Preserving the local in local news with the National Trust for Local News’ Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro

In this episode, I sit down with Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, CEO and co-founder of the National Trust for Local News, to discuss the vital work they're doing in preserving and evolving local news across the country. Elizabeth, with her background as a Harvard Business School-trained academic ("failed academic" in her words, since she's now actively working in the field), brings a unique and insightful perspective to our conversation. I was particularly excited to step back and geek out a little to apply business theory to the challenges and opportunities in local news.

We cover a range of topics, from the importance of community weeklies and the criteria used to select titles for investment, to the progress of ongoing initiatives and finding the right balance between local ownership and the efficiencies of larger news chains. We also discuss the relationship between mission and profit in the news industry, and what wild success for local news could look like five years down the line. By incorporating business concepts such as jobs to be done, localism, and Clayton Christensen’s disruptive innovation theory, we offer a fresh lens through which to view the future of local journalism.

Episode chapters:

(02:32) - The National Trust’s mission and why legacy news might be worth preserving

(07:12) - The importance of community weeklies

(11:41) - Evaluating titles for investment

(14:38) - How current projects are doing

(17:01) - Local involvement/ownership and benefiting from chain-like scale

(22:09) - Other lessons learned

(23:28) - The mission/profit relationship

(28:08) - What does wild success look like in five years?

(29:49) - Business theory applied to local news: business models

(33:18) - Business theory applied to local news: jobs to be done and localism

(37:54) - Business theory applied to local news: Clayton Chrstensen’s disruptive innovation theory

(44:21) - Business theory applied to local news: false rigor

(47:37) - Rapid-fire questions

Links:

• National Trust for Local News: web, LinkedIn, Instagram, Medium, Twitter/X

• Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro: LinkedIn, Twitter/X

• Mentioned:

• Colorado Community Media

• Maine Trust for Local News

• CUNY Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism’s Executive Education Program in News Innovation and Leadership

• Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University

• Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy 

• Membership Puzzle Project’s Guide to Membership

• Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society

• Harvard Business School

• Democracy Fund 

• KERA

• Denton Record-Chronicle

• Press Forward