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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.