What Works in Community News (2024)

Coming in January 2024 from Beacon Press: “What Works in Community News: Media Startups, News Deserts, and the Future of the Fourth Estate,” by Ellen Clegg and Dan Kennedy. A groundbreaking study of the journalism startups that are solving the local news crisis one community at a time, “What Works in Community News” will be a must-read for activists, entrepreneurs, and journalists who want to start local news outlets in their communities.

Local news is essential to democracy. Meaningful participation in civic life is impossible without it. However, local news is in crisis. According to one widely cited study, some 2,500 newspapers have closed over the last generation. And it is often marginalized communities of color who have been left without the day-to-day journalism they need to govern themselves in a democracy.

Veteran journalists Ellen Clegg and Dan Kennedy cut through the pessimism surrounding this issue, showing readers that new, innovative journalism models are popping up across the country to fill news deserts and empower communities.

“A fresh, optimistic, and necessary exploration of what really works in the crucially important realm of local news.” — Margaret Sullivan, author of “Ghosting the News”