These Rural Entrepreneurs Are Redefining Local Journalism

“Everybody knows that journalism is in crisis. It’s particularly felt with rural journalism,” said Adam Giorgi, Director of Planning and Program Development at the Center of Rural Strategies, which produces The Daily Yonder. “That’s where a lot of the backsliding and the closures and the consolidation has happened.”

If this is true, then how do we fix it? It’s the million-dollar question that has been asked for decades. And as far as local, rural journalism goes, the question remains unanswered.

Traditionally, local news thrived off what was called the “bundle.” The bundle, according to Giorgi, included the reasons people subscribed to a newspaper: the weather, stock market, sports scores, or the news.

“We live in an information environment now, where the bundle has been totally broken. So, your app on your phone can give you the weather, you’ve got Robinhood for stocks, and you have the ESPN app for sports scores. And really, all that was left for traditional local news providers was the news.”

The loss of the bundle came with the introduction of the internet, which created a space for information to be globalized. With the bundle broken, local newspapers weren’t holding the same amount of readership and couldn’t make enough money to turn a profit. Since 2004, over 2,100 local newspapers in the United States have gone out of business. According the Giorgi, the downfall of local news has direct links to the downfall of communities as well.

“All the academic literature shows that that leads to worse civic outcomes— less voter turnout and ticket splitting and more partisanship and polarization and less accountability for public officials,” said Giorgi. “There’s just more and more research showing that it takes a toll on communities when your local news withers.”

It goes to show there are clear benefits to keeping news local, and it’s going to require an entrepreneurial spirit to make it work. We connected with three, Colorado local news outlets to understand how they’re redefining what it means to produce local, community-focused news.

Introducing a innovative broadcast news model in Durango

Laurie Sigillito founded the Local News Network in 2013, and ended up solving an issue one community had dealt with for years: Durango, Colorado was a broadcast news desert. Instead of Denver news, local viewers watch the latest from Albuquerque, NM. But it wasn’t just a matter of no news, it was also a matter of distribution. Their solution was to create a digital out-of-home (DOOH) network. 

A DOOH network brings news content and advertisements into places outside the home, such as the dentist’s office or your local pizzeria. This scenario works for both news outlets and advertisers as viewers can’t change the channel and have no option but to view the stories and the ads. Through this, The Local News Network has built what they call an “information economy,” spreading their network from Durango to Telluride, Montezuma County, and Farmington, NM already. 

“We want to revitalize, rebuild, close the gap in the information economy, in rural America, because it’s not just about the news,” said Sigillito. “You can write all the news stories you want, but if you don’t have some way of getting them out, and people reading it, and monetizing, how are you going to keep it going? You don’t have anything.” 

Being able to take this same business model to different cities with a click of the remote has made this business model efficient and cost effective. It also promotes community engagement with local businesses, which keeps businesses paying for local news advertisements. It’s a modern revamp of the traditional news business model.