This year’s State of Local News Project Report highlights local news startups in the past five years and presents a dozen outlets — urban and rural, for-profit and non-profit — that provide their communities with excellent reporting essential to democracy while progressing in the quest for stable, sustainable business models.
Local News Bright Spots 2024
News for you, Bayou Georges Media centers the community as it expands into a new market
Starting a news outlet in Louisiana presents challenges for even the state’s largest media company. Before launching the Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate in July 2023, Georges ...
Local News Bright Spots 2024
Shifting Gears in the South Andrew Morse discusses his vision for a modern media company in today's local news landscape and expanding community engagement in one of the most dynamic cities in the U.S.
Print journalism’s challenges in the digital era were well known when Andrew Morse became president and publisher of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in January 2023. “[T]his ...
Local News Bright Spots 2024
Succeeding from the Heart Started as a WhatsApp group fighting COVID misinformation, Conecta Arizona grows into a vital resource for Spanish-speaking readers
Freelance journalist Maritza L. Félix didn’t plan to launch a news service when she began debunking COVID-19 misinformation in a WhatsApp group in May 2020. ...
Local News Bright Spots 2024
Building Stability in Nonprofit Journalism As Michigan’s largest nonprofit news outlet, Bridge Michigan has navigated more than a decade of growth while maintaining financial stability. CEO Katy Locker talks about impactful investigative reporting and having a mission rooted in nonpartisan journalism.
In a period when media cutbacks and closures are a norm, Bridge Michigan, the state’s largest nonprofit news service, projects enviable stability. The nonprofit Center ...
Local News Bright Spots 2024
Redefining Local News for a Changing Boise Don Day and Kara Jackson of BoiseDev share how they built a successful reader-focused local news outlet that embraces its Idaho roots without a paywall.
When Don Day began tweeting long ago about things happening around Boise, and hashtagging his posts #BoiseDev, he was having fun keeping tabs on his ...
Local News Bright Spots 2024
Designing a newsroom for diverse community needs CEO Angilee Shah shares Charlottesville Tomorrow’s journey from a local blogging platform to a nonprofit local news leader in Virginia.
When Charlottesville Tomorrow launched in 2005, it marshaled a blogging platform, an e-mail list and an events calendar to disperse close coverage of local government ...
Local News Bright Spots 2024
Sustaining Service Journalism in the Bay Area Co-founder Tasneem Raja and Community Journalism Director Jacob Simas discuss sustaining local news in the Bay Area with service journalism.
There is no one-size-fits-all formula for profitability or viability in media. But years of effort in local news has honed an approach that works for ...
Local News Bright Spots 2024
More Than a Newspaper An alt-weekly steps up to become Mobile, Alabama’s principle paper of record
When journalists Ashley Trice and Rob Holbert began musing more than two decades ago about how odd it was Alabama’s second-largest city didn’t have an ...
Local News Bright Spots 2024
Diversity of Coverage Minnesota’s Sahan Journal attracts readers, donors by reporting on immigrants, communities of color
Months before a national conversation on race and equity emerged in 2020, Mukhtar M. Ibrahim set out to provide sensitive coverage of immigrant communities in ...
Local News Bright Spots 2024
Bridging Pittsburgh Collaborations bring PublicSource’s award-winning investigations to broader audiences
PublicSource emerged in 2011 in response to community leaders seeking more in-depth local and investigative journalism. Originally affiliated with Pittsburgh Filmmakers, it has operated as ...
Local News Bright Spots 2024
How Seven Days Defies the Odds From arts and culture upstart to Vermont’s paper of record, Seven Days continues to expand local news coverage while staying true to its community roots.
“Vermont’s local news publishers are endangered. Can they be saved?” asked a summer headline in Seven Days, an independent, free weekly newspaper covering news, politics, ...
Local News Bright Spots 2024
Pioneering in Utah After intense changes, The Salt Lake Tribune forges ahead as a digital-first nonprofit
The August announcement that The Salt Lake Tribune would receive a two-year inaugural award from the Knight Growth Challenge Fund capped an eventful decade for ...