New Ideas for Improving the Economics of Producing Local Journalism

• Published date: 01 May 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00027162231220475
• Author: Mark S. Nadel
• Date: 01 May 2023
• Subject Matter: Part IV: Adaptation

266 ANNALS, AAPSS, 707, May 2023

DOI: 10.1177/00027162231220475

New Ideas for

Improving the

Economics of

Producing

Local

Journalism

By

MARK S. NADEL

1220475ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYNEW IDEAS FOR IMPROVING LOCAL JOURNALISM ECONOMICS

research-article2024

Many ideas have been proposed for improving the eco-

nomics of producing journalism, but this article explores

a few new ones focused on local journalism. These

ideas include an increased reliance upon retired jour-

nalists, more collaboration with academic researchers,

providing reports to aid those looking to move to a new

community, and an outline for allowing news organiza-

tions to gain a legal right to a much larger portion of the

financial benefits associated with prosocial investigative

journalism.

Keywords: local journalism; economics; investigative

journalism; news production; news reve-

nue models

Many ideas have been suggested for

improving the financial condition of local

news services, and some have already been

implemented. For example, Report for America

(n.d.), a donor-funded national service pro-

gram, places emerging journalists in local news-

rooms to report on undercovered topics and

communities across the U.S. Others, like an

antitrust exemption to allow news services to

negotiate for copyright fees from Google,

Facebook, YouTube, and other large online

platforms (similar to the arrangement adopted

for Australia [Morrison 2021]), have almost

been adopted by Congress. Many others have

been compiled at the websites of Solutions to

America’s Local Journalism Crisis (Forman

2022) and Rebuild Local News (Rebuild Local

News Coalition 2023) and in a 2023 Government

Accountability Office (GAO) report.

Correspondence: msnadel@gmail.com

Mark S. Nadel is an attorney/advisor at the Federal

Communications Commission, but this analysis repre-

sents solely his own views and not those of the

Commission or the U.S. government and is unrelated to

his work at the Commission. His research has focused

on the First Amendment and the economics of media

access.