Editorials aren’t the only way for local news outlets to engage with their communities

Ken Paulson, the former editor-in-chief of USA Today, has written a lament for the decline of newspaper editorials. Now the director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, Paulson argues in The Conversation that editorials are a key part of civic engagement. He bolsters his case by quoting the renowned Kansas publisher William Allen White:

The editorial is the soul of the newspaper. Maybe the heart and the soul. And on a good newspaper that knows and understands and loves its hometown, or its home country, the editorial is the heart of the town, or nation as well.

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But though Paulson correctly identifies the rise of corporate newspaper ownership as a key factor in the decline of editorials, he misses something less malign and equally important: the rise of nonprofit local news organizations. Under the law, nonprofits can’t endorse political candidates or take positions on ballot questions lest they lose their tax exemption. In practice, the vast majority of nonprofits have eschewed editorials altogether.

In 2009, I asked Paul Bass, the founder of the New Haven Independent, whether he missed writing endorsements. The Independent is a pioneering digital nonprofit; previously, Bass was at the now-defunct New Haven Advocate, an alt-weekly that freely mixed reporting, voice and opinion. I quoted Bass in my 2013 book, “The Wired City”:

I’ve written endorsements. It’s a fun way to make a statement, what your paper stands for. But the way journalism is evolving, who cares? One journalist’s opinion of who to vote for is so meaningless. We’re getting to be more important in helping people sift through the information on the Web, less important in terms of trying to convince them to do things. I love that. I have no desire to write an endorsement editorial ever again in my life.

There are roughly 500 news organizations that belong to the Institute for Nonprofit News. In many cases, a nonprofit startup is the news source of record in a given community. And they have to be very careful if they want to editorialize lest they run afoul of the IRS. What’s the difference between an editorial criticizing an elected official and endorsing their opponent? It can be a fine line.

In 2022, Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby debated with Ellen Clegg and me about endorsements on our “What Works” podcast. Jeff was against them; Ellen, a former Globe editorial page editor, was for them. I took a middle view, arguing that endorsements at the local level, which often feature little-known candidates for obscure offices, can be valuable. Ellen is also a co-founder of the nonprofit Brookline.News, so she’s had to get used to the idea of a news outlet giving up the right to endorse.

There are some editors who resist going fully nonprofit largely because they want to be able to express their opinions freely. For instance, Ellen and I featured Art Cullen, the publisher and editor of the Storm Lake Times Pilot in Iowa, in our book, “What Works in Community News.” In 2017, Cullen won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing. Despite immense financial challenges, Cullen and his family have maintained the Times Pilot as a for-profit enterprise, although they do work with a nonprofit arm to support some of their journalism. Here’s what Cullen told us on our podcast in 2021:

One problem is that if the newspaper itself went nonprofit, like The Salt Lake Tribune did in Utah, then you can’t endorse. You cannot endorse candidates or take positions on, like, a school bond issue, and we think that’s really important. We reserve the right to issue our opinions as we see fit, and I just have a philosophical objection to that part of the nonprofit requirement. This model allows us more freedom to express ourselves, as appropriate under the First Amendment.

Now, there’s no question that strong, local opinion journalism can help foster a civic conversation. As Ellen wrote for our What Works website, media scholar Joshua Darr and his colleagues conducted a study several years ago that showed a measurable decline in political polarization at a newspaper that dropped nationally syndicated opinion content for one month and replaced it with local op-eds. Their conclusion: “While it may not cure all of the imbalances and inequities in opinion journalism, an opinion page that ignores national politics could help local newspapers push back against political polarization.” (Darr was on our podcast in 2022.)

Paulson has three worthwhile recommendations to revive editorials: publish them only as needed; create a community advisory board; and collaborate with other news outlets to conduct joint endorsement interviews. But leaving aside the reality that very few communities have more than one news outlet (if that), the ship that Paulson would like to rig out has sailed. And it has at least as much to do with the tax challenges of operating a nonprofit news organization as it does with corporate chain ownership.

So what can a forward-thinking local news organization do to harness opinion in building civic engagement? One solution — and one that many pursue — is to have several folks with different points of view write regular commentaries on local issues. Readers relate more to the personal touch than they do to “Voice of God” anonymous editorials. Rather than endorse candidates, query candidates on the issues and put together a grid, as Jacoby suggested. I would add: Do it early in the campaign and link to it in every story.

More than anything, local news organizations need to listen, through their websites, through social media, through events, and through a variety of outreach opportunities such as farmers markets. It may not be as fun as telling your audience how to vote, but in the long run it does more to build community — and, ultimately, to build a thriving news outlet.