The National Trust for Local News: A New Form of Community-Focused Capital for Local News
For years, the narrative about local newspapers has been about their inevitable demise. The conventional wisdom is that these trusted sources of local news are doomed by digital disruption, hedge fund take-overs, the squeeze of corporate consolidation, or closure when an owner retires.
The National Trust for Local News sees a very different future.
Many small and mid-sized local newspapers, including those led by and serving communities of color, linguistic communities, and rural areas, remain independently owned. Many are even profitable. They have the deep trust of their readers. They provide service-oriented news and information that is critical to the health and economic vitality of their communities. And they are often owned by families who are facing succession and eager to find a new way forward in this changing environment but lack access to the capital and support to shift to new ownership structures and new operating models.
With the launch of the National Trust for Local News, these organizations can now benefit from a national, community-aligned facilitator of capital and support, dedicated to keeping local and community news in local hands.
With the fiscal sponsorship of The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the Trust has just completed its first acquisition: Colorado Community Media (CCM), an independent, family-owned group of 24 community newspapers. The financing for the Trust’s acquisition was provided by FJC, and was backed by the Gates Family Foundation, the Colorado Trust, and the American Journalism Project.
As part of its acquisition of CCM, the Trust has placed these assets in a new Colorado-based Public Benefit Corporation, the Colorado Media Conservancy, which will ensure these news enterprises continue to be operated under local control as a public service to their communities.
The Trust negotiated an agreement with The Colorado Sun to serve as operator and majority owner of the Colorado News Conservancy. The Colorado Sun was built by former Denver Post journalists in the aftermath of the Post’s acquisition by Alden Capital. Through its stewardship of the Colorado News Conservancy, the Trust will ensure that majority ownership of these local news resources will always remain in local hands.
This model, while innovative in the news space, is a tried and true method to ensure community ownership of critical institutions. The Trust for Public Land, for example, purchases endangered open space before developers can move in, and works with local communities to coordinate funding and place permanent ownership and control in local, civic-oriented, hands. The National Trust for Local News is using this model to strengthen the critical information infrastructure needed to support healthy, thriving communities.
The field of local and community news is ready for this kind of model. Years of philanthropic investments have created an array of supports for local news sustainability. Hundreds of new digital-first news organizations are benefitting from membership-driven business models, new methods to increase readership and revenue, and a wealth of tools and intermediaries focused on digital transformation and growth. Out of these investments, new kinds of anchor local newsrooms — some digital-native, some public media — are growing in strength and capacity. These layers of the “sustainability stack” for local media are coming together — with one critical gap.
Missing from the local news sustainability stack is a layer of community-aligned capital and advisory support that can protect local independence, catalyze structural change, and facilitate the transformations required for longstanding, small and mid-sized independent publishers to grow and thrive in service to their communities. These legacy news organizations remain vital to the future of local news. They are often both cherished by and deeply ingrained in their communities, but most vulnerable to destruction by private financial interests.
The National Trust for Local News was established to advise, assemble and deploy a new kind of community-focused capital that can strengthen local and community news and information. With this first acquisition, there is proof positive that this model can work in preserving local independence while building for the future. Now it’s time to help write the next chapter for quality local news and information in other communities across the country.
To add your expertise to ours, please visit www.ntln.org or contact Fraser Nelson at fraser@ntln.org.
