Welcome to the Local Fix. Each week we look at key debates in journalism sustainability and community engagement through the lens of local news.  But first, we always begin with one good idea…

One Good Idea:  Experiment With Low-Budget Video
Want a quick and easy way to do more video around your stories on platforms like Facebook? Nieman Lab reports on how the Economist has been “making low-budget video versions of its stories” using a Facebook tool that allows you to turn a series of images into a video. The team pulls key points out of the stories and creates what are essentially presentation slides for the images. It is quick, easy and achieving some impressive stats. 

How and Why Local Newsrooms Grow

A series of recent articles highlighted local news start-ups who have found interesting revenue and editorial formulas and are starting to expand. Each of these newsrooms is just a few years old and has recently launched another site in a neighboring town or city. What’s working, and why they are expanding, differs in each site. However, one shared characteristic is that each of these new generation of newsrooms has community engagement embedded in what they do. 

• Millennial-focused local startup Charlotte Agenda is expanding its model to a second city – Joseph Lighterman  
• Billy Penn taking its formula to Pittsburgh with help from Gannett investment – Brian Stelter 
• A local startup with an emphasis on uplift looks to grow – Anna Clark 

Doing the Math on Paying for News

In a recent post on Medium, longtime Local Fix collaborator Molly de Aguiar wrote, “People will pay for local news and information they fully trust and value, just like they would for any product they find indispensable.” At Canadian site, The Tyee, Ian Gill looks at a few case studies in an excerpt from his new book and argues “there is evidence that people are willing to pay for good journalism that addresses the issues they’re interested in.” The articles below illustrate poignantly why cultivating readers as supporters of journalism is critical.

• How Many Ads to Pay a Writer? – Patrick Appel 
• Mother Jones’ prison story cost roughly $350,000. The banner ads that appeared in it brought in $5,000 – Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery 
• The scariest chart in Mary Meeker’s slide deck for newspapers has gotten even a tiny bit scarier – Josh Benton 

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Covering Local Government

We often talk about the civic and democratic functions of media in abstract terms, but a series of recent articles tries to grapple with how the eroding capacity of local newsrooms is reshaping civic and democratic life. With the election just a few weeks away, these issues feel particularly pressing. The articles below look at how legacy newsrooms, alternative newsweeklies and citizen journalism are shaping politics in cities, states and in Congress.

• Demise of Local News May Be Ruining Congress – Jonathan Bernstein 
• As Local Coverage Wanes, Residents Become Self-taught Watchdogs – Miranda S. Spivack  
• The Biggest Victim of Weekly Newspapers’ Demise: Good Government – Daniel C. Vock    

Have a good weekend,
Josh

The Local Fix is a project of the Democracy Fund’s Public Square Program, which invests in innovations and institutions that are reinventing local media and expanding the public square. Disclosure: Some projects mentioned in this newsletter may be funded by Democracy Fund, you can find a full list of the organizations we support on our website.