In the expansive, fraught, and lively debates raging today about what the future of local news can and should look like, a vision of news as a nonprofit public good is increasingly popular among pioneering journalists and funders alike.
Yet for all the (well-deserved) excitement and attention generated by the growth in nonprofit newsrooms, especially at the local level, we know that growth has yet to outpace the shrinking of traditional for-profit outlets. Legacy print publications remain a critical part of the local news ecosystem in many cities. Across the United States and beyond, these outlets are rethinking their coverage priorities and approaches, reimagining how they reach audiences, and engaging in practical and personal soul-searching about how to remain relevant and survive in an ever-evolving information and entertainment marketplace.
For some legacy dailies, like the profitable Boston Globe, that experimentation is yielding some success. Others, like the Los Angeles Times, have resorted to major layoffs despite concerted efforts to modernize and reach new audiences. So what are the major challenges facing metro newspapers today, and how are they attempting to adapt? Those are the questions four top editors from metro dailies in Texas, California and Canada explored in an International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ) panel on April 13.
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