With the decline of local news amounting to a dramatic fall, Colorado newsrooms, like The Colorado Sun, are creating regional hubs to revitalize community reporting. Unlike traditional regional bureaus that primarily served larger newspapers, these hubs will focus on local needs by being rooted in their respective communities. This network model, supported by organizations such as the American Journalism Project, aims to enhance the local news landscape and improve access to quality reporting. Funding and initiatives are being directed at nonprofit newsrooms, marking a proactive step toward sustainable journalism.
"We don't intend to be arrogant and say, 'We're here from the Colorado Sun, and here's how it's going to be,'" Ryckman said. "The real work begins with a lot of listening."
Leaders at newsrooms like the Sun, seeing the rapid collapse of local news around them, are thinking about how they can do more to compensate for what's being lost in their own backyards.
While bureaus were "writing for the mothership" more than serving individual communities, he says, the Sun's hubs will be built from the ground up to serve and report on the smaller, region-specific communities they're created for.
The American Journalism Project, the venture philanthropy that has raised more than $200 million for local news since 2019, is investing in and fundraising on this vision for scaling local news.
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