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Hi and welcome to the final edition of Local Edition for 2023. Last week, I shared the perspectives of five local news experts ([link removed]) on the good and bad for local news this year. This week, here’s what they expect to see in 2024. As a reminder, we heard from:
* Darryl Holliday ([link removed]) , co-founder of City Bureau and one of the authors of “The Roadmap for Local News” ([link removed])
* Penelope Muse Abernathy ([link removed]) , a visiting professor at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism and the force behind “The State of Local News Project” ([link removed])
* Katherine Kokal ([link removed]) , education reporter at The Palm Beach Post, unit chair, Palm Beach News Guild, and a former Poynter-Koch fellow
* Michael Bolden ([link removed]) , CEO of the American Press Institute
* Angela Fu ([link removed]) , Poynter’s media business reporter

Let’s get to it.

Katherine Kokal: I'm hopeful! Three main things:
* I think it's going to be an excellent year for newsroom unions. Companies are saying they want contracts finished and I think many shops are getting extremely close. We had so many positive labor stories in 2023 that I think people are being inspired to talk about how forming a union can protect them in 2024. Just saying … my DMs are always open for union queries 😉
* I'm expecting to see creative approaches to covering the 2024 elections, and I anticipate another great push to inform communities to get out the vote through voter guides and ballot informational sessions.
* I'm also looking forward to huge things from the class of 2024 and their age cohort. As journalists who have only been in higher education during the pandemic, I think they'll have fresh takes on what works for cutting through the noise and getting people fired up about local issues.

Michael Bolden: I think a lot about the State of Local News report researched by Penny Abernathy and her colleagues at Northwestern University and how the loss of local news organizations affects our democratic republic. We need local media to be more engaged than ever with residents next year — and every year — to help them understand the pressures facing our country and to make decisions that will allow our society to thrive. I think local news will respond to the challenge, but it will take all of the support that media of every type and civil society organizations of all stripes can muster to bolster their work. It is occupying much of our planning at the American Press Institute.
Angela Fu: I'll give you my labor predictions. The early pandemic layoffs helped give way to a surge in organizing ([link removed]) , and I expect that to continue. I think we could also see more work stoppages as already unionized newsrooms go through contract negotiations. I tracked more than 20 walkouts from 2021 to 2022 ([link removed]) . This year, the NewsGuild alone had 34 work stoppages. I wouldn't be surprised if 2024 brought more high-profile labor disputes.
Darryl Holliday: I’m expecting to see more cross-sector organizing ([link removed]) and new kinds of civic information networks. The worst part of 2023 can be the best part of 2024! I want to see public media stations working more closely with PEG stations; newspapers working more closely with libraries; civic media organizations working more closely with local governments and public schools. I expect to see organizations and “interstitionaries ([link removed]) ” harness all of this positive collaborative energy in our space toward new kinds of news networks, smart mergers, deeper funding sources and bigger policy wins.
I think we can grow the local news sector because people are primed for our message, i.e. that independent local news is the “last mile” ([link removed](transportation)) for so many issues related to the polycrisis we’re currently living through. Local news can make people’s lives materially better, and help them take real-world action on issues that affect them.
I think this moment could be similar to the 1950s when the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation and many others catalyzed NPR and PBS via the Public Broadcasting Act and the Center for Public Broadcasting (policy wins of a previous era). Philanthropy can be a first-mover of sorts but the other side of the equation is local, state and federal legislation that preserves independent, prosocial local news and civic information as a public good. And all of it relies on people being organized and demanding better local news.
Penelope Muse Abernathy: Can I say what I’m hoping to see? What I’m hoping to see is that with the second round of philanthropy we begin to target communities that are most in need. I hope we continue to have robust discussions by scholars, by policymakers and by the industry on what is at stake for our democracy if we continue to lose local news at the current rate or even at an accelerated rate.

Press Forward update: The MacArthur Foundation announced ([link removed]) $48 million in grants this week. Included in the announcement is $1 million to 100 Days in Appalachia ([link removed]) “through the Rural Digital Youth Resiliency Project to support its news reporting on issues of significance to residents of Appalachia, with an emphasis on reaching young people and leading a community of practice, providing security and safety training, and other support services for reporters covering extremism.” Outlier Media ([link removed]) will get $1 million “for its reporting addressing the information needs of Detroit residents, particularly low-income people and communities of color.” And Racial Equity in Journalism Fund ([link removed]) at Borealis Philanthropy will get $3.5
million” to support Black, Indigenous, and People of Color-led newsrooms with grants and technical assistance.”

That's it for me! Local Edition will be back in January. I hope your holidays are restful and easy and your new year is a promising one.

😘

Kristen
Kristen Hare
Faculty
The Poynter Institute
@kristenhare ([link removed])

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