Apart from the major national newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post, the traditional business models for local journalism have collapsed, and most of the current revenue models in the industry are unsustainable. Despite their digital growth, the majority of local newspapers’ revenues still comes from their print products. Yet print advertising and circulation have seen single and sometimes double-digital declines in each year since 2007. Papers’ investments in digital media, including better user experiences and digital paywalls, have helped ease the topline revenue contraction. Yet the industry continues to shrink, leaving more and more communities without primary sources of local news and information. According to recent data, about 200 communities have completely lost any type of newspaper coverage, and about half of the country’s 3,143 counties have one remaining paper, usually a weekly.
As traditional newsrooms shrink and even disappear, a variety of small-scale experiments in local media have been taking root across the country. The Institute for Nonprofit news now counts 230 member newsrooms across the country. Data from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting show that the number of full-time local journalists at public radio and television stations have grown by 30% over the past 5 years to 2,862 in 2018. These changes, and the expansion of movements like engaged journalism, suggest a new era is afoot in local journalism.
Indeed, as the old institutions of the news media transform or disappear, new ones are being formed. Whichever direction the local newspaper industry takes, one thing is clear: the future landscape of local news and information is going to look very different from what we have seen before.
This new landscape requires new research on what news consumers want, on the sustainability strategies that support high-quality local journalism, and on the practices and products that support an informed citizenry. The Shorenstein Center’s News Sustainability program produces original research on sustainable business models for the digital age, and works closely with legacy and emerging news organizations to put the theories into practice—creating a cycle of research, implementation, and learning.
Solutions to America’s Local News Crisis
Schuster Fellow Craig Forman and Shorenstein Fellow Jennifer Preston are working on a multi-pronged approach to understanding the crisis in local news, and structures that may work together to bolster it, and protect the critical role it plays in supporting democracy. The Solutions project has put out publications and events to help build this systemic thinking about the future of local news.
The Public Media Merger Project
The Public Media Merger Project explored the business models for local public media newsroom mergers. They assembled a cohort of public station newsrooms to participate in the research, including WNET’s NJ Spotlight and NJTV, Colorado Public Radio and the Denverite, WHYY and Billy Penn, Rocky Mountain Public Media, and Southern California Public Radio’s KPCC and LAist, among others.
Read the Public Media Merger Playbook here.
The Public Media Merger Project was supported by a partnership between the Public Media Venture Group and the Google News Initiative.
The Single Subject News Project
The Single Subject News Project, with support from the John S. and James L. Knight foundation, worked with a cohort of nine single-topic newsrooms to identify best practices for building and engaging their digital audience. Participating organizations included The War Horse, The Marshall Project, The Trace, Chalkbeat, The Hechinger Report, ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, and The Center for Public Integrity.
Read more about the project and its research here.
For more on Dr. Elizabeth Hansen and her research, click here.
News Sustainability and Business Models Research
Landscape and Literature Review Studies
Solutions to America’s Local Journalism Crisis: Consolidated Literature Review
October 12, 2021
By Craig I. Forman, Schuster Media and Technology Fellow, Shorenstein Center
Business Models for Local News: A Field Scan
September 6, 2018
By Elizabeth Hansen, Emily Roseman and Matthew Spector of the Shorenstein Center; and Joseph Lichterman of the Lenfest Institute
Sustainability in Noncommercial News
The National Trust for Local News
October 6, 2020
By Elizabeth Hansen, and Marc Hand
Funding the News: Foundations and Nonprofit Media
June 18, 2018
By Matthew Nisbet, Professor, John Wihbey, Assistant Professor, Silje Kristiansen, Post-doctoral Associate & Aleszu Bajak, Lecturer at Northeastern University
Facebook Friends? The Impact of Facebook’s News Feed Algorithm Changes on Nonprofit Publishers
October 25, 2018
By Andrew Gruen, Research Fellow at the Shorenstein Center and Principal Consultant, Working Paper; and Aisha Townes, Data Science Consultant to the Shorenstein Center
Funding Journalism, Finding Innovation: Success Stories and Ideas for Creative, Sustainable Partnerships
June 20, 2018
Reported and edited by: Dwight Knell, former consultant, Shorenstein Center; Nina Sachdev, Communications Director, Media Impact Funders; Jessica Clark, Research Director, Media Impact Funders
Playbook for Launching a Local, Nonprofit News Outlet
June 12, 2018
By Adam Fisher, MPP student, Harvard Kennedy School and Adam B. Giorgi, MPP student, Harvard Kennedy School
Sustainability Case Studies
Case Study: Mother Jones – Creating a Thriving Legacy News Magazine through Mission, Strategy, and Experimentation
December 9, 2019
By Caroline Porter for the News Sustainability Project at the Shorenstein Center, and the Institute for Nonprofit News
Small is Beautiful: New Business Models for Digital Media, a case study
June 3, 2019
By Markus Somm, former Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Basler Zeitung newspaper, Basel, Switzerland, and Spring 2019 Shorenstein Fellow
Case Study of VTDigger: A Rising Star In Nonprofit News
May 21, 2018
By Tim Griggs, Institute for Nonprofit News
Technologies for Sustainability
Using Data Science Tools for Email Audience Analysis: A Research Guide
October 18, 2017
By Jacque Boltik, Data Science Consultant and Founder, Kingrail Consulting and Nicco Mele, Director, Shorenstein Center
Newsroom Practice
The Case for Video Animation in Local TV News: Summary Report for Newsrooms
November 18, 2021
By Mike Beaudet, professor of the practice at Northeastern University School of Journalism and an investigative reporter at WCVB-Boston, John Wihbey, assistant professor of journalism and media innovation at Northeastern University and former Research Associate at the Shorenstein Center, and Anna Campbell, master’s candidate and Video Innovation Scholar at Northeastern University’s College of Arts, Media, and Design.
Reinventing Local TV News: Innovative Storytelling Practices to Engage New Audiences
February 12, 2019
By Mike Beaudet, professor of the practice at Northeastern University School of Journalism and an investigative reporter at WCVB-Boston, and John Wihbey, assistant professor of journalism and media innovation at Northeastern University and a Research Associate at the Shorenstein Center
Streaming War Won: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the News
April 29, 2019
By Edward F. O’Keefe, former Senior Vice President for Content Development at CNN and Spring 2019 Shorenstein Fellow
