Sam Liebeskind

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.

Hyperlocal is the only model. Between yesterday’s Pew Research survey data and last week’s newsroom revenue analysis from Justin Bank, journalism funders and support organizations have two sets of data they can no longer ignore. Together, they expose the fallacy of national and metro-centric economics and confirm what funders have long suspected:... See more

I am moving away from the “grant for life” model. This $330k seed investment acts as the bridge to self-sustainability. The grant covers the first 12 months of professional salaries and the total front-loaded cost of the “Coordination Layer.” By Month 13, our target 20% conversion rate should generate the monthly recurring revenue required to carry... See more

This isn’t groundbreaking. Organizations like CoastAlaska, the Tiny News Collective, and Indiegraf have proven pieces of this. But all of them are missing the shared secret sauce I believe can elevate all hyperlocal newsrooms at once: professional employment and a PEO within a geographic cluster.

Local journalism shouldn’t just close gaps. It should help residents understand how to show up better at public meetings. When people know the backstory, civic participation closes the loop.

But let’s go one step further than drawing charts. If we believe that extreme proximity is the ONLY financially viable direction forward—and let’s be clear, that conversion rate demands it—we have to change how we treat hyperlocal newsrooms. We need to stop treating them like “passion projects” operated by burnt-out freelancers. We need to start... See more

Before the Watergate era, many journalists did not have college degrees. They were just smart people who knew how to get information. They were naturals at talking to people. And they knew enough about how things worked to recognize news.