Knight has made progress in supporting local news infrastructure, but there’s more to do

Before joining Knight, my previous venture had been Spirited Media, a startup that launched and operated three local news websites before selling them in 2019. The first of these sites to launch was Billy Penn, the Philadelphia-based site we eventually sold to WHYY, the city’s public media entity. It continues to thrive today as a standalone brand. (In fact, Billy Penn celebrated its 10th anniversary just last week.)

By the time I launched Billy Penn, I had 20 years of experience in digital journalism, which granted me valuable insight and a distinct advantage in launching a digital news organization.

Yet it was still so much harder than I thought it would be. Sure, we had a strong vision for what Billy Penn’s content strategy and voice should be. We had a strong view that the business model needed to focus heavily on events and membership. But, in the end, we still needed a platform on which to publish. And a system to deliver ads. And legal support to create and maintain the business. And tools to successfully run a membership program. And so much more. 

Over the past decade, Knight has invested more than $100 million to build out this essential infrastructure for local news across the United States so that publishers—both new and legacy—don’t have to wrestle with the same challenges. Today, it is possible to establish and operate a local news organization with far fewer resources than were required a decade ago, thanks to a suite of affordable solutions, many developed with Knight’s support.

Building a robust local news infrastructure

Over the past decade, innovators have helped build a robust ecosystem of local news infrastructure to provide services, tools, expertise and technology to the industry. This includes dozens of organizations and programs, including the American Journalism Project, Tiny News Collective, Newspack, Indiegraf, URL Media, News Revenue Hub, CatchLight, LION Publishers, the Institute for Nonprofit News, ProJourn, The Video Consortium, BlueLena, News Literacy Project, Big Local News, Muckrock, Lawyers for Reporters, the Knight x LMA BloomLab, NewsMatch, Knight Elections Hub, Report for America and so many more. 

Our investments have been aimed at creating a sustainable ecosystem that can support a wide range of local news models—for-profit and nonprofit, hyperlocal and regional and more. Above is a graphic that shows what we see as the necessary elements of running a local news organization, where we are meeting publishers’ needs and where there are still gaps to fill.

There are indications this strategy is paying off. According to our ongoing assessment of our investments in local news sustainability, publishers utilizing Knight-supported tools have seen their annual revenue increase by an average of 6.4%, while those engaged with multiple Knight-funded programs reported 13.3% growth. At a time in which news avoidance is a real challenge, news organizations using Knight interventions experienced a 4% increase in average monthly digital users. And more than half of newsrooms in the assessment now count three or more revenue streams, with none accounting for more than 60 percent of total revenue. 

As the report says, “At a time when revenues are declining, audiences are shrinking and in the worst cases, newsrooms are disappearing altogether, the fact that, on average, local newsrooms supported by Knight grantees grew their revenues, audiences and staff is significant.” 

One way of showing this progress: If you look at the actual expenses and revenues of Billy Penn and factor in the opportunities available today, an investment that had a financial runway of two-plus years in the past would have almost six years of runway today.

More challenges lie ahead

But we are not declaring victory. Not at all. The steps we’ve taken to this point have been impactful. But they are not enough. The road for anyone working in local news is still treacherous. There are still many challenges to tackle, and success requires precise decision-making and quick course-changing when decisions prove ill-advised. But part of what our infrastructure efforts are producing is more time for publishers to find the product-market fit that is required for long-term success. 

Let’s not speed past product-market fit. None of the infrastructure we build will matter if consumers don’t want what local newsrooms produce. But, as we all know, finding a product-market fit takes time, and our efforts are buying publishers time in two different ways: 

We’re freeing up time by providing core services that publishers can simply plug into rather than build and maintain, thus giving them more time to focus on the crucial tasks of producing and monetizing local journalism.
By driving down burn rates, we’re extending the runway for publishers and giving them more time to find that audience fit. 

Launching and operating a newsroom is still hard. Local news is not a business for the faint of heart. But achieving success is far more achievable for today’s Billy Penns than ever before. Our goal at Knight is to continue to strengthen this infrastructure and support the publishers who are creating impactful journalism for communities around the country.

Note: This article originally appeared in a News@Knight Newsletter. Subscribe here: