logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Where Local Media Falters, Community-Based Nonprofit Models Step In

Steve Dubb
January 12, 2018
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

January 10, 2018; The Ringer

Local reporting matters and plays an essential role in creating the conditions for a functioning democratic civil society. Kate Knibbs, writing in The Ringer, tells the story of Katia Kelly, who last February in her Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn news blog, Pardon Me for Asking, asked why former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort had bought a rundown brownstone in her neighborhood. Ultimately, her post prompted further research that ultimately found its way into a federal indictment, as prosecutors cited the house Kelly wrote about as evidence that Manafort was laundering money that he made as a pro-Russia operative.

“Stories sometimes have very strange ways of making their way to our mainstream media,” Kelly observes. “And everything kind of starts out with neighbors talking to each other.” Kelly’s scoop, notes Knibbs, “was a triumph of hyperlocal, on-the-ground reporting, and a thrilling reminder of how neighborhood reporting can provide the building blocks for uncovering truths with great consequences.”

Of course, as NPQ has covered, local media faces considerable market churn. Last fall’s demise of DNAInfo and Gothamist in New York City and the Baltimore City Paper provide two recent examples. Still, we have also seen nonprofit journalism in Vermont, California, and elsewhere rise to fill the gaps and sometimes out-perform the local media that they have replaced.

“We’re still in the middle of a revolution, and it’s going to take a while for this to sort out,” notes Politifact founder and journalism professor Bill Adair. “We know there’s demand for the product. People want to know what their school board is doing. People want to know what their city council is doing. They want to know if the local high school team won last Friday.”

While both successes and missteps are to be expected in what remains a transitional period, Knibbs uncovers many emerging models. For example, in Flint, Michigan, veteran reporter Jiquanda Johnson founded Flint Beat, which launched last March. Johnson notes that her site “was established after talking to residents and hearing that they wanted something focused only on Flint” and has since expanded her mission to promote news literacy for young people.

In San Francisco, Knibbs highlights the case of Tim Redmond, who when fired in 2013 from his longtime editor position at the San Francisco Bay Guardian after refusing to make further cuts to its staff, founded 48 Hills, which “has allowed him to bootstrap a lean site funded by foundation grants and donations” with most donations in the $100–200 range.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

“It may not be the model for the future of local journalism, but it certainly is a model,” Redmond says. “We’ve lasted four years, we’ve broken stories. We’re still out here every day, doing investigative journalism.”

Knibbs also highlights a range of other nonprofit innovators, including the Voice of San Diego, Honolulu Civil Beat, and Denverite.

Scott Lewis, editor-in-chief at the Voice, observes that “[News organizations] are starting to make the case directly that this is a valuable enterprise, that if you care about your community or our shared reality that we all experience, you should invest in this. It just so happens that nonprofit news organizations are perfectly optimized for that. They don’t have a shareholder or profit responsibility — they have a responsibility to a mission.”

Prompting these changes “is what economists call a ‘market failure,” notes Christopher Ali, a media studies professor at the University of Virginia and author of Media Localism: The Policies of Place. “There’s not enough money in the market,” Ali adds.

Still, as Ali and coauthor Damian Radcliffe conclude in a 2017 report, “The future of small-town newspapers, or what we call ‘small market’ newspapers, is actually brighter than what most people think.”

“People associate the bad news about the big dailies with smaller, community publication, “Ali adds. “They are different business models, and the community model is more sustainable. But the public is not aware of that.”

Kristen Hare, who reports for the nonprofit Poynter Institute, concurs. “I am optimistic about the future of local news,” Hare said. “It’s easy, I think, in all of the shouting, to miss the whispers of things that are happening at the local level.”—Steve Dubb

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Steve Dubb

Steve Dubb is senior editor of economic justice at NPQ, where he writes articles (including NPQ’s Economy Remix column), moderates Remaking the Economy webinars, and works to cultivate voices from the field and help them reach a broader audience. Prior to coming to NPQ in 2017, Steve worked with cooperatives and nonprofits for over two decades, including twelve years at The Democracy Collaborative and three years as executive director of NASCO (North American Students of Cooperation). In his work, Steve has authored, co-authored, and edited numerous reports; participated in and facilitated learning cohorts; designed community building strategies; and helped build the field of community wealth building. Steve is the lead author of Building Wealth: The Asset-Based Approach to Solving Social and Economic Problems (Aspen 2005) and coauthor (with Rita Hodges) of The Road Half Traveled: University Engagement at a Crossroads, published by MSU Press in 2012. In 2016, Steve curated and authored Conversations on Community Wealth Building, a collection of interviews of community builders that Steve had conducted over the previous decade.

More about: community journalismManagement and LeadershipNonprofit News

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
Hierarchy and Justice
Cyndi Suarez
Salvadoran Foreign Agent Law Threatens Human Rights Movements
Devon Kearney
Charitable Tax Reform: Why Half Measures Won’t Curb Plutocracy
Alan Davis
Healing-Centered Leadership: A Path to Transformation
Shawn A. Ginwright
Into the Fire: Lessons from Movement Conflicts
Ingrid Benedict, Weyam Ghadbian and Jovida Ross
How Nonprofits Can Truly Advance Change
Hildy Gottlieb

NPQ Webinars

April 27th, 2 pm ET

Liberatory Decision-Making

How to Facilitate and Engage in Healthy Decision-making Processes

Register Now
You might also like
Hierarchy and Justice
Cyndi Suarez
Salvadoran Foreign Agent Law Threatens Human Rights...
Devon Kearney
Charitable Tax Reform: Why Half Measures Won’t Curb...
Alan Davis

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.