What Works – Media Nation

The New York Times discovers Maine’s Midcoast Villager. Here’s the rest of the story.

*Camden, Maine, home of the Midcoast Villager. Photo (cc) 2020 by Paul VanDerWerf.*

The Midcoast Villager, an innovative weekly newspaper based in Camden, Maine, got The New York Times treatment last week. But though the Times lavished attention on the high-profile journalists who’ve been recruited to work there as well as the café it’s opened to extend public outreach, it missed entirely the Villager’s long history as a tech innovator — a history that extends all the way to the present.

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The Times article and visuals, by Steven Kurutz and Cig Harvey, are certainly entertaining enough, starting with their portrayal of deputy editor Alex Seitz-Wald, who left a job covering Washington for NBC News to come to Maine. “I did an insane thing,” he tells the Times. “I left one of the last stable jobs in media and took a job in the worst sector of media — and possibly in the economy.”

Continue reading “The New York Times discovers Maine’s Midcoast Villager. Here’s the rest of the story.”

Ellen Clegg digs into a claim of censorship at the Daily Memphian — and finds a more complex story

*President Trump signs order to send National Guard troops to Memphis. Photo via the White House.*

On Friday, Memphis journalist Dan Conaway took to Facebook and leveled a sensational charge on his public feed: that the Daily Memphian, a high-profile nonprofit startup, had censored a column he’d written about Donald Trump’s decision to send National Guard troops to the city.

“I have left the Daily Memphian,” Conaway posted on his public feed. “They refused to run my column this week. Too critical of Trump, they said. Trump is not local, they said. This week, of all weeks, Trump is not local? Enough, I said.”

My What Works colleague, Ellen Clegg, took a deep dive into what had happened — and discovered that the Memphian had actually edited out a racist trope that Conaway inserted into the original version of his column.

Ellen has all the details at What Works.

Tracy Baim tells us about the LGBTQ+ Mapping Project and her work with Press Forward Chicago

On the latest “What Works” podcast, Ellen Clegg and I talk with Tracy Baim, a Chicago-based journalist who directed the recently published LGBTQ+ Media Mapping Project, which tracks LGBTQ news outlets across the country.

The LGBTQ+ Media Mapping Project was created in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, the Local Media Foundation, News Is Out and the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. The project surfaced 107 LGBTQ media outlets in total, 80 of which responded to the survey.

According to the accompanying report: “While they may have few similarities, there are several common denominators: Most are in need of additional resources to better cover their communities, and most are facing strong headwinds as advertising and sponsors reverse course, pulling back from diverse marketing efforts.”

*Baim interviewing Chicago Mayor Harold Washington in his City Hall office in 1987. Photo by William Burks / Windy City Times. Used with permission.*

Baim is also the executive director of Press Forward Chicago, the local arm of a national philanthropic effort to address the community news crisis.

I’ve got a Quick Take about the state of Kansas, where authorities have banned print newspapers in prisons, a ban that affects some 9,000 inmates in 20 correctional facilities. Weirdly enough, officials have not banned digital newspapers, although, as media commentator Bo Sacks observes, “Most Kansas inmates have limited or no meaningful internet access.”

Ellen’s Quick Take is on a column in The Minnesota Star Tribune written by Steve Grove, the CEO and publisher. He writes about the “stabilizing power of quality journalism” and announces a new team in the newsroom devoted to investigative reporting. But he also announces the outsourcing of the Strib’s print product, which means job losses.

You can listen to our conversation here, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcast app.

Mapping LGBTQ media; plus, news behind bars, going mobile and some well-deserved recognition

*Click on image for the interactive version of the map.*

A new grant-supported project tracks LGBTQ media projects across the country.

According to News Is Out, the LGBTQ+ Media Mapping Project “offers the first in-depth look at the scope, impact and urgent needs of local LGBTQ+ media across the United States. The report shows how these vital outlets, from one-person operations to established multimedia platforms, face shrinking advertising revenue, little foundation support and growing external threats, even as their audiences surge.”

The project was created in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, the Local Media Foundation, News Is Out and the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

Continue reading “Mapping LGBTQ media; plus, news behind bars, going mobile and some well-deserved recognition”

How our What Works project tracks solutions to the local news crisis

*Photo by Peggy and Marco Lachmann-Anke via Pixabay*

Nearly four years ago, Ellen Clegg and I began tracking solutions to the local news crisis with our podcast, “What Works: The Future of Local News.” Our first guest was Lori Ehrlich, at that time a state representative who was working to launch a commission to study the state of community journalism in Massachusetts and make some recommendations.

The commission has twice failed to achieve liftoff, but Ellen and I have built a multidimensional project. We wrote a well-received book, “What Works in Community News,” which was published by Beacon Press in 2024. And we are involved in other ways as well.

Today the What Works project, which is part of Northeastern University’s School of Journalism and affiliated with the university’s Center for Transformative Media, comprises several different initiatives:

- Our website, where we post updates to the projects that we write about in our book, new episodes of our podcast, and news and commentary about other developments in local news.
- Our podcast, on which we interview enterpreneurs and thought leaders on an every-other-week basis. We’ll be back later this month with our 105th episode following a summer hiatus.
- Our Bluesky feed, where we link to coverage and smaller items that don’t quite meet the criteria for a full blog post. If you’re not interested in joining Bluesky, you’ll find our news feed embedded on the website. If you’re reading What Works on your laptop, just cast your eyes to the right.
- A database of independent local news organizations in Massachusetts. Although much of our work is national in scope, we also believe we can offer unique value to the grassroots journalism community right here at home. Look for links to “Mass. Indy News” in the upper right corner of this blog and at the What Works website. You can also bookmark it at tinyurl.com/mass-indy-news.
- Speaking appearances at which we talk about our book and evangelize about the future of local news. We also engage in ad hoc consulting with the leaders of news projects that are either startups or moving in new directions.
- Gatherings for local news leaders both in person and via webinar. We’re already planning our second in-person conference, which will be held next year on Friday, March 13.

Ellen and I are trying to build something of lasting value and to push back against the narrative that local news is dead. Through independent community control and innovative nonprofit and for-profit business models, we believe the local news crisis is being solved one community at a time.

How Fall River’s sparse news ecosystem is responding to the tragic Gabriel House fire

The tragic fire in Fall River, Massachusetts, which claimed the lives of nine residents at an assisted living facility, is a significant news story not just locally but nationally. Broadcast networks and The New York Times have all weighed in with coverage.

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But the story is also playing out in a community whose own news ecosystem is shaky. The Boston Globe and local television news have made it their top story, but what about Fall River-based news organizations? Northeastern journalism student Alexa Coultoff took a look at how Fall River gets its news and wrote up her findings for our What Works project on local journalism earlier this year. She also appeared on our podcast.

What she found was that the legacy paper, The Herald News, had been hollowed out by its corporate chain owner, Gannett, and that perhaps the most reliable source of coverage was produced by the public access cable channel, hosted by Bristol Community College.

Yet the fire is getting solid coverage at the local level. Despite its small staff, The Herald News has published multiple stories. Today’s front page is taken up entirely by the fire, with reports on the firefighters union’s concerns about staffing, how local hospitals responded, and how survivors are coping. Inside there’s a sidebar on who owns the assisted living facility, known as Gabriel House.

A digital news organization called the Fall River Reporter, which Alexa described as a breaking news service for the city and a number of other communities, has had some coverage as well, with stories by former Herald News reporter Jo Goode and local journalist Ken Paiva as well as from State House News Service.

The public access outlet, Fall River Community Media, has posted quite a bit of information on its Facebook page, including the video of a news conference by Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon and updates from the city, the United Way and the firefighters union.

The fire at Gabriel House is a community tragedy, and the way these stories are told is a reflection of civic health and engagement. Despite lacking the resources of the Boston-based media, Fall River’s information providers are giving a voice to officials and residents rather than relying on outsiders to tell their story.

More: Fall River has an independent radio station, WSAR, which broadcasts at AM 1480 and 95.9 FM. The website carries some links to coverage from other outlets, but the station has also broadcast segments on the fire.

Katherine Ann Rowlands on how she acquired The Mendocino Voice and took it nonprofit

Katherine Ann Rowlands. 2017 photo by Cali Godley.

On the latest “What Works” podcast, Ellen Clegg and I talk with Katherine Ann Rowlands, who runs the Bay City News Foundation. The foundation is a nonprofit that publishes journalism for the Greater San Francisco Bay Area at LocalNewsMatters.org and The Mendocino Voice. And by the way, this is our last podcast until September.

The Bay City News Foundation acquired The Mendocino Voice and took it nonprofit a little more than a year ago. I reported on the Voice for our book, “What Works in Community News,” and was visiting in March 2020 when … well, you know what happened next. At that time, co-founders Kate Maxwell and Adrian Fernandez Baumann were hoping to turn the nominally for-profit operation into a cooperatively owned venture, but COVID sidetracked those plans. Maxwell and Baumann have since moved on, and Rowlands has some pointed observations about why there have been no successful examples of local-news co-ops.

Rowlands also is owner and publisher of Bay City News, a regional news wire supplying original journalism for the whole media ecosystem in her area, from TV to start-up digital outlets.

The first-ever COVID news conference in Mendocino County, Calif., on March 5, 2020. Mendocino Voice co-founder Adrian Fernandez Baumann is shooting video and co-founder Kate Maxwell, seated, wearing blue and off to the right, is taking notes. Photo (cc) 2020 by Dan Kennedy.

I’ve got a Quick Take about the New England Muzzle Awards. Since 1998 I’ve been writing an annual Fourth of July roundup of outrages against free speech and freedom of expression in New England during the previous year, first for the late, lamented Boston Phoenix, later for GBH News and now for my blog, Media Nation. This is the 27th annual edition.

Ellen reports on the death of Nancy Cassutt, a newsroom leader at Minnesota Public Radio and American Public Media’s “Marketplace.” Nancy was a driving force in helping Mukhtar Ibrahim get Sahan Journal off the ground.

You can listen to our conversation here, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcast app.

Stacy Feldman tells us how her Boulder nonprofit responded to a recent antisemitic attack

Three journalists from the Boulder Reporting Lab at a news conference held by Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn hours after a recent antisemitic terrorist attack. Founder and publisher Stacy Feldman, arms folded, is wearing a green cap. Next to her, wearing a striped blue shirt, is reporter Brooke Stephenson. Senior reporter John Herrick is wearing a tan T-shirt and holding a notebook. Photo courtesy of Stacy Feldman.

On the latest “What Works” podcast, Ellen Clegg and I talk with Stacy Feldman, founder and publisher of the Boulder Reporting Lab, a nonprofit newsroom covering Boulder, Colorado. She launched the Lab in late 2021 to fill critical gaps in news coverage in a state where newspapers have been gobbled up by Alden Global Capital, a secretive hedge fund. Alden is known for gutting papers, not growing them.

Stacy was co-founder and executive editor of Inside Climate News, a Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit newsroom focused on the climate crisis. She developed her plans for the Boulder Reporting Lab during a fellowship at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her newsroom has provided crucial reporting on the recent antisemitic terrorist attack in Boulder.

I’ve got a Quick Take later on a huge threat to one of the most important cogs in the regional news ecosystem — public radio and television, which face huge cuts after the Republican-led House voted recently to cancel $1.1 billion in funding over the next two years that it had previously approved. Now the measure moves to the Senate, which has to take a vote on it by mid-July. Regardless of what happens, this is the closest public media has ever come to an extinction-level event.

Ellen’s Quick Take is on local news coverage of the assassination of a Minnesota legislator and her husband. Minnesota news consumers have a lot of great media options, and these newsrooms stepped up big-time to cover this crisis.

You can listen to our conversation here, or you can subscribe through your favorite podcast app.

Ellen Clegg describes the challenge facing Minnesota’s local media following a political assassination

Melissa Hortman in a 2021 public domain photo

My What Works partner Ellen Clegg has written a must-read piece on how local newsrooms in Minnesota are responding to the assassination of Melissa Hortman, a member and former speaker of the Minnesota House.

Hortman and her husband, Mark, were fatally shot while another public official, state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, suffered serious but non-fatal gunshot wounds. The gunman, identified as Vance Boelter, remains at large as of 5:10 p.m.

While a larger news outlet like The Minnesota Star Tribune has the reporting capacity to cover a big breaking-news story like this, Ellen writes that smaller outlets, often launched with a handful of journalists, now find themselves scrambling to keep up.

She puts it this way: “An all-hands national news story like this poses a core question for hyperlocal newsrooms, which typically launch with smaller staffs and a tightly focused mission of covering neighborhood people, politics and policies.”

Congratulations to NABJ Hall of Fame inductees Callie Crossley and Greg Moore

Congratulations to the new inductees to the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame — and especially Callie Crossley and Greg Moore.

Callie is an old friend from “Beat the Press” days on GBH-TV as well as a regular guest speaker in my opinion journalism class. She was also a guest on our podcast, “What Works: The Future of Local News,” to talk about her GBH Radio program, “Under the Radar with Callie Crossley,” and her radio essays.

I interviewed Greg, who I knew from his years at The Boston Globe, about the Denver media scene for our book, “What Works in Community News.” After leaving the Globe, Greg served as the longtime editor of The Denver Post, moving on in the face of devastating cuts imposed by the paper’s hedge-fund owner. He’s also been on our podcast.