"Their work, and the lessons I've drawn from it, are the source of my prediction for 2026: Local news organizations will begin to realize the financial value of their archives, including by selling access to companies that are building large language models and other artificial intelligence products. Most local news organizations already place some value on their archives. The most common way they do this is by putting most of it behind a paywall,"
"But local news archives aren't just a record of the past; they are in many cases irreplaceable civic infrastructure, a critical part of understanding communities. They are among the first places that researchers look when trying to piece together what happened decades ago or last month. And I don't mean just stories: My students can see the value in publishing legal notices, event calendars, obituaries, and high school sports statistics."
Journalism students used local newspaper archives to build beat books for inexperienced reporters, uncovering valuable content beyond articles: legal notices, event calendars, obituaries, and high school sports statistics. Local news archives function as irreplaceable civic infrastructure that helps researchers and communities understand past and recent events. Many publishers place archives behind paywalls to protect value and prevent scraping, but tech companies building AI models seek accurate, local training data. Local news organizations can monetize archives by offering programmatic, paid access or licensing, and pursuing copyright enforcement, presenting a scalable revenue opportunity across thousands of local outlets.
Read at Nieman Lab
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