Ep. 35: On Local News, with Jason Pramas, Corinne Colbert, and Brian Zayatz

This week, our guests let us in on an open secret in the journalism world: nobody knows how to fund local news anymore. With the traditional pillars that supported local information ecosystems eroding and eventually collapsing over the last few decades, recent years have seen experimentation with all kinds of economic models, including the nonprofit.

In this episode, Shelby Lee and Dusty Christensen are joined by three guests fighting to save local news: Jason Pramas, executive director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism; Corinne Colbert, editor-in-chief of the Athens County Independent in Ohio; and Brian Zayatz, managing editor of The Shoestring. Together, the group discusses discuss the crisis in local news, how to duct tape together an information ecosystem, and some of the organizing we've done together to advocate for reforms that would support stronger local news for everyone.

Produced by Dusty Christensen. Music by An Archaeologist.