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Editorial: Support Your Hyperlocal Independent News Sites

Editorial: Support Your Hyperlocal Independent News Sites
Support The 51st! From left: 51st co-founders Natalie Delgadillo, Colleen Grablick, Eric Falquero, Teresa Frontado (on the screen), Abigail Higgins, and Maddie Poore. Photo from Axios, courtesy Henry Kan.

It’s not much. But, it’s what we can afford.

The Falls Church Independent just donated $25 to help support the launch of D.C.’s newest high profile, non-profit, community news outlet, The 51st, by six former staffers of the now-defunct DCist – a premier source of high-quality local reporting on all-things-D.C with nearly 57,000 subscribers by the time of its demise.

In February, WAMU – D.C.’s National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate – abruptly shut down the DCist website after six years of operation and laid off their entire newsroom of 16 journalists and staffers. Even their online story archives were zapped. 

But now, the founders of The 51st – their name a call for D.C. statehood – say “their goal is to report news that’s made by and for D.C. residents,” WTOP reported. The rising news outlet plans to cover a range of stories. Co-Founder Abigail Higgins told Axios, The 51st will cover local issues such as “D.C.'s affordability crisis, how-tos for living here, the city's culture, and ‘investigations that hold bad actors to account.”

Plans for The 51st will be to “start off as a weekly newsletter [to] include an original, reported story about the District along with other news, event guides and resources,” WTOP reported. 

“We believe all D.C residents deserve a more equitable and just place to live,” The 51st said in a press release. “Our reporting will be fair, rigorous, and rooted in our conviction that journalism is meant to make people’s lives better.”

A New Model for the Non-Profit Newsroom 

To launch the news outlet as a non-profit, the founders of The 51st are looking to raise $250,000 on GiveButter to pay writers and editors, build out a news organization, and launch their newsletter and other web platforms. As of today – with the help of our $25! – the fundraising campaign has raised more than half their goal: $172,790.  

“As we watched our supporters lament DCist’s loss in the weeks and months after the site was shut down, a team of alumni started scheming. What might it be like if we made a news source controlled by the journalists writing the stories? What if we finally got the chance to meaningfully engage with our readers and neighbors, creating journalism they really care about?,” The 51st's fundraising appeal reads.

Receipt after our walloping donation.

Per The Washington Post, The 51st will be “operated as a worker-run newsroom, a model followed by other media start-ups as well, such as New York’s Hell Gate and Defector, which are funded by subscriptions. The 51st was also inspired by nonprofit newsrooms LA Public Press and the Outlier in Detroit — which, in addition to covering the ins and outs of local government, has also published practical guidance on getting your landlord to fix your toilet and other “how-to” pieces.”

And of course, in Baltimore, The Baltimore Banner recently launched as a multi-platform nonprofit news organization established by The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism and funded by philanthropist Stewart Bainum Jr. See this report from The Lenfest Institute about their origin story. 

“We want to build a reciprocal relationship with readers and community members, ensuring that the stories we write are useful and informative,” The 51st said. On July 28, they’ll have a small table at Eastern Market in Southeast, D.C. from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and will walk around talking to community members about their interests.

The Rise of News Deserts Across the Country

Why are so many hyperlocal independent nonprofit news sources popping up? Because an alarming number of newspapers and news sources around the country – especially in rural areas – are either shuttering due to declining ad sales for print products or journalists have chafed under corporate control or been laid off. So, "news deserts" have spread far and wide in a nation plagued by disinformation and uninformed voters. To fill the void, however, new subscription-model newsletter and blogging platforms have given aspiring hyperlocal journalists the tools they need to launch their maverick news operations.

An editorial I wrote for The Georgetowner quantifies the issue: “According to the Lenfest Institute for Journalism which publishes the non-profit Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, since 2008 the number of newsroom employees in the U.S. has fallen by about 30,000, or more than 25 percent, while ‘more than 2,100 newspapers, including 70 daily papers, have stopped publishing since 2004.’ ”

“Local news deserts are being filled by partisan hyperbole, unverified social media posts and harmful disinformation,” according to the Lenfest Institute. “Without accurate, independent news and information, families cannot make informed decisions about their health or education, communities cannot hold governments accountable, and democracy itself comes under dire threat.”

“The WAMU layoffs come as other news organizations have cut back on local coverage in Washington. Buyouts late last year at The Washington Post included significant cuts to the paper’s Metro section,” The Post reported. “Such cuts are part of a larger wave of contractions across a media industry that is still grappling with the disruptions and evolutions of the digital publishing revolution. Vice announced Thursday it would stop publishing on its website and planned to lay off hundreds of employees. The Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal have faced significant layoffs this year, while music review website Pitchfork saw its staff cut while being folded into another outlet. The Messenger, a news start-up with $50 million in funding, imploded in less than a year, laying off hundreds of staffers last month.”

A July 16 story from The Washington Post also described the problem of “news deserts” and the challenges local journalists face when they try to launch their own news sites. “As local newspapers across the country have shriveled — victims of changing readership habits, an evaporating ad business and corporate cost-cutting — some enterprising journalists have attempted to keep coverage of their communities alive through independent start-ups."

‘All these sites are trying to meet a community need,’ said Amy Kovac-Ashley, executive director of the nonprofit Tiny News Collective, ‘and all these people raising their hands are seeing the needs in their own communities.’ Such an endeavor can be daunting, she said. ‘Local journalism is not something that’s easy to scale.’ ”

Maddie Poore, a co-founder of The 51st described to the Post, the personal sacrifices she and her colleagues have made to launch their independent non-profit news site. “All six of us have been working in a volunteer capacity putting just love, sweat and dreams into it,” Poore said. “We’re spending our own money to stand this up, like we’re digging into our dwindling savings accounts.”

And just this morning, a “one-man news site” was reported by The Washington Post to have beaten the national media “on a Trump shooting scoop.” 

The Falls Church Independent encourages our readers to support The 51st and other startup independent hyperlocal and community-oriented news outlets. If you’d like to help us succeed, please spread the word and encourage others to subscribe.


By Christopher Jones