In a local newspaper, anything other than local affairs coverage is competing — without even being too dramatic about it — with the entire Internet. You can find national and international coverage on the websites of national and international news sources and wire services. You can find fashion and lifestyle coverage in any glossy magazine in this category, yes, but also for free on their websites or on sites such as WhoWhatWear and PopSugar. You can find general sports coverage from national broadcast players and the burgeoning field of digital sites like Deadspin and Bleacher Report. The comics page? Try a quick scroll through the memes on Twitter for a laugh. Business coverage? Economics blogs are better than ever, and on The Economist’s digital site, you may read three free articles a week. Book reviews? Just take a moment and search the web for “book reviews.” You do not need your local newspaper to provide this coverage.
In 2019, local news organizations will further pivot away from comprehensive coverage in order to continue to provide value in the marketplace. And the smart ones won’t contract their resources — they’ll redouble them for high-quality local coverage. This offers a few advantages:
And, by the way, beyond all the audience benefits, this is exactly the local news organization where many outstanding journalism students — and long-standing professionals — yearn to work, covering stories that matter to the community.
Rachel Davis Mersey is an assistant professor at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University.
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Elite Truong What do we owe the next generation?
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Reyhan Harmanci Selling more stories to Hollywood
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Josh Schwartz A pullback from platforms and a focus on product
Jesse Holcomb We’ll get better at making the case for local journalism
John Saroff The pivot to reader revenue’s unintended consequences
Renan Borelli Developing loyalty means developing your talent
Steve Grove A reckoning for tech’s work with news
Mandy Jenkins Fight the urge to run away from social media
Rachel Davis Mersey Local news goes minimalist
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer The most beautiful sentence in 2019 is “No.”
Peter Cunliffe-Jones The focus of misinformation debates shifts south
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Kjerstin Thorson Time to get mad about information inequality (again)
Axie Navas The traffic hunt, CMS battle, and magazine identity crises loom
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Michael Grant More newsrooms experiment their way to success
Peter Bale Venture capital runs out of patience
Taylor Lorenz Personal branding is more powerful than ever
Colleen Shalby Representation becomes more than a talking point
Angilee Shah The year news orgs say “yes” to real leaders
Geetika Rudra The year of actionable (local) journalism
Andrea Faye Hart Doing less harm, not just more good
Dan Shanoff Bet on sports gambling
Frank Mungeam Tonight at 11: News, sports, and climate change
Joel Konopo Influencers become the new liberated power in Africa
Mike Caulfield Ditch the media literacy cynicism and get to work
Amy King We should listen to the kids (especially on Instagram)
Michael Rain The year of the culturally relevant curator
Raney Aronson-Rath We learn “digital” doesn’t have to mean “short”
Mike Rispoli and Craig Aaron Government funds local news — and that’s a good thing
Charo Henríquez Pivot to journalism
Frank Chimero Leave the phone at home and put news on your wrist
Mariana Moura Santos From pageviews to impact
Thomas Hanitzsch The rise of tribal journalism
Lauren Katz Community becomes a core newsroom value
Kate Myers Journalism continues to be bad for democracy
Sue Robinson Reporters go on the offensive
Nicholas Jackson More transparency around newsroom decisions
Mike Isaac The old exit doors for digital media companies are closing
Johannes Klingebiel We all grow hooves
Jennifer Dargan You don’t build diversity through one-off training sessions
Libby Bawcombe Haikus of the news
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Rachel Glickhouse Newsrooms will prioritize audience needs
Kainaz Amaria We consider who’s behind the camera
Sarah Alvarez Simplify and redistribute
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Nikki Usher Three ways national media will further undermine trust
Pablo Boczkowski Reimagining the media for post-institutional times
Matt Karolian Publishers come to terms with being Facebook’s enablers
Tyler Fisher This is journalism’s do-or-die moment
Elva Ramirez News — but make it cinematic
Matt Skibinski Quality and reliability are the new currencies for publishers
Ariel Zirulnick Participation gets professional
Adam Smith Platforms will have to help rebuild trust in news
Andrew Donohue Voting rights becomes the new climate change
Becca Aaronson From bridge roles to product thinkers
Alexis Lloyd & Matt Boggie The year product leads media
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Julie Posetti The year of the fight back
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Sarah Marshall A return to destination journalism
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Ben Smith The pendulum starts to swing back
Elizabeth Dunbar Local reporters reflect on what’s not important
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Tim Carmody Unlocking the commons
Kyra Darnton A shift to depth in video
Tshepo Tshabalala Ahead of African elections, unlock partnerships with fact-checkers
Zuzanna Ziomecka News leadership gets an overdue upgrade
Claire Wardle Forget deepfakes: Misinformation is showing up in our most personal online spaces
Millie Tran There is no magic — you’ve got this
Jeremy Gilbert AI finally becomes helpful
Salem Solomon Correcting our corrections
Adam Thomas In Europe, foundations invest in news
Greg Emerson Power to the user
Carrie Brown-Smith Advocating a healthy civic life is no journalistic crime
Adam B. Ellick Video forensic reporting goes mainstream — and local
Jeff Chin We detox from Chartbeat
Logan Molyneux Seeing social media for what it is
Whitney Phillips Our information systems aren’t broken — they’re working as intended
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Steve Henn Smart speakers get smarter
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau A more sincere definition of “community”
Marie Shanahan Newsrooms take the comments sections back from platforms
Alberto Cairo A year of uncertainty and confidence
Talia Stroud Engaging people across lines of difference
Tushar Banerjee Interactive ads will be the new face of display advertising
Shannon McGregor More bogus embedded tweets in our stories
Nisha Chittal The homepage makes a comeback
Don Day Timewalls and other reader revenue experiments
Soo Oh Just showing our work isn’t enough
Mat Yurow Content competition from the tech companies
Joanne McNeil Building a digital hospice
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