Free Press Action Launches 'Local News for the People,' a Collaborative Blueprint for Community-Centered Media
WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, Free Press Action released Local News for the People: A Policy Agenda for Meeting Civic-Information Needs, a roadmap created by leaders in the journalism and pro-democracy fields that urges lawmakers to treat local news like the public good it is.
Local News for the People is a blueprint for the structural changes needed to address the ongoing crisis in local news by focusing on supporting communities and journalists — and cultivating the emerging civic-media space that has arisen amid the collapse of commercial newspapers. The agenda was created by the Media Power Collaborative, a national network of more than 200 journalists, civic leaders, researchers, philanthropists and individuals who believe communities should be at the forefront of media-policy discussions.
Local News for the People calls on lawmakers to prioritize the independent newsrooms and noncommercial outlets that are closest to their communities, most in tune to civic needs, and most under-resourced compared to their larger commercial counterparts. It lays out five pillars that should guide local-news policy interventions:
- Prioritize community-information needs
- Invest in community-first models to democratize media power
- Leverage public and popular education to support civic information and local news
- Ensure a just transition for media workers and protect workers’ rights
- Address and repair the historic harms of our media system
Ten community-media leaders authored this agenda, and it has been endorsed by more than 50 leading journalism, pro-democracy and civic-information organizations and outlets, including LION Publishers, the National Writers Union, News Futures, PEN America, the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund at Borealis Philanthropy and the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry.
Mike Rispoli, Free Press Action’s senior director of journalism and civic information, said:
“Now more than ever, we need to build public support for an independent press that holds power to account and helps people make sense of an increasingly chaotic world around them. We’re seeing the real consequences of the decades-long collapse of local commercial media: Misinformation is filling the public’s news feeds, important government meetings are happening without coverage, and people can’t find basic information about what’s happening in their neighborhoods. Tinkering around the edges will just lead to a more precipitous decline — which is why we need an affirmative vision and bold action now, before it’s too late.
“The values and recommendations laid out in Local News for the People will help ensure that communities have the news and information they need to connect, coordinate and survive while building toward a brighter future. When we have abundant resources to produce and access truthful, relevant and representative news and information, our collective power grows by leaps and bounds. We can hold public leaders accountable, stand in solidarity with our neighbors and develop solutions to long-standing problems.
“This crisis calls for robust public funding of a media system with sturdy firewalls in place to preserve editorial independence. This system must prioritize the needs of working- and middle-class communities over the profit-driven interests of billionaires. The journalists, storytellers, organizers and community leaders driving this policy agenda have pointed us in the right direction; policy change is central to unlocking the civic-media movement’s full potential. The health and structure of our media system, and whose interests it serves, are the result of policy choices — ones we have the ability to influence. We can start this work at the state and local levels while laying the groundwork for a national movement.”
