Local News & Information

What would that media look like? It would be one where economic reporters are embedded in blue-collar communities and neighborhoods rather than financial districts, and source networks built around people with direct experience instead of outside analysts. Centering inflation coverage around wage stagnation rather than the stock market and written... See more

Fast-forward to the near future: AI has the potential to change the fundamentals of local news. In 2026, the news organizations that thrive will stop thinking of themselves as publishers and start operating as community information utilities. They won’t just report on the school board meeting. They will show you when it happens, let you search past... See more

All of this will tend to require that national actors— who sometimes like to act like every solution they offer is, almost definitionally, turnkey— become much better acquainted with the detailed operations of those they are seeking to help. And that will mean understanding that, at the operational level, almost every local newsroom is different,... See more

We’re the providers of information and we want to be the distributors. But Google now wants to be the distributor.

The contract isn’t coming apart because people can’t access journalism, but because they increasingly don’t. People still want reliable, relevant information from sources independent of those in power in business and government. In fact, mountains of research suggest that people appreciate the ideal aspirations of journalism, and want news that... See more

To say that Americans pay for civic participation and not news is to say that they care about paying for membership in a community, not digital content.