Editor and Publisher Reports

The Word in Black website states a mission: "To be the most trusted news and information source for, about, and by Black people.”   Founded on June 7, 2021, just after the entire world witnessed the tragic death of George Floyd, 10 of the nation's most prestigious Black legacy newspaper publishers joined together to launch a collaborative online news presence to work together to serve their local readers and combine their resources and content into a single branded platform.   Word in Black was initially incubated inside the Local Media Foundation (LMF), a 501(c)(3) organization affiliated with the Local Media Association. As of January 1, 2024, as part of the original plan, the foundation has sold the assets to Word in Black's newly formed public benefit company. It will continue to provide support as a shareholder in the new entity.   Today, Word in Black boasts a newsroom with 10 full-time journalists and freelancers covering topics including health, education, finance, climate justice, religion and more —

Chris Lytle, best-selling author of "The Accidental Salesperson" and "The Accidental Sales Manager," walked into an am radio station in 1972 with a political science degree, hoping to secure a news reporting job. The manager stated that the newsroom was full and offered Chris a sales job, which he accepted. That changed the course of his career forever. Ten years later, after mastering the art of media sales, he started his own consulting business, Instant Sales Training. It has helped thousands of reps excel and hundreds of media companies grow their top-line revenues through decades of industry change and disruption. Chris states on his website that he has a mission to "make successful people and companies even more successful." He advises you to "choose to become an expert. Become known for what you know and not just what you sell, and watch your sales, customer retention and referrals go through the roof."  After conducting more than 2200 seminars throughout the English-speaking world through the decade

Rick Goldsmith’s website: New Day Films states that his mission as a filmmaker is to “tell stories that encourage social engagement and active participation in community life and the democratic process, and to stimulate young minds to question the world around them.” And when one watches his latest work: “Stripped for Parts: American Journalism at the Crossroads,” a 90-minute documentary that tells the tale of how hedge fund Alden Global Capital’s entry into the news publishing industry has dismantled local newspapers “piece by piece,” creating a crises within the communities they serve, leaving “news deserts” and “ghost papers” in their wake. A posted synopsis about the film by Goldsmith, states “Ours is a cautionary tale: What is lost when billionaires with no background nor interest in a civic mission, who are only concerned with profiteering, take over our most influential news organizations? What new models of news gathering, and dissemination show promise for our increasingly digital age? What can the p

In late November, the entire news publishing industry was surprised to hear that Canada's government reached a deal with Google for the company to contribute $100 million Canadian annually to the country's news industry to comply with Canada’s Online News Act (Bill c-18), requiring tech companies to pay publishers for their content. Actual verbiage on the government's website pages that describe the bill read, "News outlets play a vital role in maintaining a healthy democracy. News and journalism serve to inform communities, drive civic engagement, and counter the rise of disinformation. Our news industry fosters an informed citizenry by providing them with critical information that helps them fully benefit and participate in a democratic society. The Online News Act aims to ensure that dominant platforms compensate news businesses when their content is made available on their services.” In March 2021, Australia became the first country to use competition law to push Google and then Facebook to pay for news.

Shannon Kinney is the founder and client success officer of Dream Local Digital, a digital marketing agency headquartered in Rockland, Maine. Dream Local Digital works with newspapers, media companies, ad agencies and directly with small to medium-sized businesses on all aspects of their online marketing plans. Kinney is also a news media digital pioneer who has held start-up positions at some of the industry's most iconic legacy brands, such as the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, over the past 25 years. She was also on the cusp of helping move traditional classified advertising into the worldwide web. Kinney worked in the late nineties at Cars.com and later as Senior Director of Classifieds of Knight Ridder. She has also helped develop new industry initiatives as a Local Media Association board member. Today, hundreds of media companies turn to Kinney and her "honey badgers" team for advice, training and product development, helping thousands of businesses acquire essential multimedia solutions. Rece

Recent reports concerning the future of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) have stated, with one September post from NiemanLab saying that both membership and revenues are so low that the organization is set to "end the year $391,000 in the red," according to an audit prepared by an external accountant and dated August 2023. The same article by Sarah Scire featured the sub-head, "If we don’t change our thinking, the next incoming president will be the last president.” That new president was sworn in at the October 1, 2023, annual convention in Las Vegas. She is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, journalism professor and associate dean for the Center for Media Design at the Santa Monica College, Ashanti Blaize-Hopkins. Hopkins also made history on that date as the first black woman ever to be elected to that post. Hopkins feels confident that the financial issues reported are not insurmountable, stating during this interview with E&P Publisher Mike Blinder, "I can firmly and unequivocally say t

Martin (“Marty”) Baron may be best known in pop culture as a character played by actor Liv Schreiber in the 2015 Academy Award Winning film “Spotlight," which re-told the story of the Globe's 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporting on the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandals. But many in our industry followed Baron closely years later when he moved from the Globe to The Washington Post, succeeding Marcus Brauchli in 2013 as executive editor. Shortly after the move, the Graham family announced they were selling the Post to Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. During the following years, under Baron's leadership, The Post received 10 Pulitzers — four for national reporting, two for explanatory reporting, and single wins for investigative reporting, criticism, feature photography and public service. Some of the major stories the Post broke included coverage of the US Secret Service's security lapses, revealing Roy Moore’s sexual misconduct, plus constant, ongoing investigation of the Trump campaign an

In mid-November, the Medill School of Journalism, Media, and Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University issued its annual  "State of Local News Project" report, which now counts 6,000 newspapers in the United States, which comprises approximately 1,200 dailies and 4,790 weeklies. This year, the study also reported on 550 digital-only local news outlets, 700 ethnic media organizations and 225 public broadcasting stations producing original local news. The report's executive summary stated, "There was both good news and bad news for local journalism this past year. The good news raised the possibility that a range of proposals and programs could begin to arrest the steep loss of local news over the past two decades and, perhaps, revive journalism in some places that have lost their news. The headlines on the bad news resoundingly conveyed the message that urgent action is needed in many venues — from boardrooms to the halls of Congress — and by many, including civic-minded organizations and

On September 11, 2023, Jason Sethre, publisher of the Fillmore County (MN) Journal, posted an op-ed with the headline: "One Moment, Please… Hutchinson News in Kansas or Minnesota?" Within the piece, he reported that subscribers to the Hutchinson (KS) News were greeted one day with a front page showing a group of senior citizens having an outing on a lake in Hutchinson, Minnesota, with a headline of a story showing how the Hutchinson Senior Center keeps seniors busy with an array of activities… in Hutchinson, Minnesota. With a sartorial slant, Sethre wrote, "Apparently, The Hutchinson News in Hutchinson, Kansas, covers stories about what's happening in Hutchinson, Minnesota — 628 miles away.”  However, he explained to his readers how once-thriving newspapers, bought by large corporations (in this case, Gannett), have downsized operations so much that there is minimal local reporting, and mistakes such as this made by an out-of-town editor can happen. Sethre wrote, "For the community of Hutchinson, Kansas, it's

Friday, October 13th, 2023, was a scary day for the citizens of Meeker, the largest town in Colorado's Rio Blanco County, nestled on the Rockies' western slope, with a population of slightly over 6,500. It was on this day that Niki Turner and Caitlin Walker, the mother and daughter owners of the area's primary local news source, the Rio Blanco Herald Times, sent out an email with the subject line: "Crisis alert: Save your community paper." Within this ominous message, Niki and Caitlin revealed to their community the harsh realities of local news publishing and their own newspaper's critical financial status. They admitted that the operation only had enough money left to publish two more issues of the weekly newspaper and stated that they would shut down on October 26th. Unlike most businesses (and newspapers) who would fear revealing such a poor bottom line to their customers, these publishers decided that an honest, open, truthful message was the right thing to do as a warning that Rio Blanco would soon be

Ryan Dohrn is an Emmy award-winning, globally recognized media revenue consultant who has worked with hundreds of media companies, trained over 30,000 ad sales reps, and, through his proven sales training methods, has helped create over half a billion dollars in new sales and event sponsorship. Holding a Psychology of Leadership Certification from Cornell University, Dohrn’s resume includes time in promotions and sales at The NY Times Company, Disney, Cumulus, Citadel Comm, Vance Publishing, Morris Publishing, and PennWell.  His latest best-selling book, "Selling Forward," offers proven sales advice and methods to reinvent a company’s approach when “selling to emotionally drained, inbox-dazed, virtual meeting-bored, sales-resistant customers in a post-pandemic fatigued business world.” Dhorn is also the president/founder of Brain Swell Media, a boutique revenue strategy, sales training, and coaching firm. Plus, he is the owner/CEO of Niche Media, an organization that hosts events focused on helping publisher

Morgantown, North Carolina, the county seat of Burke County, is now a two-paper town. The nonprofit The Paper proudly reports local news online and in a weekly, Saturday-home-delivery, 30-plus-page full-color print product.   Founder and Publisher Allen VanNoppen is no stranger to news media, having spent his first years out of college as a reporter for the then family-owned local newspaper of record, The Morgantown News Herald, and later at the nearby Greensboro (NC) News & Record. Continuing to write a weekly syndicated column, he left his full-time work as a journalist in 1985 to enter the business world, eventually opening a local marketing agency his children now run. However, as he watched the News Herald be bought and sold over the years, finally being corporately downsized by Lee Enterprises, in August of 2022, he started Morganton Media Group, LLC (MMG) with a dba of The Paper. The Paper's website states they’re a “blend of a registered LLC with nonprofit 501(c)3 fiscal sponsors.” And “will be ow

Borrell Associates has been tracking U.S. advertising since 2001, providing data that encompasses every facet of local marketing expenditures, including promotions, marketing services, research, public relations, loyalty marketing and digital services. Recently, Borrell released its 2024 forecasts revealing that U.S. local advertising will grow a healthy 4.4% in 2024 to $157.1 billion. On top of that, Borrell’s recent “Business Barometer” showed a strong uptick in local advertiser optimism about the 2023 holiday shopping season and the general economy. There was also good news for legacy media providers, such as newspapers, radio and TV, forecasting a moderation in previous years' declines. Along with the forecast for 2024, Borrell just released the data from their survey conducted in the second quarter 0f 2023, which included advertising insights collected from over 2,000 respondents. One of the major takeaways from this August 2023 report is a major decrease in respondents who consider themselves "novices"

On January 31, 2022, some would say industry history was made when Chicago Public Media, owners of the PBS affiliate WBEZ announced the acquisition of the iconic, daily tabloid: The Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago Public Media raised $61 million in multiyear philanthropic commitments for the acquisition and then transitioned the publication to nonprofit ownership. At the time of the announcement the New York Times reported that the merger of: “The hard-hitting tone of tabloid journalism and the measured voice of public radio make for an unlikely combination.” Tim Franklin, senior associate dean of Northwestern University’s Medill journalism school and the former president of the Poynter Institute stated: “It’s kind of hard to overstate how profound this development is. I think in some ways it could be a model for the nation.” Just a few months later, more industry “history” was made with the announcement of the hiring of Jennifer Kho, former managing editor of HuffPost and Guardian US, as the paper’s executive

On July 17th, 2023, Bedford County, Tennessee, and its county seat of Shelbyville lost their 149-year-old newspaper of record, the Times-Gazette, as Holler Media locked the doors and fired the staff of all six community publications they owned that served counties around Nashville. Within a matter of just a few weeks, Morristown, Tennessee-based Lakeway Publishers, who owns and operates nine other community newspapers in the state plus others in Missouri and Virginia, had hired a number of the Holler staff. They also announced they were starting two new publications — The Bedford County Post and The Marshall County Post — to provide news coverage to the Shelbyville and Lewisburg, Tennessee areas. In a recent interview, Lakeway Senior Vice President Keith Ponder stated, "As Shelbyville’s long-time newspaper closed abruptly, we saw a need to serve the community with locally produced community-based journalism. We kept the team together and have worked hard to tell the stories of Bedford County. A great communit

Cristi Hegranes is an award-winning journalist and founder of the Global Press Institute (GPI), a nonprofit organization that builds and maintains news bureaus in some of the world’s least-covered locations, like: Cameroon, Haiti, Kashmir, Mongolia, Nepal, Zambia and more. The organization recruits local women in the areas and then implements a 16-week training-to-employment program in which they learn the principles and practice of investigative journalism. Upon completion, graduates are offered full-time, paid employment as reporters with GPI’s Global Press Journal (GPJ), which aims to “produce ethical, accurate news, to create a more just and informed world, with team members who are guided by four core values: dignity, diversity, transparency and excellence.” In September 2023, Hegranes released her new book: “BYLINE: How Local Journalists Can Improve the Global News Industry and Change the World,” which features original interviews with some of the biggest names in journalism, including Nicholas Kristof,

Lisa Simpson, the former executive director of Arizona Newspapers Association, and Chris Kline, the former president/ CEO of Arizona Broadcasters Association, have known each other for years since they both lobby on issues that affect their association's members similarly. The major difference between the two is Lisa's members are from newspapers, and Chris' are broadcasters. But in a world where more and more media content is being shared and consumed on the same devices by the same audiences, to some, it seems archaic and a bit outdated to define a news media company primarily by its legacy platform of delivery (such as a press or transmitter). Moreover, most agree that a broadcaster and a legacy news company compete less with each other for ad dollars, where both lose the lion's share of local media revenue to big tech companies like Google and Meta/ Facebook. Add to that how corporate media empires have grouped more and more local outlets under common ownership, depleting association membership numbers. I

In the spring of 2018, Kenny Katzgrau, CEO of Broadstreet, a SaaS ad management company designed for media companies and direct sales teams, penned and published an online 34-page white paper entitled “10 Advantages That Small Publishers Have Over Tech Giants in Selling Ads.” His purpose for the document was to offer encouragement and advice to smaller news publishers on how they can use some of their competitive advantages to gain back some of the 70%+ of local ad dollars captured by big tech companies like Google and Meta (Facebook).   Katzgrau lists these opportunities as: Community Support & Affinity The Direct Relationship Autonomy, Flexibility and Creativity (Compelling Creatives) Section Sponsorships The Ability to Tell a Compelling Story with Sponsored Content Sustainable and Sensible Pricing Newsletter Sponsorships Optimal Placement Transparent Reporting Better Overall Performance But it was a specific section of the document entitled: “KNOW YOUR ENEMY, PART II: The Key Weaknesses of Google, Fa

Media industry veteran John Ellis has been a political analyst for NBC News, a columnist for The Boston Globe, a political editor for Business Insider, a News Corp advisor and SVP at the Fox Business Network. In 2016, he launched News Items, which became The Wall Street Journal CEO Council’s morning newsletter. Ellis restarted News Items as an independent newsletter in August 2019. His articles have been published in Fast Company, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Real Clear Politics, and Business Insider. News Items is “a collection of news stories, commentaries, analyses, essays and research reports that are interesting or important (or both).”  Each “item” posted is usually two or three sentences long and resides in one of four “baskets:”   ·      World in Disarray, ·      Financialization of Everything, ·      Advances in Science and Technology, ·      Electoral politics, foreign and domestic.   Those who subscribe claim that Ellis and the team have proved their value by being “the fir

Reporting on the news publishing industry’s fight for survival amid circulation and advertising revenue declines has been focusing more and more on the continuing closure of news outlets, propagating "news deserts," and the downsizing of newsrooms creating "ghost papers." However, some media companies are finding opportunities during these troubling times by exploring underserved communities' need for local journalism and utilizing current resources to enter these markets with news brands that are finding new audiences and revenues. Recently, E&P reported on the Charleston Post and Courier’s statewide expansion into new South Carolina markets, where existing newspaper newsrooms had been downsized so much that these communities welcomed and embraced the new brands. Now, similar expansion is taking place in Louisiana as Georges Media Group, the state’s largest news publisher and owners of The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com, The Advocate, Gambit and the Acadiana Advocate, have launched the Shreveport-Bossier Cit