Seeding an Oasis in Our Local News Desert
How to grow an independent news source for the Ann Arbor area
I can’t stop thinking about two recent reports: 1) a column in The Week: “Why your city government should buy your local newspaper”; and 2) a New York Times article about state funding for local journalism in New Jersey.
I read these a few days after having yet another interaction with a wealthy businessman that I run into occasionally at Sweetwaters. Our exchanges go something like this:
Him: “Hey, when are you going to buy the Ann Arbor News? We really need a decent newspaper in this town.”
Me: “Would you back it?”
Him: “Hahahaha — no.”
So I’ve been thinking again about what it would take to have a local, independent news organization with 1) stable funding, 2) a decent-sized staff to provide consistent, credible coverage of local government and other key areas, and 3) accountability to our community.
Maybe it’s on my mind because our city just marked the ninth anniversary of the original Ann Arbor News’ last edition. That 174-year-old newspaper stopped publishing on July 23, 2009, thanks to a decision by its out-of-town owners who now run a different, anemic operation under the same name.
Or maybe it’s because enough time has passed since we closed The Ann Arbor Chronicle that I’ve forgotten how hard daily journalism is. Or maybe it’s because I’m SO BEYOND SICK of hearing public officials and other residents complain about how X or Y problem is exacerbated since we don’t have a real newspaper.
More likely I’m suffering from the curse of optimism, believing that if enough people decide that having strong local news coverage again is worth it, everything else will fall into place.
So at the risk of starting another exhausting conversation that leads nowhere — and I’ve had many of these over the years — here are some thoughts.**
Could an Independent News Org Work Here?
Of course our community could create a sustainable, independent news organization if several crucial pieces came together — and that’s a very big “if.”
But I’ll start by describing a few things that are off the table.
First, the option of buying the existing MLive/Ann Arbor News is a non-starter. The New York braintrust at Advance Publications will continue to squeeze every possible dime from our community as long as they can. It’s a pure business proposition to them, not a community service or pillar of democracy. And at this point, what’s left to buy? Certainly not its brand or reputation. So let’s forget that.
Also note that I’m calling this a “news organization,” not a newspaper. Despite the nostalgia for a daily print publication, which I totally share, the expense of newsprint is prohibitively high. That was true even before the Trump administration’s 30% tariffs on newsprint were imposed. (Read more about that issue here.)
And frankly, if it’s a choice between a daily print paper and more reporters, I’d take the latter every time.
Nor should the responsibility for funding and oversight rest with a single entity like the city. That setup would instantly lack credibility and be accused of bias and boosterism, with legitimate reason. So I’m not a fan of that approach.
But there are other options.
A Model for Sustainable Financing
Broad collaboration and shared financial support would be key to a local independent news organization, or LINO. So who might those partners be?
Initially, I’d look to each of our local public entities to pool resources: city government (including the Downtown Development Authority), district libraries, public schools, Washtenaw County, the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University and Washtenaw Community College.
There are obvious partners in the private sector, too, including the United Way of Washtenaw County, the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, local philanthropic foundations and individual donors. And since you could argue that a reliable local news source is important for our economy, there’s a case for entities like Ann Arbor SPARK and local businesses to fund a LINO too.
This should be a nonprofit entity, with an oversight board comprised of members from each of the organizations that make long-term financial commitments. I’d like to see the board have seats for other stakeholders too, including youth representatives.
A formula for financial support would need to be developed — perhaps something proportional to each entity’s budget — and it should include a commitment of at least five years or more. These revenue sources could be supplemented with advertising and subscriptions, as well as fundraising events held throughout the year. I doubt that advertising and subscriptions alone would ever yield enough revenue to provide financial stability, but that might be a stretch goal.
What about levying a countywide millage to support a LINO? I’m generally leery of new taxes and I haven’t done the research to know if that’s possible, but it’s worth exploring. If approved by voters, even a small tax of 0.1 mill would raise about $1.5 million annually.
How much might a news operation cost? In his column for The Week, Ryan Cooper estimates that a newsroom with 100 journalists and 20 ad reps could publish for an annual budget of about $20 million — factoring in salaries, benefits, printing costs, website development, office rental and other expenses. I suspect that’s a low number, but the staff size in his estimate is much larger than what’s needed in a community the size of Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti. (He was using Denver in his example, and assuming it would be a print publication.)
As an aside, it’s worth noting that lots of big brains are trying to solve the problem of how to finance journalism.
One recent example is a column by Ethan Zuckerman in the August 2018 issue of Editor & Publisher, a journalism trade magazine: “Crisis Prevention — Four Problems with News & Democracy.”
Zuckerman, who’s director of MIT’s Center for Civic Media, covers a lot of ground in his column, including a section on financing the news. In part, he writes:
“I think it’s unlikely that there’s a solution to this set of problems without insisting on the necessity of news for participation in a democracy, which opens options too seldom considered in our country, where market solutions are always preferred. News may be too important to leave to the whims of the market. Whether that means financing public media providers that are positioned to give us the essential facts of the world we live in, or building a robust set of membership models that allow a small set of subscribers to make critical information available to wider audiences, there are solutions to the problem of financing the news. Unfortunately, these solutions are rarely popular because they’re expensive and hard to sell in the U.S., where they run counter to conventional thinking about markets and speech.”
So there’s that.
But back to my theoretical local newsroom. You can accomplish a lot with a small, dedicated crew. A $1 million annual budget would be a good start, especially if you kept the full-time staff tight and hired well-compensated freelancers, too. But again, collaboration would be key.
Community Coverage: A Collaborative Approach
You’ll note that I’m not limiting this venture to Ann Arbor. The effort needs to reach beyond Ann Arbor’s city limits — especially in covering countywide topics like affordable housing and development, poverty, educational inequities, public health, the environment, economic development and other regional issues. At the least, coverage should include Ypsilanti, Ypsilanti Township and Pittsfield Township, and ideally even more of the surrounding townships, cities and villages.
It’s important to report on what our local public entities are doing, the actions of our elected representatives and news about how taxpayer dollars are being spent — that, to me, is non-negotiable. Beyond that, coverage of business, social and environmental issues, the nonprofit sector and education would be vital. Data-driven reporting, coupled with deep knowledge of our community, would be a powerful combination for giving these local topics the attention they deserve.
Oh, and we’d need local cartoons, obviously.
In addition to the reporting of a LINO’s staff and freelancers, there’s also opportunity to share content in partnership with existing media. To some extent, the trio who ran The Ann took a crack at this with their daily ANNthology e-newsletter. It highlighted reports from a range of sources, including CivCity, and was compiled by Jim McBee. Like many other efforts, however, it wasn’t financially sustainable.
Potential news partners include student publications like the Michigan Daily, Eastern Echo, Washtenaw Voice, and Community High’s Communicator, among others. WEMU has been great in focusing on local news and features, including the weekly Civic Matters segment that I do with David Fair. Lucy Ann Lance has been doing wide-ranging local interviews on WLBY for many years, and those segments merit broader distribution.
Concentrate, Washtenaw Legal News, Crazy Wisdom Community Journal (I’m not kidding — have you read it recently?), WDIV’s All About Ann Arbor — these are all reporting on our community in various ways. The same is true for Monet Tiedemann of AnnArbivore.com, who writes a live blog of each Ann Arbor Public Schools board meeting. And there are others.
I haven’t mentioned Michigan Radio (WUOM) or the Ann Arbor Observer. I don’t see much regular local reporting from Michigan Radio — their focus is primarily statewide — and I don’t know of any local partnerships they’ve pursued beyond sponsorships. And though The Observer does local reporting, again, I don’t know that they’re interested in collaborations. I’d be happy to be wrong about that.
In addition to the potential partners I’ve already noted, there are two entities that hold even more promise: the city’s Community Television Network (CTN) and the Ann Arbor District Library.
According to the city’s FY2019 budget, CTN’s $2.3 million operating budget is covered primarily from franchise fees — the amount that cable providers pay to do business in Ann Arbor. CTN also has a fund balance of about $4.2 million. Eight employees are listed in the staff directory.
I’m beyond grateful for CTN’s consistent broadcasting of the city’s public meetings, both online and on cable TV. However, the operation is a tremendously underused community asset. What if the resources of CTN were wed to a journalistic enterprise?
As for AADL, the library staff have already dipped their toes into production — actually, they’ve waded in deeper than that. They started the online Pulp a few years ago, covering the local arts & culture scene. They have a podcast studio and record interviews that mostly focus on the arts and history. They are enthusiastic about partnerships and could be a powerful, creative ally.
Speaking of allies, here’s another one with great potential: UM’s Wallace House.
Since becoming director in 2016, Lynette Clemetson has energized that program and strengthened its connections to the community. They bring in mid-career journalists from the U.S. and abroad, giving those journalists access to UM resources for projects that in some cases directly address the current challenges of this profession.
I’m not sure if or how Wallace House would want to be involved in a LINO, but I’m guessing Lynette at least would be open to exploring the idea.
What About a State Funding Model?
I’d like to circle back to the recent decision by New Jersey lawmakers to fund local journalism.
New Jersey’s “Civic Info Bill,” approved by the state legislature in July, allocates $5 million from the state budget for something called the Civic Information Consortium.
The consortium will be led by The College of New Jersey, Montclair State University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rowan University and Rutgers University.
The idea has been championed by the Free Press Action Fund, a media advocacy group. It’s an effort that’s received national and international attention, generating excitement about the possibility of a new model for funding journalism.
Here’s how the approach is described by the New York Times:
Under the bill establishing the journalism consortium, grants will be handed out by a board of directors made up of appointees by the governor and Legislature, as well as representatives from state universities, community groups, the news media and the technology industry. Prospective projects would require collaboration with one of several state universities, and applicants would have to show how their work would benefit a community. The consortium will place an emphasis on projects aimed at low-income or minority communities, or areas that have been especially undercovered by news organizations.
Remember, this is $5 million to distribute statewide. As someone who has written many grant applications and also run a startup news site, I find it hard to imagine that this funding model will significantly contribute to the sustainability of smaller publications.
My guess is that much of the funding will support Big Journalism — special projects that win awards and in some cases are even award-worthy. But not the day-in, day-out coverage that many of us crave for our community.
As an aside, there are some relevant New Jersey connections to the Ann Arbor area. Stefanie Murray, who worked for the Ann Arbor News and AnnArbor.com, is director of Montclair State University’s Center for Cooperative Media, which will be involved in this new consortium. Tony Dearing and Matt Kraner, who led the launch and subsequent trainwreck of AnnArbor.com after Advance Publications shut down the original Ann Arbor News, are both executives at Advance. Dearing is director of news operations for NJ Advance Media, while Kraner is chief operating officer of markets for Advance Local and former president of NJ Advance Media. (Classic Newhouse: “Hey, you know those guys who oversaw the thing that’s disdained in Ann Arbor? Let’s promote them!”)
It’s also worth noting that New Jersey isn’t the only government entity to fund local journalism, beyond support for public broadcasting. Canada, for example, has allocated $50 million in its current budget for that purpose, though it’s not yet clear how those funds will be spent.
There are also more creative ideas out there, like the “Citizenship News Voucher” proposed nearly a decade ago. The idea is that each taxpayer would get a $200 voucher in their tax federal return, to divide as they like among eligible media outlets.
None of these efforts are bad. They simply aren’t enough to bring back sustainable, basic news coverage to our community.
So What’s Stopping Us Here?
If asked “Why don’t we have a stronger local news source in Washtenaw County?” I don’t know anyone who’d say, “Because MLive is already awesome!” So why doesn’t this community have a locally based, independent organization that can provide comprehensive, daily news? Here are some possible reasons:
1. People don’t really want local news as much as they say they do. The lack of a daily newspaper has become a handy crutch to explain away a variety of woes, from poor voter turnout to the reason why poverty still exists. It’s easier to bitch about a problem than to risk failure or embarrassment by taking action. If that’s the case, please let’s just stop talking about it, shall we?
2. There’s no money to fund a local news organization. I call bullshit on that excuse. If local news were truly a priority, it would happen. If only a small-ish percentage of residents contributed $10 a month, it would happen. Washtenaw County is poised to fund a new Equity Office at $250,000 annually. Peeling off a budget decimal from UM’s catering expenditures alone could fund a newsroom. This community has wealth. We’re collectively deciding to spend it in other ways. Let’s at least own that decision.
3. Some people prefer the status quo. I know several elected officials and staff who are quite content that fewer eyeballs are watching local government these days. They’re not doing anything nefarious — well, probably not. It’s just that public work is easier when fewer people are aware or engaged. So funding a news organization would be the last thing they’d advocate for.
4. No one in a position to take the lead is willing to do it. Bringing together the coalition I’ve described would require someone in a stakeholder organization to pull together other stakeholders. They’d need to say: “We’re willing to make this financial commitment — are you?” They’d need political clout, respect, tenacity and solid negotiating skills. A few years ago when he was Washtenaw County administrator, Bob Guenzel might have been able to pull it off. Now, there are plenty of people who’d be willing and others who’d be capable. But I don’t know anyone who’s both eager to launch this effort and who has the ability to build broad consensus around the idea.
5. No one knows exactly what to do. Well, consider this column a start.
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- * Here’s the answer for those of you wondering, “Isn’t Mary just trying to create a job for herself with this effort?”: No.
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