Small Press, Big Ideas
Small Press, Big Ideas is a podcast about the business of local news and community journalism in the US. Host Paul Gewuerz interviews entrepreneurs and journalists in the field to get their take on what's working, what i...
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Est. listeners per new episode within ~30 days
900 to 8.1K🎙 Monthly cadence·130 episodes·Last published 2w ago - Monthly Reach
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1K to 9K🇺🇸100% - Active Followers
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400 to 3.6K
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| Date | Episode | Description | Length | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10/5/26 |  Building a pipeline of young local reporters | Katy Temple is the executive director of the Foundation for Local News, a New Jersey nonprofit focused on student journalism. She found her way back to journalism through her community college newspaper. That led to advocacy for New Voices legislation, a political science degree from Columbia, and stints in state and federal government. Then a LinkedIn message from Mike Shapiro turned her plan to start a nonprofit into an offer to run his. Katy explains the foundation's first workshop series, which covers personal branding, short form video, and broadcast. She also lays out the long game: pilot newsrooms in schools that don't have one, paid pathways into local outlets, and a model other states could adopt. Along the way she walks through the legal cases that shape student press rights. She also makes the case that funding student journalism means investing in democracy itself, the same way we invest in roads and schools. Links: Foundation for Local News https://foundationforlocalnews.org/ on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foundationforlocalnews/ Katy Temple - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/katy-temple-7b5817154/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the podcast platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 38m 52s | ||||||
| 9/28/26 |  How a newsroom of one bought its hometown paper | Amy Bushatz spent 13 years at Military.com before moving to Alaska and launching the Mat-Su Sentinel, a nonprofit, digital first newsroom she runs largely on her own. After hearing at a public meeting that the local paper, The Frontiersman, was about to lose its public notice revenue, she closed a deal with its owners in about two weeks and took over the 80 year old Frontiersman's brand, archive, and subscribers, but not its building or printing press. In this episode Amy talks through the messy reality of acquisition, from locked social accounts and unreliable subscriber data to boxes of unlabeled photo negatives. She also explains why she skips opinion and police blotters, how her LION Publishers award winning model rests on nine income streams, and why she approaches fundraising the way a candidate approaches an election. Links: Mat-Su Sentinel https://www.matsusentinel.com/ The Frontiersman https://www.frontiersman.com/tag/news/ Amy Bushatz - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-bushatz/ Tiny News Collective https://www.tinynewsco.org/ Listening Post Collective https://listeningpostcollective.org/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the podcast platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 54m 55s | ||||||
| 9/21/26 |  The scrappy playbook behind premium print | Everyone keeps declaring print dead. Megan Schertler has built an entire career proving the opposite. As cofounder and managing director of In Real Life Media, she helps publishers and brands put print magazines back at the center of their business, treating it as the anchor rather than the afterthought. In this conversation she explains why print is now outperforming digital on trust, how COVID and AI reshaped what audiences actually believe, and why so many new magazines fold after a couple of issues. She breaks down the small but mighty model built on obsessive readers, the generational knowledge gap that leaves publishers unsure how to sell print, and the unglamorous operational decisions that quietly decide whether a title survives. Links In Real Life Media https://www.inreallife.media/ Megan Schertler - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwrays/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the podcast platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 40m 34s | ||||||
| 9/15/26 |  Building a local media hold co you can run till the day you die | Michael Kauffman never planned to build a media company. After a beverage startup that raised 250k and vanished in a single production run, a stint working for the founder of Priceline, and a string of ventures that burned him out, a long drive home from a Montana fishing trip pushed him to start a local newsletter with two rules, keep it fun and keep it rooted in community. That newsletter, Catskill Crew, now reaches around 41,000 subscribers. In this conversation Michael breaks down how he turned a weekly newsletter into a local holding company, stacking revenue across ads, events, merch, board games, and a new premium tier. He explains why he believes content is the hard part while subscriber growth is nearly free, why he turned down a $25,000 advertiser that did not fit the brand, and how the Newsletter Club grew into a global community of local media operators. Links: Catskill Crew https://catskillcrew.com/ The Newsletter Club https://thenewsletter.club/ Michael Kauffman socials LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljkauffman/ X: https://x.com/MikeyPesto --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the podcast platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 44m 29s | ||||||
| 9/7/26 |  Running six Ohio news sites with AI | Julie D'Aloiso built a Northeast Ohio local news network almost by accident, and in this episode she traces the winding path that got her there. A former COBOL programmer turned early social media adopter, she launched SpiderCat Marketing, ran an internet radio station out of her basement, and started covering her own town once the local paper went quiet. Today she and her small family team run more than twenty city Facebook pages and six news sites, reaching millions of views a month. Our conversation gets into how she actually pulls it off: using Claude as a ghostwriter, turning long council meetings into short form video that regularly goes viral, and stitching together revenue from ads, national ad networks, and community submission tools. Julie also explains why she believes content is still king, and why AI is not always the answer. Links: Julie D'Aloiso - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdaloiso/ email: [email protected] SpiderCat Marketing https://spidercatmarketing.com/ Nordonia Hills News https://nordoniahills.news/ NE Ohio News https://neohio.news/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the podcast platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 30m 58s | ||||||
| 8/31/26 |  What local news is trying next | Sophie Culpepper covers local news for Nieman Lab, the Harvard based publication tracking how journalism is evolving in a digital age. She joins the show to map what is actually working in local media right now, from a Provincetown newsroom that ran a capital campaign to buy housing for its reporters to Chicago Public Media reimagining a donated web domain as a neighborhood social square. The conversation digs into the business side of local news, including events as real revenue, regional scale as a survival strategy, and the state policies starting to fund newsrooms. Sophie also makes a case for staying a self described Luddite in her own writing. Links: Nieman Lab https://www.niemanlab.org/ Sophie Culpepper socials LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-culpepper/ Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/speppered.bsky.social --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the podcast platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 35m 30s | ||||||
| 7/20/26 |  Funding journalism with the tools that threaten it | Brian Kennett is the founder of Built Revenue. He argues that local publishers are sitting on the most valuable asset in their market, a trusted audience, and monetizing almost none of what it is worth. In this conversation Brian breaks down why the platforms will never build the tools publishers actually need, how complexity and disconnected systems quietly bleed revenue, and why he leans fully into AI to fund journalism rather than fear it. He and Paul trade real examples of publishers turning idle space into cafes, event venues, and studios, and Brian makes the case that the publishers moving fast right now are the ones who will still be standing in five years. Links: Built Revenue https://www.builtrevenue.com/ Brian Kennett - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/briankennett/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the podcast platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 34m 27s | ||||||
| 7/13/26 |  How AI rewired a one person newsroom | Uriah Kiser has spent more than three decades in local media, from interviewing President Clinton as a teenage TV reporter to launching Potomac Local two years before the Virginia newspaper he grew up delivering shut its presses for good. Sixteen years later he is still covering why the cops were on your street, what the city council voted on, and which new restaurant just opened, all while running lean with a rotating crew of high school interns. In this conversation Uriah breaks down how AI reshaped his workflow without breaking the rules of journalism, from turning hours long meeting transcripts into story ideas to profiling prospects before a sales call and translating ad analytics into plain language clients actually read. Links: Uriah Kiser - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/uriah-kiser-27093a10/ Potomac Local News https://www.potomaclocal.com/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the podcast platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 48m 11s | ||||||
| 7/6/26 |  The firewall between business and editorial is becoming a half wall | Brandon Mercer is the Vice President of Ad Product Integrated Solutions at Hearst, where he builds the programs that sit between editorial and advertising across the company's local newspaper properties. Brandon argues that the old firewall between the business and editorial sides is turning into a half wall, something teams should be able to see over rather than hide behind. His clearest advice for local publishers is to pour energy into email, text messaging, and events, the channels they actually control as search traffic and zero click answers eat into website readership. Links: Brandon Mercer - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mercerbrandon/ Mentioned in the episode: Trumpia - https://www.trumpia.com/ Subtext - https://info.joinsubtext.com/ Sailthru - https://zetaglobal.com/sailthru/ Inside the Creator Economy newsletter - https://insidethecreator.beehiiv.com/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the podcast platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 41m 03s | ||||||
| 6/29/26 |  What Blockbuster and Redbox reveal about local news | Justin Rushing has spent more than fifteen years on the revenue side of local news. Today he is cofounder of the HBCU Digital Media Collaborative, which partners with historically Black colleges and universities to help students build campus publishing outlets and find real pathways into media careers. In this conversation Justin traces how a single internship pulled him into a field he did not know existed, why activating students on campus sits at the heart of the Collaborative's work, and what local publishers should actually focus on in 2026. He argues that revenue is logistical before it is transactional, that publishers should monetize whichever asset is stronger, their brand or their audience, and that the consumer rather than the newsroom ultimately decides what survives. Links: Justin Rushing: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-rushing-21341616/ https://www.iamjustinrushing.com/ HBCU Collaborative https://hbcucollaborative.org/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the podcast platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 41m 04s | ||||||
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| 6/22/26 |  Vertical video is where your audience already is | David Arkin returns to the podcast to talk about the format reshaping local media right now: vertical video. He breaks down why reels are no longer a young person's medium, why dropping a two and a half minute TV segment into the feed never works, and what actually does. The conversation gets specific, from green screen and split screen formats to a TV anchor who built a sustainable rhythm by repackaging quick hit stories at her desk. David also gets into the money question head on. He explains how publishers become eligible for Meta monetization regardless of follower count, how reels can be built into branded content packages and sold as standalone series, and why posting two or three reels a day beats flooding the feed. Links: davidarkinconsulting.com Connect with David LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidarkin11/ email: [email protected] --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the audio platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 33m 41s | ||||||
| 6/15/26 |  Sixty years of covering Black Atlanta | Donnell Suggs is editor in chief of the Atlanta Voice, Atlanta's only Black newspaper, which marked its 60th anniversary in May without ever missing an issue. He joins the show to talk about two decades of reporting in Georgia, what it means to run a free community paper where ads, not subscriptions, pay the bills, and why political campaigns and local institutions spend money to reach his readers. Links: Donnell Suggs - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnell-suggs-90287a26/ The Atlanta Voice https://theatlantavoice.com/ on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theatlantavoice --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the audio platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 22m 36s | ||||||
| 6/8/26 |  Using AI to eliminate the grunt work | Peter Stuart spent 20 years in journalism before quitting his editorial role at in late 2025 to build an AI-powered publishing platform called Velora. In this conversation, he walks through what that platform actually does: a news discovery engine that monitors hundreds of sources across multiple languages, an AI co-writing tool that challenges and strengthens copy, automated CMS population, social image generation, and a verification layer that can block publication until flagged errors are resolved. The conversation gets into the editorial philosophy behind it all. Peter argues that the real value of AI in a newsroom isn't replacing judgment but eliminating the repetitive work that crowds it out. Links: Velora https://velora.build/ Peter Stuart contact info: email [email protected] LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterstuartcreative/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the audio platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 40m 21s | ||||||
| 6/3/26 |  The indie rock station model for local media | Lorne London has been publishing in Toronto since 1989, starting with an eight page community newspaper in his unheated basement. Today his company reaches 200,000 print readers a month and 1.4 million social media followers, while every competitor he once had in the city has folded. In this conversation, Lorne breaks down the mindset that has kept him standing: stop chasing home runs and hit singles instead. He talks about building an Instagram presence that operates like an indie rock station, why he refuses to cover negative news, and how he grew a massive audience without paying the algorithm. He also shares what he calls "revenue agnosticism" and why local publishers struggling for survival need to fight the battle where they are strongest, not where their competitors are. Links: Streets of Toronto https://streetsoftoronto.com/ on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/streetsoftoronto --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the audio platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 40m 24s | ||||||
| 5/25/26 |  Building local news from scratch in Baltimore | T.J. Ortenzi is the Deputy Managing Editor of Audience and Digital at the Baltimore Banner. T.J. spent 11 years at the Washington Post before joining the Banner specifically because it would let him cover the city where he actually lives. In this conversation, T.J. breaks down how the Banner has built audience through social video, including a now legendary Big Short inspired video that drove real subscription starts. He also gets into how the newsroom thinks about moving followers to owned channels, the role of their social anchors, and an interesting AI grant project with the Lenfest Institute. Links: The Baltimore Banner https://www.thebanner.com/ T.J. Ortenzi https://www.linkedin.com/in/tjortenzi/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the audio platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 28m 47s | ||||||
| 5/20/26 |  Launching a nonprofit newsroom in Austin | Melissa Barragán Taboada spent nearly three decades in legacy journalism, including more than 20 years covering Austin and a stint at the Boston Globe, before making the leap into nonprofit local news. She's now editor in chief of the Austin Current, a nonprofit newsroom launched under the Texas Tribune umbrella focused on education, local government, and growth and development in one of the fastest changing cities in the country. Links: Melissa Barragán Taboada - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissabtaboada/ Austin Current https://austincurrent.org/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the audio platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 22m 11s | ||||||
| 5/18/26 |  How a skeptic became his company's AI strategist | Eli Wohlenhaus, Director of Digital and AI News Strategy at Adams Multimedia, started out skeptical of AI in the newsroom. Now he leads training sessions across a network of local newspapers in 20 states, helping editors figure out where these tools actually fit into their day-to-day work. In this conversation, Eli gets specific about what AI integration looks like inside a real local news operation: running police logs through LLMs, using Claude for brainstorming when juggling multiple publications, and experimenting with AI-assisted podcasts and video products. Links: Eli Wohlenhaus - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-wohlenhaus-274212a4/ Adams MultiMedia https://adamsmultimedia.com/ DC Military https://www.dcmilitary.com/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the audio platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 43m 11s | ||||||
| 5/13/26 |  Higher ed is a local story no one is telling | Sara Hebel is the co-founder and editor in chief of Open Campus, a nonprofit news organization built on the idea that higher education is fundamentally a local story. In this conversation, she walks through how Open Campus embeds reporters directly inside partner newsrooms across the country, combining subject matter expertise in higher education with each outlet's knowledge of its own community. Links: Open Campus https://www.opencampus.org/ Sara Hebel - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-hebel/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the audio platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 34m 55s | ||||||
| 5/11/26 |  The least interesting thing you can do with AI in a newsroom | Aron Pilhofer has spent three decades at some of the most recognizable names in journalism, from the New York Times to the Guardian, and now serves as Chief Product and Membership Officer at Chicago Public Media, home of WBEZ and the Chicago Sun Times. He joins the show to talk about what drew him to one of the more unusual mergers in local media, and where he sees the industry heading. Links: Aron Pilhofer - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/aronpilhofer/ Chicago Public Media https://www.chicagopublicmedia.org/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the audio platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 25m 24s | ||||||
| 5/6/26 |  How New York Focus grew from $75K and a WordPress site | Rebecca Klein, publisher at New York Focus, traces an unlikely path from national education reporter to leader of one of New York's most impactful nonprofit newsrooms. In five years, the outlet grew from a scrappy $75,000 seed-funded operation to a full-time team of 16, powered almost entirely by donor support. Rebecca breaks down how New York Focus reaches readers through daily newsletters, a syndication network spanning dozens of outlets, live events, and social video, all centered on translating Albany politics for everyday New Yorkers. Links: New York Focus https://nysfocus.com/ Rebecca Klein socials: Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/rebsklein.bsky.social Twitter/X https://x.com/rklein90/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccahelenklein/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the audio platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 18m 29s | ||||||
| 5/4/26 |  From Facebook to the front page rebuilding local news in Maine | Will Bleakley is CEO of Islandport Media and Publisher of the Midcoast Villager, a weekly print newspaper that doubled in size after merging four coastal Maine papers, paired with a community cafe, a book publisher, and a deliberate bet on analog life in a digital world. Will talks through what it actually looked like from inside the Facebook Journalism Project, how the Villager grew reader revenue by 40 percent in its first year, why they opened a cafe as a strategic move rather than a vanity project, and what he thinks AI can and cannot do for small newsrooms. Links: Midcoast Villager midcoastvillager.com Villager Cafe villagercafe.com Will Bleakley - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/willbleakley/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the audio platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 36m 35s | ||||||
| 4/29/26 |  Straight news, no opinion, and 65 stories a day | Chris Krug has spent more than 30 years in journalism, but his real education came from getting fired, working in franchising, and traveling internationally before returning to the industry with a clearer vision of what local news actually needs. As CEO of the Franklin News Foundation and publisher of the Center Square, he built a nonpartisan government accountability newswire from four people in a garage to a team of 60 reaching more than 1,300 partner outlets and 141 million US adults daily. In this conversation, Chris unpacks the Center Square's unusual hybrid business model, the tension between editorial independence and financial sustainability, and why the wave of foundation-funded "lab journalism" quietly reshaping American newsrooms deserves far more scrutiny than it is getting. Links: The Center Square https://www.thecentersquare.com/ Chris Krug - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriskrug/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the audio platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 49m 11s | ||||||
| 4/27/26 |  The community owned newsroom experiment | Ron Sylvester shares how Comma Community Journalism Lab is rethinking local news with a hybrid nonprofit model that blends subscriptions, philanthropy, and community driven advertising. At the center is a bold transition of The Spokesman Review into community ownership, backed by broad local support ranging from small individual donors to major institutions. The conversation explores how partnerships with schools, paid student journalism programs, and a renewed commitment to print are shaping a more sustainable future. Links: Ron Sylvester - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronsylvester/ Comma Community Journalism Lab https://www.comma.cm/ The Spokesman-Review https://www.spokesman.com/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the audio platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 45m 30s | ||||||
| 4/22/26 |  Building a sustainable model in New England | Gary Lavariere, publisher of the Berkshire Eagle, shares how a locally owned newspaper is growing in an industry that many assume is in decline. From launching a paywall early to expanding into printing, digital marketing, and niche publications, he breaks down the revenue mix that is actually working today. Gary also talks about why he sees AI as both a powerful tool and a major existential threat, and why protecting the value of journalism may be the defining challenge of the next decade. Links: The Berkshire Eagle https://www.berkshireeagle.com/ Gary Lavariere https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-lavariere-72309712b/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the audio platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 21m 51s | ||||||
| 4/20/26 |  How AI is reshaping media workflows right now | AI is no longer a future trend in media. It is actively reshaping how journalism is produced, distributed, and monetized. Pete Pachal breaks down the shift from generative AI to agentic systems and explains why workflows, not just tools, are being completely redefined. This conversation dives into the growing divide between those embracing AI and those resisting it, and what that means for newsrooms, especially at the local level. Links: The Media Copilot https://mediacopilot.ai/ Pete Pachal - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterpachal/ --- This podcast is sponsored by LocalPod.co, the audio platform built for local media. LocalPod.co --- Subscribe to the Local News Industry Pulse newsletter to receive a weekly briefing of news, policy, trends, and more in the local news industry: https://localnewsindustrypulse.beehiiv.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices | 49m 36s | ||||||
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