q&A | Apr 23, 2019

Medill’s Franklin on Why Local News Outlets Aren’t Jumping in Apple’s ‘Magic Mixer’

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

The recent launch of Apple News Plus is the biggest test yet for news bundling—the idea of selling access to a wide variety of news sources through one platform at one price. Apple News Plus costs $9.99 a month for more than 300 titles, mostly magazines but also a few newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. In general, local news organizations have not signed on, put off by Apple’s...

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update | Apr 11, 2019

The ‘eHarmony of Political Coverage’ and Other Local News Innovations Medill’s Research on Digital Subscriptions Empowers Newsrooms

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Here’s a neat trick that other newsrooms might want to steal. During Chicago’s recent election, the Tribune ran a quiz headlined, “Which Chicago mayoral candidate do you align most closely with?” The Tribune got candidates to answer a set of 14 questions, and then readers were invited to answer the same questions and learn which politician they were most in synch with. The feature served multiple purposes: educating readers on the candidates, helping readers focus their...

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data | Apr 1, 2019

USC’s Crosstown Project Turns Big Data into Local News

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Gabriel Kahn says his data project, Crosstown, delivers “the kind of information that allows citizens to be the squeaky wheel.” Kahn, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism, and his team are developing Crosstown to analyze and publish data on “core quality-of-life issues” such as traffic, crime and air quality. The goal: to make large data sets useful on a local and even hyperlocal level. “Part of it comes from my...

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design | Mar 19, 2019

Can Local News Websites Shift From Annoying Their Readers to Serving Them? Getting Readers to Pay Will Require More Attention to User Experience

by Jeannette Hinkle | Jenny_Hinkle

The frustrations of local journalists over the presentation of their work on news websites was summed up recently in a tweet by British writer Katie Taylor: Local newspaper journos: Why are we losing so much money? Why don't people read local news?Local newspaper website devs: *adds four pop-ups* *increases page load time to 64 hours* *enables video auto-play* *includes gif adverts in masthead* *changes font to wingdings*— katie (@Shinybiscuit) January 8, 2019 Indeed, too many local news...

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Q&A | Mar 11, 2019

Local Media Must ‘Re-learn’ How to Engage With Readers, Online News Consultants Say

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

As online news organizations try to pivot to reader revenue models to achieve financial sustainability, a New York-based firm called Piano is among those offering expertise. The Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications interviewed two Piano executives about the shifting media landscape. Michael Silberman, Piano’s Senior Vice President for Strategy, helped launch Vulture.com and TheCut.com and was a founding editor at MSNBC.com. Patrick Appel, Director of...

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update | Feb 27, 2019

Can News ‘Snacking’ Save Local Journalism from Starvation?

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

The old-fashioned image of the loyal newspaper reader was someone who went through each edition methodically, reading deeply from front to back. Today’s loyal online news reader may be quite different. Perhaps she catches a look at a local news homepage while waiting for the train. Or she might read an emailed newsletter with story links, scanning a dozen headlines on different stories. If she finds something interesting and has the time, she reads the...

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research | Feb 5, 2019

Medill Study Identifies ‘Paradigm Shift’ in How Local News Serves Readers Building Habit—Not Page Views—Matters Most For Keeping Subscribers, Data Analysis Finds

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

As online advertising lags, many local news organizations are shifting their strategy to focus on reader-based revenue models, especially digital subscriptions, as a path to financial sustainability and greater community service. That pivot is redefining the goals for many news outlets. Rather than chasing viral “clicks” to boost ad revenue, they are trying to establish their value to subscribers. New strategies require new insights into local digital audiences. That’s why a major new Northwestern University...

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research | Feb 5, 2019

Medill’s Subscriber Data Analysis: How We Reached Conclusions

The Spiegel Research Center at Northwestern University analyzed 13 terabytes of data from the Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and Indianapolis Star for its study, which was conducted in the fall of 2018 as part of the Medill Local News Initiative. Data scientists at Spiegel integrated audience data and subscriber information from each of the three news organizations. This allowed researchers to trace anonymized, individual behaviors of people who kept and cancelled digital subscriptions. This cross-platform data integration...

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research | Feb 5, 2019

3 Takeaways on Medill’s Subscriber Data Analysis

As local news outlets find their advertising model faltering, earning revenue from readers has emerged as a more promising path to sustainability. That’s why a Northwestern University study takes a new approach: Instead of focusing on the page-view metrics common in an ad-based model, this research tracks what keeps subscribers paying. The study, part of the Medill Local News Initiative at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, has crunched 13 terabytes of...

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research | Feb 5, 2019

A Paradox Emerges: Why Aren’t Avid Readers More Likely to Keep Subscriptions?

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

When Northwestern University researchers analyzed subscriber data from three major metro news outlets, they identified coverage areas and reader behaviors that correlated with customers keeping their subscriptions. Two key ones were a regular reading habit and consumption of unique local content. But two other behaviors jumped out because they showed no correlation with subscriber retention. In a possible paradox, people who read many stories and read them for longer were no more likely to keep...

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opinion | Jan 14, 2019

Opinion: Local News Organizations Slow to Invest in Neighborhood Economics Reporting

by Joe Mathewson | JoeMathewson

Neighborhoods, like the cities they inhabit, are built on hard economic truths: jobs, housing, public transit, water, sewage, power and communications connections, shops, theaters and other entertainment, even houses of worship (they, too, must be solvent). We take all these for granted. If we don’t have them, we don’t want to live there. Look at Chicago, where I’ve resided for many decades and whose problems are perhaps typical of newsworthy situations in many other cities. There’s...

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update | Dec 20, 2018

Anti-Press Rhetoric Raises the Stakes for Engagement in Local News

by Jeannette Hinkle | Jenny_Hinkle

Amid anti-press rhetoric at the national level, editors of local news organizations are feeling a trickle-down effect that increases the urgency of deepening connections with their readers. President Donald Trump’s “enemy of the people” vitriol has reached the Chicago Tribune, for example, with reporters, editors and columnists absorbing more “hyped-up” feedback through social media platforms, email, voicemail and even mailboxes, said Chicago Tribune Standards Editor Margaret Holt. “People will say nasty, obnoxious stuff and they...

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update | Dec 18, 2018

Local News Outlets Counting on Digital Subscribers More Than Page Views

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

A recent meeting of Northwestern University’s Local News Initiative team and its three “learning lab” partners – the Chicago Tribune, Indianapolis Star and San Francisco Chronicle – found heightened interest in news organizations growing their digital subscriptions as a key strategy for financial sustainability. A “click” culture in American newsrooms, in which online page views were the overriding measure of success because they boosted advertising revenue, appears to be giving way as online ad sales continue...

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research | Dec 4, 2018

3 Leading News Organizations Serve as ‘Learning Labs’ for Local News Initiative Projects Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and Indianapolis Star aim for insights and digital subscribers

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Three leading U.S. news organizations are serving as “learning labs” for Northwestern University’s Local News Initiative, a project to harness data and other research tools to find ways to make local journalism sustainable. The three outlets – the Chicago Tribune, Indianapolis Star and San Francisco Chronicle – have submitted terabytes of anonymous online reader data to Northwestern’s Spiegel Digital and Database Research Center for analysis. A key goal: to correlate reader behavior with what the...

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research | Nov 30, 2018

Research Suggests ‘Local’ News is more Fluid than Fixed in Place

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Research by a San Diego State University professor is challenging our definitions of what local news is, and could have an impact on the ways journalists tailor their product to their audiences in the future. News organizations today need to move beyond their antiquated definitions of location and dive deeper into the nuances of geographic spaces in this digital and mobile media era, wrote associate professor Amy Schmitz Weiss in a new journal article featured...

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update | Nov 12, 2018

McCormick Foundation Gives $100,000 to Medill for In-Depth Analysis of Media Markets

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

A $100,000 grant from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation will fuel new research by Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications that is intended to provide tools that can improve the financial viability of local journalism, while also seeking to increase Americans' sense of community and making them more informed about their democracy. The grant, announced Nov. 12, will include both data analysis and qualitative research this year and next, conducted as...

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update | Oct 24, 2018

Local News is the 'Biggest Crisis' in Journalism, but a Sustainability Campaign is Underway

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

This is the first in a series of articles on America's local news crisis and the work of the newly launched Local News Initiative at Northwestern University's Medill School. It's a jarring contradiction: The public has never had better access to news, yet local journalism is suffering a dramatic decline. Which means there’s plenty to read and view, but it might not tell us very much. On a single day in July, the New York...

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update | Oct 1, 2018

The Local News Challenge and You

America has seen a dramatic decline in coverage of local news. The digital revolution has massively disrupted the business model for local news. Many news organizations are slashing their staffs. Others are closing altogether, creating a widening sea of “news deserts.” Why does it matter? A self-governed democracy needs an informed citizenry. Local news is the oxygen for engaged communities that enrich our everyday lives. The crisis in local news is deepening, but there are...

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Is this Reddit’s moment for local news? The social media platform’s tools for publishers has piqued the interest of newsrooms

A Cross Section of Illinois News Entities Get $4.3 Million from State

The Daily Herald Deal Even Illinois’ Model Local News Infrastructure Couldn’t Slow Alden’s Expansion in Chicago

Struggling in the Suburbs The Daily Herald’s sale to Tribune Publishing is the latest example of suburban newspapers’ struggles

Axios Local's Holly Moore on Newsletters, Networks, AI and the “Whole Buffalo”

Paddock closes at least 13 Illinois newspapers, adding five new news deserts Alden-owned Tribune Publishing will take over Paddock’s Daily Herald later this month

Insights on Chicago’s Local Media Consumers A look at local news organizations’ quests to best serve their audiences

NPR CEO Katherine Maher Discusses Recent Restructuring and Adapting to Federal Defunding

Saving Legacy Newspapers What value do investors see in print media?

Chuck Todd on rebuilding trust through local news

On U.S. Military Bases, Fewer and Fewer Options for Local News New Medill research shows how the beat of local military reporting is changing as newsrooms contract.

Local TV News is Consolidating and Contracting Can it adapt to major changes in audience and business model?

Nominate a Local News Bright Spot We are collecting nominations for Local News ‘Bright Spots’ to feature in our 2026 State of Local News Report.

Baltimore was just the start for local-news champion Stewart Bainum Jr.

Ben Cotton on lessons at the New York Times on growing digital subscriptions

Searching for sustainability New report finds nonprofit news outlets need to develop robust revenue outside philanthropy to succeed long term

Going Underground What local newsrooms can learn from informal news networks

Steve Grove on AI, Building Trust and Reinventing the Minnesota Star Tribune Introducing the Medill State of Local News Podcast with Tim Franklin

Researchers document AI firms' pilfering of news sites

Medill awards funding to Chicago local media organizations The Bigs takes home a $10,000 first-place prize

Big donors get blinkered view of local journalism crisis

Chicago-area publications join Arizona State’s NEWSWELL Growing Community Media donates its four publications, seeks long-term sustainability

Other states making progress on saving local journalism

All in on high school sports At the Minnesota Star Tribune, an investment decades in the making takes shape

The Media Ecosystem Chicago A deep dive into the Windy City’s innovative and expansive media landscape

With no local news, those in news deserts turn to social media feeds, influencers and gossip Medill Local News Initiative survey shows America’s fraying relationship to reliable information.

Alden Global Capital makes push to buy Daily Herald in Chicago suburbs Full-page ad argues investment firm will pay the highest price

Washington newspapers saved at last minute, ‘a small miracle’

Los Angeles’ local news experiment New startup looks to combine old-school and new-school journalism

Pittsburgh’s next steps How the Post-Gazette’s closure could impact the local media landscape

Newspaper family saves Oregon paper

Turning Back the Clock At Newsday on Long Island, a nostalgia beat brings massive traffic

Troubled local news outlets face a new risk: climate change New research identifies the U.S. communities facing the double jeopardy of climate disaster and a lack of news sources.

When federal might meets local resistance Chicago is case study in using solutions journalism for rapid response coverage of ICE enforcement nationally

Rapidly Expanding Local News Networks Nonprofit and for-profit news networks are expanding local news in places that need it

Email over algorithms: how newsrooms are reclaiming their audiences

Paths to sustainability New LION report says local news organizations need to focus more on business side

Baltimore bucks the trend Local outlets are withering across the country – but not in Charm City

Northwest publishers avoiding consolidation or closure, maintaining independence As independent newspapers shutter across the U.S., a handful of Northwest publishers defy the trend.

With news creators and influencers on the rise, what’s next for local news? ‘It’s just much more approachable’

Keeping Voices from Vanishing Public radio, long a lifeline, is at risk in Alaska and rural areas around the country

Illinois Press Association CEO Resigns After Dispute Over ICE Lawsuit

The Marvel in Mullen Gerri Peterson’s Nebraska Paper Bucks the Trend in Rural America, Finds Pathway to Success

Sale of Illinois newspapers puts new state law to the test

Going cold turkey Is the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Gambit to Dump Print a Harbinger?

Medill launches shared services hub to continue strengthening Chicago local news

The Medill survey 2025: How the Chicago area gets its news Second annual examination of the public’s interest in and reliance on local news

Wincing at ‘The Paper,’ a Newspaper Spinoff of ‘The Office’

Too many Americans are losing faith in the role of journalists

Does the decline of local news influence our politics? This former U.S. Senator thinks so Decreased ticket splitting, less accountability more common with local news outlets disappearing

Lack of Local News Tied to Government Secrecy, New Report Says

A verdant news desert in Skamania County

Illinois Newsrooms Receive $4 Million from State

This tech CEO wants to save local news from the AI onslaught

Stop the Presses? Does Print Have More of a Future in Media Than We Think?

Oregon newspapers close, Dallas paper rejects Alden bid

Hitting Reset After Months of Turbulence, the National Trust for Local News Seeks Stability

Local News Summit Chuck Todd Talks Local News with Michigan Press Leaders

Local Public Broadcasting Cuts As Congress Moves to Slash Public Media Funding, Local News Outlets Brace for Impact

Journalist Deserts The Number of Local Journalists Has Plummeted 75% Since 2002, Study Says

Meeting Your Audience Where They Are – Literally Local News Outlets Adding Events to Grow Engagement, Revenue

Government Agency Buys Newspaper Does The New Owner Represent A Savior, A Conflict Or Both?

Tech Giants Win Again An Oregon Bill Requiring Tech Platforms to Compensate Local News Stalls in Senate

Meet the Local Press Champion Former “Meet the Press” anchor Chuck Todd Thinks Local Sports Can Help Save Local News

Shifting Sandboxes Two Legacy Local News Outlets Are Finding New Audiences and Revenue in Nontraditional Places

AI Progress Report Are local news organizations benefiting from or getting crushed by artificial intelligence? Maryland Prof. Tom Rosenstiel weighs the impact and potential

Trump’s Public Radio Cuts Could Mean Calamity for Local Outlets Smaller stations would face major cutbacks; some wouldn’t survive

Paving the CherryRoad Jeremy Gulban dreams of creating a national network of community papers–but first must make 2/3 of his own outlets profitable

The Big Tech News Bills Five states join California in pursuing compensation from Google and Meta for local journalism

Students on the Beat A growing movement of news-academic partnerships aims to fill local coverage gaps

Tell Us Who Should be a Local News Bright Spot We are collecting nominations for Local News ‘Bright Spots’ that will be featured in our 2025 State of Local News Report

Maine Pages National journalists go local as Midcoast Villager combines legacy papers to boost region’s news

Deserted By Fact-Checking Meta policy reversal could mean more misinformation for communities lacking local news

Haunted By Ghost Papers Can Massachusetts hyperlocal startups reconnect communities to the news–and each other?

In news deserts, Trump won in a landslide But what does this election-result correlation mean?

Sustainable Startups Emerging local news outlets take varied approaches while sharing sense of purpose, need for funding

All the News That’s Missing in Cairo When a paper disappears, what happens to the community, and where do people turn for their news?

A Big Tech Local News Precedent? New York, Illinois among states waiting to see how California-Google deal shakes out

Writer Underwriting Writer After the Chicago Tribune didn’t replace retiring architecture critic Blair Kamin, he funded his own successor

Report rings public media alarm bell Ralph Nader group calls for more government funding, less corporate influence to boost local news