What Works: The Future of Local News

Dan and Ellen talk with Andy and Dee Hall, co-founders of Wisconsin Watch . Wisconsin Watch was launched in 2009 as the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. It's nonprofit and nonpartisan, and it has grown a lot over the last 14 years. Andy is retiring on December 31 of this year, and is helping the new CEO, George Stanley, with the transition.  Dee Hall, co-founder and former managing e...

Dan and Ellen talk with Bob Sprague , a pioneer in hyperlocal journalism and the founder of yourArlington . Bob, who has lived in Arlington since 1989, was not only the founder: he was the editor of the website until July 1 of this year, when he retired. The new editor is Judith Pfeffer.  Bob was an Arlington Town Meeting member in 1994, and was also a journalist. He has been a reporter and an edi...

Dan and Ellen talk with Priyanjana Bengan i, a fellow in computational journalism at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia. Her work focuses on using computational techniques to research issues in digital media. Her most recent project, published in the Columbia Journalism Review , focused on uncovering networks of "pink slime" local news outlets. There have been several iterations of...

Ellen and Dan talk with Meg Heckman , a colleague of ours at Northeastern University's school of journalism . Meg is an associate professor and author. She had a long career as a journalist. She spent more than a decade as a reporter and, later, the digital editor at the Concord (NH) Monitor , where she developed a fascination with presidential politics, a passion for local news and an appreciatio...

Dan talks with Jason Pramas , executive director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and editor-in-chief of a new project called HorizonMass. (Ellen expects to return for the next episode.) Jason is a co-founder of BINJ, which partners with community publications on investigative stories and civic engagement initiatives, and offers training programs to promising young journalists.  No...

Dan and Ellen talk with Catherine Tumber , who was a former colleague of Dan's at The Boston Phoenix, a longtime friend, and a source for his 2013 book, "The Wired City." These days she's an independent scholar and journalist who's affiliated with the Penn Institute for Urban Research . She's also a fellow at the MassINC Gateway Cities Innovation Institute and a contributing editor for The Baffler...

Ellen and Dan talk with Paul Bass , the founder and former editor of the New Haven Independent . Bass is originally from White Plains, New York, but he arrived in New Haven in the late 1970s to attend Yale, and he has been reporting on all the quirks and glory of his adopted home town ever since. Bass was the main subject of Dan's 2013 book, "The Wired City," and is one of the news entrepreneurs f...

Ellen and Dan talk with Nicci Kadilak , an educator, author, mom, and founder of the Burlington Buz z. The Buzz is a hyperlocal online news site serving Burlington, Massachusetts, a town of 26,000 people north and west of Boston. Kadilak created the Buzz in early 2022, when a town election was on the horizon and the local Gannett weekly, the Burlington Union, switched to regional coverage. In the...

Ellen and Dan talk with Walter Robinson , a longtime investigative journalist and editor of The Boston Globe's Spotlight Team. Robby, as he is known, was instrumental in uncovering the clergy sex abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church in Boston and beyond. The series won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003. The team's work was captured onscreen in the movie "Spotlight," where Robb...

Ellen and Dan talk with Sue Cross, the veteran journalist who will step down as executive director and CEO of the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) by the end of 2023. Sue has led INN since 2015, and has overseen a period of tremendous growth. There were 117 nonprofit newsroom members listed in the INN's 2015 annual report. This year, INN has 425 member newsrooms. She has also been a driving forc...

Ellen and Dan talk with Andy Thibault , editor and publisher of the Winsted Citizen in Connecticut. The Citizen is a monthly print newspaper serving Litchfield County and the surrounding area. The only digital presence is the Winsted Citizen Blog . But that's about to change, Thibault says. He's going digital.  Starting a news organization is never easy, but the Citizen hit a brief speed bump. A s...

Dan and Ellen talk with Brant Houston , who is hard to describe in one sentence: he's an author, an educator, an investigative journalist, an expert in data-based reporting, and a co-founder of the Global Investigative Journalism Network and the Institute for Nonprofit News. His new book, "Changing Models for Journalism," chronicles the history of change, disruption, and reinvention in our industr...

Dan and Ellen talk with Howard Owens , the publisher of The Batavian , a digital news organization in Genesee County, New York, way out near Buffalo. When Dan first met Howard, he was the director of digital publishing for GateHouse Media, which later morphed into Gannett. Howard launched The Batavian for GateHouse in 2008. In 2009, GateHouse eliminated Howard's job, but they let him take The Bata...

Dan talks with Lara Salahi , a professor of journalism at Endicott College, where she teaches a range of courses, from feature writing to digital journalism. She has also been a digital producer for NBC Universal, and a field producer for ABC News.  Salahi has also done some consulting and writing on science and health projects. She was executive producer on a podcast called Track the Vax , which...

Linda Shapley , the publisher of  Colorado Community Media , describes herself as a longtime denizen of the state's media ecosystem. Indeed, she was at  Colorado Politics and worked for 21 years for The Denver Post. "I've been a lieutenant for a lot of really great generals," she once said. "This is my opportunity to be a general." CCM is a group of about two dozen weekly and monthly newspapers in...

Dan and Ellen talk with Mark Histed , a researcher at the Democracy Policy Network . DPN is a network of policy organizers who have a simple mission: Sustaining democracy. That work takes place largely at the local level. Mark and others at DPN do research and provide deep-dive policy kits that help local citizens and legislators champion big ideas. Mark leads the Local News Dollars effort and rec...

Ellen and Dan talk with Greg Moore , former managing editor at The Boston Globe and longtime editor of The Denver Post . During his 14 years at the Post, the paper won four consecutive Pulitzer Prizes. He's led coverage of major stories, including the Aurora movie theater shooting in Colorado and the case of Charles Stuart in Boston. Greg is now editor-in-chief of the Expert Press, which helps con...

Ellen and Dan talk with Victor Pickard , a professor of media policy and political economy at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Before he was at Penn, he taught media studies at NYU. He is the author of "Democracy Without Journalism," among other books. Pickard has contributed to the debate about the local news crisis in many different settings. He worked on...

Dan and Ellen talk with Anne Larner , a civic leader in Newton, Massachusetts, a city of nearly 90,000 people on the border of Boston. Anne is on the Board of Directors of The Newton Beacon , an independent nonprofit news outlet covering Newton. Anne has a long track record of civic engagement in Newton and in Massachusetts. She moved to Newton in 1973, and has served on the School Committee, the...

Dan and Ellen talk with Adam Gaffin, founder of the Universal Hub and inventor of the French Toast Alert System ). Dan  wrote a profile of Adam for CommonWealth Magazine in 2008. Adam has been a local connector since the earliest days of digital self-publishing — well before blogging, putting he put together a directory of websites called New England Online in the early '90s and then morphing that...

Dan and Ellen talk to Mike Blinder , the publisher of Editor & Publisher , the once and future bible of the publishing industry. Mike also hosts E&P's weekly vodcast series, "E&P Reports." Blinder has interviewed everyone from   Richard Tofel , founding GM of ProPublica , to Jennifer Kho , the new executive editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, to professor and media critic Jeff Jarvis . Blinder probes...

Ellen and Dan talk with Margaret Low , the CEO of WBUR , one of Boston's two public radio stations. Margaret started as CEO in January 2020. She has had a 40-plus-year career with NPR, and started as an overnight production assistant at Morning Edition.   At NPR, Low rose through the ranks and ended up in the top editorial job, where she oversaw 400 journalists worldwide, covering events like the...

Dan and Ellen talk with Crystal Good , the founder of Black by God, the West Virginian. She's a sixth-generation West Virginian, and she's a storyteller and poet. She has also been a model and an advocate. She describes Black by God as an "emerging news and storytelling organization centering Black voices from the Mountain State." She wants to provide a more nuanced portrayal of Black residents in...

Dan and Ellen talk with Mary Margaret White , the CEO of Mississippi Today , a nonprofit digital news outlet that has been covering the state for more than six years. The staff has a robust presence at the statehouse in Jackson, and provides cultural and sports coverage, as well.  Mary Margaret is a Mississippi native. She has a bachelor's in English and journalism and a master's in Southern Studi...

Dan and Ellen talk with Nancy West , executive editor of InDepthNH.org.  Nancy was an investigative reporter during her 30-year career at the New Hampshire Union Leader .  Nancy founded the nonprofit New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism in 2015. She has also taught investigative reporting at a summer program for students at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting . Ellen...