I have spent several posts thinking about what deserves my attention. This week adds an inconvenient question: who pays for the thing once it gets there? I want accurate reporting, useful investigations, and websites that let me read without an obstacle course. Somewhere in those reasonable expectations, an actual person needs to afford groceries.
John Oliver’s journalism commentary makes a point that stuck with me: online commentary and television often depend on reporting first done by newspapers. That makes the newspaper easier to overlook than the information it produces. A story can travel through my feed, become an argument, and acquire several angry comments before I even notice who originally reported it. The comments, naturally, have excellent distribution.
In Jon Wertheim’s 2022 report for 60 Minutes, Evan Brandt covers Pottstown from his attic as its remaining reporter. I keep thinking about what happens when two important things happen at once. Somebody has to decide which meeting goes uncovered. We can call that efficiency, but I would want to know whose activities became easier to hide.
The assigned Pew local newspaper fact sheet helps explain the financial pressure. Among the locally focused papers it studied, weekday circulation fell 40% from 2015 to 2020, even though digital circulation grew. Those are historical figures, but the distinction matters: moving readers online does not automatically replace the revenue lost along the way. As someone interested in web design, I would love to believe a better website fixes everything.
Unfortunately, a beautifully centered subscription button still needs someone to click it.
Reader support seems like a useful starting point. The assigned 2019 Guardian case study describes a return to operating profit through reader contributions, advertising, and cost reductions while keeping web articles accessible. I like the idea of supporting reporting so other people can read it, too. Still, a publication with international reach has a different potential audience from a paper covering one town. I would be careful about handing both the same business plan.
The Salt Lake Tribune’s conversion to nonprofit status in 2019 offers another route, opening access to philanthropic support. It also raises a question for me: how do readers know donors are supporting the reporting rather than quietly choosing it? Publishing donor information and keeping funding decisions separate from editorial decisions would help. A nonprofit still needs reliable income, staff, and someone willing to ask for money more than once.
In the Axios podcast, Victor Pickard argues that public funding is necessary because commercial markets leave essential journalism underprovided. I think that proposal deserves consideration. I would want transparent funding rules and protection against officials rewarding friendly coverage. Being investigated by the newspaper should never give someone an opportunity to cancel its budget out of irritation.
My preference is a mix: memberships, subscriptions where they fit, clearly labeled advertising, donations, and carefully protected public support. Local outlets could also share expensive reporting projects while maintaining their own community coverage. Each source brings risks, but relying on one leaves a newsroom vulnerable when that source disappears or starts making demands.
There is also a practical design problem here. A local site should make its value easy to find: school decisions, public spending, useful alerts, and reporting people can act on. A clear newsletter and an easy way to contribute could build a habit. Adding six popups asking readers to trust you seems like an unusual opening negotiation.
The goal, to me, is enough dependable support to let journalists keep asking inconvenient questions. Some valuable stories will attract a small audience. They still need someone with time to investigate them. I can get an opinion almost anywhere.
I would like there to be someone left who checked.
#LocalJournalism #MediaBusiness #MediaLiteracy
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