Counterpoint: The optimism of emerging nonprofit community newsrooms is not ‘cruel,’ it’s ‘intentful’

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of guest commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

This article was submitted on behalf of several members of the Metro Nonprofit News Network (MNNN) Project Board. Their names and affiliations are listed below.

•••

A couple of facts about local journalism are universally accepted. One, there has been a dramatic and frightening decline in the publication of local news across the United States. And two, access to local journalism is really important.

Given these facts, we write in response to Reed Anfinson’s commentary regarding efforts to shore up — and in our communities, to bring back — local news (“ ‘Cruel optimism’ holds back meaningful change for community journalism,” Feb. 8).

We are the members of the new Metro Nonprofit News Network (MNNN), a collaboration of local, online, nonprofit, nonpartisan, community-based news organizations. Our publications are Carver County Local News, Eden Prairie Local News, Prior Lake News Compass, Woodbury News Net and the Minnesota Daily. MNNN provides nonprofit startup newsroom teams with information, support and training to build informative, financially independent and sustainable organizations.

When discussing “community news,” it’s easy to generalize and overlook important distinctions, so let us clarify a few things. First, informed citizens need access to journalism at all levels: national, state and local, where “local” includes a range of local government units and communities.

Second, Minnesota is made up of many cities and townships, each needing local journalism.

The oft-described “news desert” usually refers to smaller rural communities with very little news anywhere close to home. On the other hand, in the metro, we have lots of news outlets that focus primarily on Minneapolis and St. Paul. However, they usually only cover suburban communities when there are “high-profile” incidents, like violence or scandal. We have very little access to the day-to-day events in our communities. For reference, about 44% of Minnesotans live outside the seven-county metro area, and 43% live in metro communities other than Minneapolis or St. Paul.

We won’t presume to tell Anfinson or individuals in other communities what kind of newsroom and media platforms they need. But let’s be clear: Residents in our communities have put in a lot of time and work to establish what we believe is best for us. Each community had corporate-owned newspapers shuttered over the past five years — we know what the absence of local news looks like. We have felt the disconnection happening in real time, as people turn to a Facebook/Instagram/TikTok algorithm to inform them of community happenings.

Anfinson’s statement that newsrooms like ours have “no connection to the reality of what is needed to sustain and nurture civic and community news” is highly inaccurate. We live here. We work here. We know the issues and hear the concerns of our neighbors. Our content, as promised to our readers, includes local news about school boards, city councils, development, business, public safety, local sports, human-interest features and events that get little if any coverage from other media sources.

In each of our communities, local people researched, discussed and decided on a nonprofit model to rebuild newsrooms from the ground up. We offer free subscriptions so our journalism is accessible to all, with individual and other local donations replacing traditional subscription revenue, and business sponsorships and advertising to support and connect local businesses to their most likely customers. For now, we are extensively volunteer-run, though we are all bringing on more paid staff, including editors, to ensure professional and sustainable editorial and business operations.

Philanthropy is helpful, especially in the startup phase, but it’s not a significant part of our long-term revenue strategy. We are grateful that the McKnight Foundation recognizes and supports our vision through a grant to launch MNNN. Other funders have also seen the local news crisis and stepped up to provide support through national organizations, including the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), Local Independent Online News, Press Forward, Rebuild Local News, Report for America, Tiny News Collective and more.

We also know that a nonprofit organization with community-based leadership means ownership and operation will stay local and won’t be sold to the highest bidder. Local boards of directors govern our newsrooms with missions of community stewardship through relevant, trustworthy and compelling journalism.

Community advisers also determined that digital is the best platform to deliver our local news. In the last decade, expenses associated with printed newspapers have escalated dramatically due to increased printing and delivery costs. That, coupled with declining subscriber counts and the loss of advertising revenue from locally owned businesses, are two of the main reasons newspapers have closed. Producing news on a digital platform is more timely and less costly, allowing us to cover breaking news, which enables us to focus our budgets on editorial staff.

And for newsrooms currently launching, it’s often the only practical platform.

Ultimately, journalism is the “product” we provide to our communities. The platform, or medium, is just that: It’s simply how we deliver the news. Being digital allows us to adapt as media evolve. Despite massive disruption in the delivery systems, the fundamentals of journalism haven’t changed. Take note: We are all committed to high standards of journalism.

Anfinson derides the efforts of news startups to “innovate.” In the face of reality — cascading failures of legacy print newspapers — we embrace innovation as a given. It’s not a specific solution but a philosophy that all industries, including journalism, must practice to remain relevant.

We are grateful and proud to be part of a growing journalism community that seeks new ways to ensure reliable local news for many communities. We’re optimistic about our newsrooms and the many others that will follow. And this optimism is seen in nonprofit newsrooms nationally: According to the Institute for Nonprofit News, more than 90% of their members survive past the startup phase.

Our optimism is not “cruel.” It’s “intentful.”

We don’t have all the answers, and there are always new questions to which we will strive to find answers. We are already fulfilling a great need in the communities we serve. We see our optimism validated in the reactions of our readers, donors, area leaders and business owners who genuinely appreciate how badly local news is needed.

The article was signed by Laurie Hartmann, publisher, Prior Lake News Compass; Mike Huang, cofounder, Carver County Local News; Kathy Saltzman, cofounder, Woodbury News Net; Susan Kent, cofounder, Woodbury News Net; Steve Schewe, publisher, Eden Prairie Local News, and Charlie Weaver, executive director and copublisher of the Minnesota Daily.