Local News & Information

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 realized it’s almost better to empower a single editor in each market,” Heafy said, “and centralize the rest of the operations.”

Behind that shift was something few media startups bother to build: a literal playbook. Heafy described a printed manual, four to five inches thick, that detailed every step of launching and operating a local... See more

Regional differences in culture, resources, and context make it difficult to design AI systems that address locally specific concerns (Hsu et al., 2022). The hyperlocal knowledge and values that define a community are hard for nonlocals, such as Report for America-style outsider journalists, to understand (Wenzel et al., 2020). Even when trying to... See more

While Americans in polls report historically low levels of trust in the media, it could be in large part because much of the press hasn’t been speaking to the concerns of their everyday lives. It would mean incorporating the knowledge and skills of reporters like Heather Bryant, who grew up in rural Missouri, where her lower-income family would buy... See more

People will pay for the convenience of not poring through internet sludge all day and having someone clarify what they need to know.”

Editors are encouraged to participate in community life — attending festivals, visiting new restaurants — but the company also leans heavily on user-generated content and tips.

“In mature cities, the inbox is overwhelming,” Heafy said. “Often our staff are getting information ahead of traditional broadcast and newspaper outlets.”

Technology helps... See more