ICT’s Mark Trahant’s $500M Vision for Local News and Information

Editor’s Note: For the past month, The Pivot Fund has been asking hyperlocal publishers how they’d spend $500 million on local news in light of philanthropic efforts to do just that. Here’s what Mark Trahant, editor-at-large of ICT, had to say.

“The idea of a $500 million investment in local journalism is invigorating – and defeating. 

It’s exciting because we have an opportunity to do this whole thing differently. To show the world what a multi-ethnic, multicultural democracy looks like and the role that journalism plays in working toward that ideal. 

The idea loses steam when I think about how the industry of journalism has never figured out the challenge, let alone the solution. Well, never, might be too strong. Fifty years ago Bob Maynard led an effort by the American Society of Newspaper Editors to reflect the country accurately. His prescient line: “This country cannot be the country we want it to be if its story is told by only one group of citizens.”

And yet legacy media, new media, the would-be next media, continue to reflect a country that no longer exists. Our newsrooms have not changed the discourse or the representation within our ranks.

So I would do this $500 million idea radically differently. I would start with the premise that this country cannot be what we want it to be unless the media tells the story of all of our citizens.

Enterprises like ICT do just that. We have hired more Native journalists in the last couple of years than the entire industry. And if we get more resources? We make representation a reality.

The modern version of ICT is only about 6 years old. Our broadcast is only 3 years old. What’s amazing to me is that we have done this all with bootstrap financing. We have raised a nickel here and there. We’ve sweated payroll. We have kept the lights on any way we can.

What if we had an angel investor? What if we could plan the next couple of years instead of the next week? 

Well, I think, the sky’s the limit now … but with a deep investment, there are so many enterprises that could represent digital and broadcast access to the truth.“

Mark Trahant
Editor at large, ICT, formerly Indian Country Today

The Haitian Times’ Garry Pierre-Pierre and Harvey World Herald’s Amethyst Davis shared their vision for investing in local news.