Category: Uncategorized

On the latest “What Works” podcast, Ellen and Dan talk with Charles Sennott, a former foreign correspondent for The Boston Globe who left in 2008 to become a serial entrepreneur. He co-founded GlobalPost and The GroundTruth Project. GroundTruth, a nonprofit, was a partner to GBH News, PBS’s “Frontline,” public radio’s “The World,” and the “PBS NewsHour.” It focused on partnerships to amplify international and national news projects.

Now Charlie has turned his attention to local news. He teamed up with Steven Waldman to launch Report for America as an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Dan and Ellen talked with Waldman on an earlier podcast.

Sennott’s newest creation is GroundTruth Media Partners, LLC based in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where he leads a small staff and publishes and writes the GroundTruth newsletter on Substack. The nonprofit that was called The GroundTruth Project has recently rebranded to call itself Report Local, with Report for America and Report for the World as its flagship initiatives. Report Local and the University of Missouri School of Journalism did groundbreaking work on water issues in the Mississippi River Basin.

In a recent post on Substack, Sennott writes about this new branding. He also writes about why he officially stepped aside from the program but remains proud of the movement it has created.

As his own act of community service, Sennott is also serving as the publisher and editor of the Martha’s Vineyard Times. He and his wife, Julie, who has an extended family on the Island, now live there year-round.

Dan and Ellen are also joined by Alexis Algazy, a Northeastern journalism and political science student who has written a compelling story about why politicians need to engage in storytelling on social media.  

Dan has a Quick Take about public support for local news. Politico recently published an in-depth story on what’s gone wrong with a program in California that was supposed to provide $250 million to help fund local news over a five-year period, with the money to come from the state and from Google. The deal seems to be coming apart. And yet there are reasons to be optimistic — as you will hear.

Ellen has a Quick Take on the role of video in recording the violent acts of ICE agents in Minneapolis and the protests all over the Twin Cities. Video by bystanders has played an important role in exposing what’s happening on the ground. But video and social media in general also pose a challenge for reporters covering the story for The Minnesota Star Tribune. Editor Kathleen Hennessey spoke about it in a brief interview with Semafor.

You can listen to our conversation here, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcast app.

There’s an old saying — no doubt you’ve heard it — that justice delayed is justice denied. And so it is with the news business’ longstanding lament that Google engages in monopolistic practices aimed at driving down the value of digital advertising. Gilad Edelman, writing for The Atlantic, describes it this way:

If the story of journalism’s 21st-century decline were purely a tale of technological disruption — of print dinosaurs failing to adapt to the internet — that would be painful enough for those of us who believe in the importance of a robust free press. The truth hurts even more. Big Tech platforms didn’t just out-compete media organizations for the bulk of the advertising-revenue pie. They also cheated them out of much of what was left over, and got away with it.

The Atlantic is among a number of media organizations that filed suit against Google this month. I’m kind of stunned that they are only suing now, because the issue they’ve identified goes back many years. As Charlotte Tobitt reports for the Press Gazette, the federal lawsuit was brought earlier this month by The Atlantic as well as Penske Media Corp., which owns Rolling Stone and She Media; Condé Nast, whose holdings include Advance Publications; Vox Media, owner of The Verge; and the newspaper chain McClatchy, whose papers include the Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star and The Sacramento Bee.

Read the rest at Media Nation.

The Minnesota Star Tribune, which is already getting a lot of attention for its outstanding coverage of ICE’s violent and indiscriminate rampage through Minneapolis and St. Paul, has unveiled some ideas that ought to be considered by every large regional newspaper in the country.

Granted, newspapers owned by corporations and hedge funds aren’t likely to emulate these common-sense ideas, even though they might boost revenue in the long run. But there are still some independent dailies such as The Boston Globe and The Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as a few high-quality chains such as Hearst and Advance, that could learn from the Star Tribune.

The Strib is one of the projects that we highlight in our book, “What Works in Community News.” The changes were announced in a press release on Friday. They include:

► An end to the paywall for live blogs covering breaking news, which will ensure that “its public service journalism is accessible to all.” The Strib’s free live-blog coverage of the ICE occupation has been essential. Moreover, Minnesota residents whose first exposure to the paper’s journalism was through the live blog might be enticed into buying a subscription.

► Unlimited gift links so that subscribers can share articles with friends. The press release doesn’t specify whether those links will be shareable on social media as well, but that is the standard practice at most papers that offer gift links. This is another forward-looking move that will give non-readers a chance to sample the Strib’s coverage and decide whether they want to become paying customers. The Globe, to cite one contrary example, lets you email a gift link to friends, but it’s kludgy and it doesn’t work on social. The Strib’s approach sounds like it will be cleaner and more intuitive.

► A family-plan digital subscription with up to four unique log-ins, offered at a slightly higher price than an individual subscription. The New York Times does this, but we’re not aware of other papers that do it.

► A nonprofit fund that can accept tax-deductible donations to support the Star Tribune’s journalism. (The Local News Fund was started in 2024, but it was re-announced Friday.) Some might object to this; the Strib, like the Globe, is a for-profit owned by a billionaire. But those billionaires have invested a considerable amount of resources into their papers, which are marginally profitable at best. If you accept the proposition that even a billionaire owner shouldn’t be expected to run their paper at a loss, then this is a good way to support high-quality regional news coverage.

By Dan Kennedy

The dawn of Donald Trump’s second term signaled a shift in efforts to bolster local news with government assistance.

For several years, Congress had considered measures to provide tax credits that would help news organizations and to force Google and Facebook to pay for the journalism they repurpose. Despite some bipartisan support, especially for tax credits, those measures fell short, with no prospect of success under Trump and his MAGA allies.

As a result, attention has turned from Washington to state-led initiatives, which have proven to be a mixed bag.

Read the rest at Poynter Online.

By Alexis Algazy

I’m not your typical Gen-Zer. I’m overly tuned in to politics. My roommates, however, are computer science majors, and over the past few years of living together, I can assure you they only pay attention when politics breaks into their feeds.

Digital media provides opportunities for politicians to speak directly to their audiences, like my roommates. But it’s up to the digital communicators behind the screen to ensure the politician they’re working for is positively represented on social media. In recent elections, digital media has often been credited as a politician’s winning factor or downfall.

A perfect example is Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s digital presence leading up to her re-election last fall. Just two days before the preliminary election, for example, a video of Wu speaking to a crowd showed how a dynamic political leader and a skilled social media team can work together. “Will we let the billionaires buy the keys to our city?” she asks. The video cuts to the audience, who all shout “NO!” in unison.

Continue reading “With local news in crisis, politicians who master digital storytelling can help fill the void”

We want to let you know that we have changed our plans about holding an in-person conference this March. Instead, we’re hoping to offer an all-day webinar later in the spring with an emphasis on practical skills for local news entrepreneurs. You’ll be able to learn more at our landing page, which we will update as we nail down the details.

On the latest “What Works” podcast, Dan and Ellen talk with Mike Beaudet and Lisa Thalhamer. Mike is a colleague at Northeastern, where he is a journalism professor. He is also an investigative reporter at WCVB-TV, Boston’s ABC affiliate. He’s worked in local television news for more than 30 years. Before joining WCVB-TV he was an investigative reporter and anchor at WFXT-TV in Boston.

Beaudet, the head of Northeastern’s Reinventing Local TV News project, focuses on the future of local television news and finding new ways to grow the audience and engage younger viewers where they’re consuming content. Think social and vertical.

Lisa is a journalist and researcher. She’s currently editor-in-chief of The Scope, a hyperlocal publication based at Northeastern focused on issues of social justice, as well as an adjunct professor. Her research is geared toward improving the mental well-being of journalists, particularly those in local TV news, where she worked for more than 15 years as a producer.

While earning her master’s degree at Northeastern, Thalhamer was Reinvent’s Video Innovation Scholar, helping newsrooms evolve their video storytelling skills to fit the world of social media.

In keeping with the all-Northeastern theme of this podcast, Dan and Ellen are also joined by Greg Maynard, a student of Dan’s who has written a compelling story about what cord-cutting means for local cable access outlets. Greg is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Boston Policy Institute.

Ellen has a Quick Take on the end of an era in Minneapolis. In December, the daily newspaper, The Minnesota Star Tribune, stopped printing copies at its giant brick plant in downtown Minneapolis. The Strib is printing at a Gannett plant in Des Moines, Iowa. That means earlier deadlines and 125 jobs lost.

Dan has a wild story for his Quick Take. Last summer there was some sad news coming out of Claremont, New Hampshire: the Eagle Times, a star-crossed paper that had had its ups and downs going back to the 1940s, was closing its doors after its wealthy owner, Jay Lucas, failed to meet payroll. At the time, New Hampshire Public Radio ran a story on the shutdown that was harsher than you would have expected. But it turns out that there was a reason.

You can listen to our conversation here, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcast app.

By Greg Maynard

Massachusetts is home to more than 250 local cable access stations. Bay Staters know them as the folks who videotape and broadcast local government meetings, high school sports and community public affairs shows.

But trouble is looming. For the better part of a decade, the revenue these stations depend on has been declining, and less money has led to layoffs and reduced hours for staff, mergers between operations at neighboring communities, and some closing altogether. Joe Lynch, who has been the board chair of the Somerville Media Center for 15 years, tells me: “Every we week we lose somebody.”

What is behind the decline in revenue? Cord-cutting. The drop in subscription revenue from set-top cable boxes means revenue for the stations is shrinking too. Prospects for the cable industry are bleak. As a recent analysis from the trade publication PWC says about the future of for-profit cable channels, “Operations to support the linear business will be significantly downsized, with no new investments made.” (Local access stations are also referred to as community media centers, or CMCs, and as PEG stations, for public, governmental and educational.)

Continue reading “Cord-cutting threatens local access cable. Can legislation save this vital community lifeline?”

By Dan Kennedy

Block Communications announced Wednesday that it will shut down the storied Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in May. Writing at Nieman Lab, Joshua Benton confirms what I told Charlie Wolfson of Pittsburgh’s Public Source — that an actual closure would make Pittsburgh the largest city in the U.S. without a daily newspaper.

Benton, though, expresses optimism that with the feuding Block family out of the way, the path is clearer for someone else to step in. One possibility he cites: the Lenfest Institute, a nonprofit foundation that already owns and operates the for-profit Philadelphia Inquirer on the other side of the state.

The Post-Gazette was once a great paper, winning its most recent Pultizer Prize in 2019 for its coverage of the mass shootings at the Tree of Life Synagogue. That’s when the distinguished Boston Globe alumnus David Shribman was executive editor of the paper. After he retired, though, the paper increasingly went MAGA under one faction of the Block family.

I wrote about a particularly ugly incident in 2020 for GBH News. If you’d like to know some background about what went wrong at the Post-Gazette, here is my commentary.

Read the rest at Media Nation.

Christopher Wink, the founder and CEO of Technical.ly, has written a thoughtful and nuanced review of our book, “What Works in Community News.” Technical.ly, which was launched in 2009, provides “independent coverage of state, county and regional tech, startup and innovation ecosystems.”

Wink published his review on LinkedIn — an interesting choice. Many social media folks have rediscovered LinkedIn as a place for engagement and intelligent conversation following the decline of Twitter. He writes that our book provides a useful guide to the journalism of the local independent news organizations that we profile, but he wishes we’d included more of a focus on business strategies and non-traditional ways of delivering community news and information.

“It’s a good book!,” Wink writes. “A helpful collection of well-liked efforts. I recommend it. But my local news tribe seems uninterested in the details of why other businesses work.”

It’s a fair criticism, and how can we not like a review that says “It’s a good book!”? Wink has offered us a chance to connect with him, and we welcome the opportunity.