What Works: The Future of Local News

Dan Kennedy and Ellen Clegg
  • 4.9 (11)
  • NEWS COMMENTARY
What Works: The Future of Local News

From Northeastern University's School of Journalism. Local news, the bedrock of democracy, is in crisis. Dan Kennedy of Northeastern University and veteran Boston Globe editor Ellen Clegg talk to journalists, policymakers and entrepreneurs about what's working to keep local news alive.

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    Episode 95: Erica Heilman

    Dan and Ellen talk with Erica Heilman, who produces a podcast called Rumble Strip. Heilman's shows air monthly on Vermont Public and other NPR stations, as well as the BBC. Rumble Strip can also be found on all the usual podcast platforms. Her episodes range in length from a few minutes to, well, as long as they need to be! As Chelsea Edgar wrote in a profile in Seven Days Vermont, "She wants to make meandering, kaleidoscopic stories about the stuff of ordinary Vermont life." In 2020, Heilman produced a memorable pandemic miniseries, "Our Show." It featured listener-submitted recordings of life in lockdown, and it was the Atlantic's No. 1 podcast of the year. In November 2021 she produced "Finn and the Bell," the textured story of a Walden teenager who died by suicide. It won a Peabody, the highest award in broadcasting. Dan has a Quick Take about tools for local news organizations dealing with various forms of harassment. The Institute for Nonprofit News, a leading organization for hyperlocal journalism, has put together some resources. Ellen has an update on Suki Dardarian, the retiring editor and senior vice president of the Minnesota Star Tribune. She has been named the Benjamin C. Bradlee Editor of the Year by the National Press Club.

    31 min

  2. FEB 2

    Episode 94: Matt DeRienzo

    Dan and Ellen talk with Matt DeRienzo, the new director of SciLine. SciLine was founded seven years ago to make it easier for reporters to get in touch with scientists on deadline and to dig into research. And facts. The program is part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a 150-year-old organization that publishes the widely respected journal Science. Most recently, Matt has been serving as temporary executive editor of Lookout Santa Cruz, the digital daily that won a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News in 2024. He joins SciLine at an important time. The Trump Administration has suspended communications by government agencies that oversee science. Yet many newsrooms aren't equipped to cover this because they have cut back on science coverage, if they do any at all. SciLine helps reporters find expert sources and gives them the tools to interpret cutting-edge research. Matt has a staff of 14 and the organization seems poised for growth. Dab has a Quick Take that hits close to home. By the time this podcast is up, a brand-new digital-only for-profit news outlet called Gotta Know Medford should be publishing. It’s the first time the city of 60,000 has had a dedicated local news outlet in three years, after it was abandoned by Gannett. Ellen's Quick Take involves big changes in Maine. In Bangor, the Daily News, a family-owned paper, is cutting back on staff-written editorials and opening the pages up to new voices. Separately, at the National Trust for Local News, which acquired a slew of Maine papers in 2023, the CEO, Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, is stepping down.

    39 min

  3. JAN 24

    Episode 93: Alison Bethel

    Today we're talking with Alison Bethel, chief content officer and editor-in-chief for State Affairs. State Affairs is a digital-first media company that is focused on covering state governments throughout the country.  She was vice president of corps excellence at Report for America. She was also executive director of the Society of Professional Journalists, where she was only the second woman and the first person of color to serve in that capacity in 110 years. Dan has a Quick Take on a harrowing situation in Grand Junction, Colorado. A young Colorado television reporter was reportedly chased by a taxi driver who then attempted to choke him. The driver also reportedly yelled “This is Trump’s America now!” Ellen has a Quick Take on an app called WatchDuty that is providing lifesaving information to people in Los Angeles who are threatened by wildfires.

    42 min

  4. JAN 10

    Episode 92: Bill and Linda Forry

    Dan and Ellen talk with Bill and Linda Forry, co-publishers of the award-winning Reporter Newspapers in Boston. Bill serves as editor, and Linda focuses on business development and strategic partnerships. The Reporter Newspapers include the weekly Dorchester Reporter as well as Boston Irish and BostonHaitian.com. The publications and their websites are part of a media business owned and operated by the Forry family since 1973. The Forrys were recently in the news. The Reporter is one of 205 news organizations in the U.S. to win an inaugural Press Forward grant to expand coverage of Boston’s underserved communities. Dan has a Quick Take on public radio. Put bluntly, public radio is in trouble, and not just NPR, which may be our leading source of reliable free news, but also public radio stations across the country. An important recent essay in Nieman Reports argues that the way forward for public radio stations may be to double down on local news.  Ellen's Quick Take is on the NiemanLab predictions for the media industry in 2025. Every year, NiemanLab asks a select group of people what they think is coming in the next 12 months. Sam Mintz, the editor of Brookline.News, a digital outlet Ellen helped launch, is one of the prognosticators.

    45 min

  5. 12/12/2024

    Episode 91: Jeffrey Schwaner

    Ellen and Dan talk with Jeffrey Schwaner, executive editor of Cardinal News, a nonprofit digital news outlet covering Southwest Virginia. It also covers something called Southside Virginia, which is an area south of the James River, near Richmond. Since we're taping this in Boston, we'll ask him to explain their coverage area in more detail. Jeff joined Cardinal News in September after nine years as a storytelling and watchdog coach — including five years as editor — of Gannett’s two Virginia newsrooms, the News Leader in Staunton and The Progress-Index in Petersburg.  Dan has a Quick Take that explores a key question: Does a lack of local news correlate with support for Donald Trump? A new study by the Local News Initiative at Northwestern University’s Medill School finds that it does, although the writers caution that correlation is not causation.  Ellen's Quick Take is on a mysterious website that popped up in Oregon after a 147-year-old paper called the Ashland Tidings folded. Called the Daily Tidings, it recently published story after story by a reporter named Joe Minihane, who supposedly skiied, hiked and ate his way through Southern Oregon. Except Minihane is based in the UK and doesn't know how his byline got hijacked. The stories are made up, perhaps by AI.

    43 min

  6. 11/25/2024

    Episode 90: Scott Brodbeck

    Dan and Ellen talk with Scott Brodbeck, founder and CEO of Local News Now. Many of the news entrepreneurs on this podcast lead nonprofits. Local News Now is a for-profit. Scott owns and operates local news websites in three big Northern Virginia suburbs: Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax County. Dan has a Quick Take about a corporate newspaper owner that is making a big bet on growth at a major metropolitan newspaper. In Georgia, Cox Enterprises is making a $150 million bet that it can transform The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. If Cox is successful, it might serve as a model for other corporate newspaper owners. Ellen has a Quick Take about a piece in the New Yorker by a writer named Nathan Heller. At first glance, it doesn't seem to relate to local news. In fact, the title is pretty wonky: The Republican Victory and the Ambience of Information. But Heller has some smart observations about how information travels in a viral age.

    35 min

  7. 11/12/2024

    Episode 89: Sonal Shah

    Dan and Ellen talk with Sonal Shah, the CEO of the Texas Tribune, a pioneering nonprofit newsroom. Shah, a Houston native and first-generation immigrant, took over as CEO in January 2023 after co-founder Evan Smith decided to move on. Shah is part of a major transition at the Tribune, and brings broad experience in government, the private sector, and philanthropy. She is a trained economist who worked on the Obama presidential transition team, she worked in philanthropy for Google, and she was national policy director for Pete Buttigieg's run for president. Dan has a Quick Take about Advance Local, a local news chain in New Jersey that is ending print editions and going fully digital.  Ellen's Quick Take is on the Minnesota Star Tribune's editorial non-endorsement in the presidential race and an alternative endorsement of Kamala Harris written on a blog by former Strib staffers.

    39 min

  8. 10/18/2024

    Episode 88: April Alonso

    Dan and Ellen talk with April Alonso, co-founder and digital editor of Cicero Independiente outside of Chicago. Cicero Independiente and MuckRock won the 2024 Victor McElheny Award for Local Science Journalism, awarded by MIT's Knight Science Journalism Program, for an investigation of air quality called "The Air We Breathe."  April has an extensive background as a multimedia content creator. She was a multimedia fellow for the Chicago Reporter, and served as a multimedia content creator for La Verdad, a bilingual podcast.  Dan has a Quick Take about a town north of Vancouver, in British Columbia, that has learned a bitter lesson about Canada’s law forcing Facebook’s parent company, Meta, to pay for news. The law has led to a rise in disinformation with fewer effective ways to combat it. Meta’s greed is at the heart of this, of course. But so, too, is the failure of government officials to realize that their proposed solution to help local news outlets would backfire in an ugly way. Ellen's Quick Take is on a new philanthropic fund created by the Minnesota Star Tribune. It's called the Local News Fund, and it is soliciting donations supporting statewide journalism that will be matched by a $500,000 grant from a Minnesota foundation.

    34 min
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4.9
out of 5
11 Ratings

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From Northeastern University's School of Journalism. Local news, the bedrock of democracy, is in crisis. Dan Kennedy of Northeastern University and veteran Boston Globe editor Ellen Clegg talk to journalists, policymakers and entrepreneurs about what's working to keep local news alive.

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