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Journalism lost a thousand jobs last week, a gut-wrenching cap to the loss of 40 percent of newsrooms jobs since the early '90s. It’s particularly devastating to local news. Gannett cut some 400 people, a loss that will be felt and grieved not only by journalists, but throughout states and towns losing reporters and editors, often in places where reliable local news already was getting hard to find.
But there is this, and it’s important to think about:
These cuts are falling on a different landscape now. Because civic leaders are no longer waiting for a perfect answer to the puzzle of how to pay for local news coverage. They’re moving. With tremendous resolve and no small amount of cash, people well outside of the news world are rebuilding journalism as it’s always been intended: a vital part of what makes a community. Read more about how nonprofit news is making a difference in communities across the country in my column.
I would also like to invite you to join INN in a public discussion to explore what is possible. Anyone can sign up for the INN Town Hall: Challenges & Possibilities in Nonprofit News at 1 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Feb. 13. You can register here, free.
In the meantime: To all the great journalists whose jobs have been cut, who think their communities deserve better, go talk to your town. Ask people who aren’t journalists what they need. What news do they miss? What’s going uncovered? What does independent news mean to them? What would they support, and how? For civic leaders and citizens wondering if you can build your own news source to restore local reporting, go talk with some reporters or editors. What will it take?
It is out of such conversations that new solutions to news coverage are being born.
Sue Cross
CEO and Executive Director
Institute for Nonprofit News
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