Jonathan Kealing has spent two decades in journalism, from local beats to national strategy, and now serves as Chief Network Officer at the Institute for Nonprofit News. In that time, he’s seen funding models rise, fall, and evolve — and helped lead the charge toward nonprofit sustainability. But in this moment, he argues the industry is focused on the wrong crisis. Journalism, Kealing warns, isn’t suffering from a lack of viable business models — it’s suffering from a vanishing audience. more

As legacy newsrooms downsize and AI threatens human reporting, Jane Ferguson is betting on something radical: a journalist-first media model built for today’s creators. Noosphere, her new mobile platform, unites independent reporters under one subscription and strips out the corporate middlemen. “I want to take the behemoth costs of running a network and put those savings in the pockets of reporters,” Ferguson said. With ex-Washington Post and CNN journalists already on board, Noosphere isn’t nostalgia — it’s a reinvention. more

INFOTEL MULTIMEDIA was struggling to sell newsletter sponsorships—until they found a solution that delivered real results. “We weren’t selling enough,” said VP of Operations Danielle Hastings, “but now we have a daily product we’re proud of.” By adopting a platform that offered smarter tools, expert support, and a seamless process from content to sales, the team turned a chaotic system into a streamlined, revenue-generating engine. more

Today’s local businesses are facing a far more complex customer landscape than ever. To truly increase your digital revenue and become a trusted adviser, you must understand how different marketing tactics work together to help your client grow. The easiest way to visualize this is to think like a customer and understand how people discover, research and make buying decisions. more

The student newspaper is an institution at most colleges and universities nationwide — some dating back more than a century. Independent of their school administration, they report on campus life, faculty, administrative policy, events and sports — about the things that matter most to students — and increasingly about the broader community beyond campus. more

What if local media companies stopped acting like publishers and started thinking like SaaS platforms? That’s the provocative challenge laid down by veteran digital strategist Todd Handy in a recent episode of E&P Reports. Drawing from decades in media, tech and recurring revenue models, Handy believes the path to sustainability lies in ditching short-term campaigns and embracing lifetime customer value. His message to news leaders: the future of publishing won’t look like a newsroom — it will look like a software company. more

There’s an explanatory element to every piece of journalism. In some cases, that explanation is the sole purpose. “Explainers” are focused articles or videos that take complex or timely topics and break them down into essential elements that a reader or the broader public needs to know in order to have a more nuanced understanding of larger issues. Explainers can also be a leveling, fact-driven way to cut through a glut of misinformation. more

What was once viewed as a popular feature that could attract new readers to local papers across the country, film critics have become an unaffordable luxury to all but a handful of news outlets. Richard Roeper, the longtime nationally syndicated film and TV columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, recently spoke to Editor & Publisher about his decision to take a buyout, the state of the film industry and the future of his chosen profession. more

Dan Goldberg will start working with the White House team immediately. He will fully transition off the POLITICO health care team where he is a deputy editor in early June. more

Wikipedia, long heralded as the world’s largest online encyclopedia, is facing a steady stream of attacks from right-leaning figures and institutions who claim the site exhibits liberal bias and suppresses conservative viewpoints. In late April, The Free Press reported that interim U.S. attorney Ed Martin, a Trump-appointed prosecutor in Washington, sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation accusing it of potentially violating its obligations as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. more

Friction exists in every organization — but great leaders know it’s their job to reduce it. Whether it’s a sales rep stuck on box 16a of a form or a new team confused by undocumented workarounds, small inefficiencies add up fast. Often, the obstacles aren’t strategic — they’re self-inflicted. And if you’re not actively seeking out and fixing those pain points, you’re probably standing in the way of your own team’s success. more

Since its founding in November 2020, Almost — an independent social-first news outlet delivering global news stories for young people all around the world — has amassed more than 309,000 followers across all accounts and a reach of 27.7 million in early 2025. It’s delivery strategy is multi-platform, including Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, Threads, Facebook, LinkedIn, X and Bluesky. more

Most readers who hit a paywall don’t subscribe—they leave. In fact, research shows that more than 90% of visitors abandon publisher sites at the paywall, often never returning. During a recent Editor & Publisher webinar, media researcher Jessie Shi and Make it Free CEO Wade Bradley tackled this challenge head-on. Shi called for smarter, more flexible paywall strategies, while Bradley unveiled a model that monetizes the lost majority through ad-sponsored article access. Their message was clear: locking readers out doesn’t pay—but letting them in just might. more

If you work as a journalist in the U.S., you are at least tangentially aware of Mizzou’s impact on journalism. The clout is not just in the school’s brand and reputation as one of the most prestigious J-schools in the country but also in the names of its alums. But, Mizzou is involved in much more than producing an army of journalists. It’s also connected with research and institutional groups that support the industry behind the scenes. more

“Impact” is what all journalists hope for their work — that it will be consequential and inspire change. It may be as simple as a better-informed audience or as complex as a change in public policy. But at what point does a quest for impact cross the line from effective journalism to advocacy? more

On the afternoon of April 2, the News/Media Alliance notified all its members that newsprint imported from Canada is exempt from the 25% tariff. The exemption applies to all compliant goods from Canada and Mexico under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). more

Local media isn’t just struggling — it’s at a tipping point, and most companies are leaning the wrong way. In a brutally candid conversation, Gordon Borrell explained why 85% of local outlets are capturing less than 10% of their digital ad potential and why newspapers, particularly, have seen zero digital revenue growth since 2020. He called out broken sales cultures, invisible new businesses and the dangerous illusion that hard paywalls are a sustainable fix. If you’re in news publishing and not reading this, you’re missing your wake-up call — and possibly your last chance to pivot. more

Just because people trust public media doesn’t mean they use it. For all the “trust” people express in PBS, the audience size for the flagship PBS Newshour declined by 9% from 2020 to 2022. Other reports show similar decreases in NPR listenership and tune-in to terrestrial broadcasts of any type. Audiences, in other words, are shifting to digital distribution. more

Dallas Voice has been persistent and undeterred in its mission since 1984 to speak loudly and proudly for the Dallas LGBTQ community. Dallas Voice tells the community's many stories and advocates for the advances in equality, legal rights and basic human respect the community enjoys today. more