Local News

Urgent Calls to Action from the Local News Summit

This is a moment of urgency for journalists as the Trump administration attacks major news organizations and blocks access to reporters.

A photo of attendees at the 2025 Local News Summit.

Elections, AI, Mergers, and Investments

Lessons from the 3rd annual Local News Summit show how local news leaders are tackling the challenges of our time.

A group photo of attendees at the Local News Summit.

How Local Journalism Can Bring Communities Together

MIT Center for Constructive Communication Director Deb Roy explains how the caricatures Republicans and Democrats paint of each other diverge from reality, and the ways local newsrooms can leverage their “trust capital” and emerging technology to promote listening and understanding amid disagreement.

Partnerships and Collaboration

National Trust for Local News CEO & Co-Founder Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro argues for taking an ecosystem approach to local news and highlights impactful industry collaborations across the US, advising how newsrooms can make use of available tools and build new resources.

Funding and Revenue Models

Lenfest Institute Executive Director & CEO Jim Friedlich explores how nonprofit and for-profit newsrooms can learn from one another and blend their approaches to funding.

Healing Polarized Communities

The 19th* Co-Founder & Publisher Amanda Zamora discusses the real-life harms of polarization, the struggles of local news, and what outlets can do to help bridge communal divides.

Designing for Community

URL Media Co-Founder & CEO S. Mitra Kalita questions the definition of “local news” and synthesizes recommendations for how outlets can meet the needs of their audiences and scale their impact.

Signposts for the Future of Local News

The crisis in local news has accelerated rapidly in recent years. Just how stark is the situation? Between late 2019 and May 2022, more than 360 American newspapers closed — and on average two papers per week continue to shutter across the country, according to Northwestern University’s Medill School. The decline of local news is deeply disturbing, but the prospects for emerging solutions are encouraging. Today, we’re publishing a series of essays from industry leaders that will serve as Signposts for the Future to help newsrooms answer the question, “What now?”

Local news is critical infrastructure. It’s time we treat it that way.

Local media and civic institutions must support one another’s mission if they are to serve the community and its informational, multilingual, and multicultural needs. 

The Crisis in Local News

MAY 6, 2020 – Local news, in crisis before the pandemic, is now facing a cataclysm. At stake is not just jobs, but the access to critic al trustworthy information for millions of Americans.