On the latest “What Works” podcast, Dan and Ellen talk with Mike Shapiro, a friend of the pod. He came on in 2022 to talk about his role as founder and CEO of TAPinto, a network of nearly 100 franchised local news and digital marketing sites serving more than 150 communities in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Florida.
Shapiro is a graduate of Rutgers and Stanford Law School, but he’s got the journalism bug as well. He was working as an attorney in New York when his young son underwent open-heart surgery. Because he wanted to spend more time at home, he and his wife, Lauryn, launched The Alternative Press in 2008 to give their hometown of New Providence, New Jersey, an independent, all-digital daily news source.
Pretty soon, neighboring towns asked for their own sites, and a network was born. In 2013 Shapiro repositioned TAPinto as a franchise model: local owners run their own sites, while the company supplies the technology, training and back-office support. Franchisees share content and sell advertising across the network.
But now, he’s expanded the business model again. In 2024 he launched the Hyperlocal News Network, a licensing option that gives publishers more freedom to control their own branding but helps with those vexing back-office needs.
Ellen has a Quick Take on The Minnesota Star Tribune‘s lack of endorsements in some very consequential state races. The Strib’s editorial board didn’t interrogate candidates, do its own reporting and weigh in on who would make the best governor or senator. Instead, op-ed columnists wrote in support of each candidate. The Strib called these columns “closing arguments.”
Dan has a Quick Take about OpenAI’s support for local journalism. On the one hand, it’s a welcome development. On the other hand, he’s worried that news organizations may be getting co-opted by a technology they should remain deeply skeptical of. Will newsrooms shy away from critical coverage of AI lest they offend the golden goose?
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