We Scanned the Business Models for Local News Space. Here’s our full report.

The number of people employed in newspaper newsrooms has dropped by 23 percent in less than a decade. As newsrooms continue to close their doors, news deserts are growing and misinformation is bubbling up to fill the gap.

One root cause of it all — the business model for local news has disintegrated.

Back in May, the Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Lenfest Institute for Journalism co-hosted the first annual “Business Models for News” gathering at the Columbia Journalism School. The event convened several key leaders in tech, philanthropy, academia and business to discuss how to combine efforts, avoid duplication, and create a shared understanding of the work that needs to be done to address the business model crisis in local journalism.

From these conversations, the organizers of the event put together a research report that combines a review of the innovative work on business models taking place so far, coupled with a strategic plan for the field. You can also read the report as a series on Medium.

We would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the field scan report. Did we miss anything happening in the business models for news space? Did we get anything wrong? Please send me a note at Emily_Roseman@hks.harvard.edu