The Future of Local News Will Be Built on Community Trust

Ever since I shared my insights on the collapse of the Houston Landing, people have been asking me if there is a right way to fund news startups. My answer is yes, absolutely – and it starts with finding startups trusted by their communities.

My Inside Philanthropy op-ed argued that the Landing did not find a loyal audience because it was not built on a deep understanding of what the community wanted and needed. Instead, it replicated a traditional newsroom digitally, burned through $20 million in less than two years, and closed its doors.

We can’t let this failure be a reason to pull back from supporting journalism. Local news has never been more essential, with the national media so polarized and distant from the concerns of our everyday lives. As a funder with nearly 10 years of experience successfully supporting grassroots news organizations that don’t fit a traditional mold, I’m here to help.

For funders, the first thing I advise is a shift in perspective. Small, hyperlocal news outlets, some of them publishing only on social media, are writing a fresh future for local news.  News founders with credentials from big news brands have long been seen as the safe bets. But supporting nontraditional news entrepreneurs is a strong, low-risk funding strategy, because the ability to attract a loyal audience is the credential that matters most.

The reason: While major media brands were pivoting from print to digital, news consumers kept moving ahead with their habits. With the ubiquity of smartphones and social media, news organizations are competing with every other piece of information that’s at our fingertips. For local news, audiences engage with people they trust, who they feel know them and are looking out for their interests. 

Trust unearths stories that would have gone untold, like the series on domestic violence that earned Notivisón Georgia a regional Emmy, BeeTV’s coverage of the apparently racially motivated killing of Keenen Leonard in LaGrange, GA, or 285 South’s story of a driving school for immigrant women in Atlanta that was at risk of closure (the story was picked up by the Associated Press and generated enough donations to keep the school rolling).

Just as importantly, we’re seeing that local publishers can translate community trust into revenue by providing services that people want, from festivals to obituaries. Baltimore Beat has such a frothy audience that Peabody Heights Brewery invited them to brand a new beer, “The Beat Goes On.” The Courier Eco Latino, in Columbus, Georgia, expects to earn $50,000 this year through its obituary platform, which funeral homes and families have embraced as a service. 

Pasa la Voz, which started as a Spanish-language Facebook group in Savannah, GA, built a community event and music production business that was on track to earn at least $400,000 this year (though the immigration crackdown has put a damper on Hispanic community events). From breaking stories to reaching audiences to earning revenue, community trust is a competitive advantage. In fact, it’s the foundation of the new model for local news.

Trust needs to be a two-way street. High-profile ventures like the Landing can attract millions in funding while local news entrepreneurs are offered participation in startup accelerators that come with a $5,000 check. That obliges these one- or two-person shops to choose between sustaining daily operations and chasing small grants. Amethyst Davis of the Harvey World Herald, in Illinois, was only able to attend a fundraising accelerator after Pivot funding gave her the capacity to step away momentarily from daily news.

News entrepreneurs who are successfully serving marginalized communities are great investments because they know how to put every dollar to work. Take April Ross in La Grange, GA. The Pivot Fund invested in her because she managed to buy a local-access cable news station after impressing the owner with her skills breaking news on Facebook Live. Our first investment in BeeTV was $150,000, and Ross used it to hire a sports director who brought in both Black and white audiences in historically segregated La Grange. Car dealers and other local advertisers followed. 

When news organizations think first about content then engage outreach staff or social media influencers to distribute it to communities, they have it backwards. Success starts with communities, meaning successful local journalism today looks a lot like community organizing. Local news happens in WhatsApp groups, barbershops, church bulletins, low-power FM radio stations and festivals. It happens in languages other than English. It happens in ways that don’t fit neatly into funder frameworks — but meets people where they are.

So yes, there are great ways to successfully fund the future of local news and avoid inadvertently recreating the inequitable news landscape of the past. We’re happy to share The Pivot Fund’s approach with individuals and organizations that share our goal of informing and engaging communities to strengthen inclusive, multicultural democracy, because the scale of the challenge – and the opportunity – takes all of us.

1. Start by analyzing the local news landscape and learn who people trust for news and information.
2. Identify publishers who share journalistic values and are already generating revenue. Don’t limit yourself to nonprofits; fiscal sponsors exist..
3. Fund at a transformational level, meaning enough to hire one or more staff to create real change.
4. Provide culturally competent expertise in journalism, technology or business.
5. Measure success by relevance, trust and civic value, not prestige and scale, especially among communities that have been historically undervalued and underserved by traditional media.
6. Be humble–and stay proximate. Philanthropy can’t fix journalism at a distance. Real solutions emerge when funders get close to the ground. 

I’ve been focused on community trust for years, because I work with communities of color who don’t trust legacy media. Recently, others in the field have recognized the disconnect between news outlets and audiences. Some are asking if a solution is to train influencers to be journalists. 

The answer is hiding in plain sight. There are hyperlocal publishers across the country who have built loyal audiences by delivering the information they need. Most don’t look like either Woodward or Bernstein, but many have strong journalistic values. They’re used to doing a lot with a little and can turn investment into recurring revenue. If we’re going to have successful newsrooms the size of Houston Landing in the future, they will grow from these grassroots outlets we have the chance to nurture right now.

Tracie Powell is founder and CEO of The Pivot Fund, which is committed to directing $500 million to local news organizations serving historically marginalized communities. It has conducted news landscape analyses for major funders in Georgia, Minnesota, Michigan, and Illinois, and has provided grants and services to hyperlocal news outlets from Savannah, GA to Seattle, WA. The former board chair of LION Publishers and former manager of the Borealis Philanthropy Racial Equity in Journalism Fund, Powell holds degrees from Georgetown University Law Center and the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at The University of Georgia.