Local news trends that Knight is following in 2025
A mix of increased philanthropy, infrastructure and public policy can help lift the field
It was great to get rested and recharged during the holiday break, but those working to revitalize local news in America have a busy year ahead in 2025. Collectively, much was accomplished in 2024, but that momentum needs to be maintained. The current financial state of local journalism doesn’t leave much room for error. So as Knight’s journalism team considers areas of focus for the year, we want to highlight trends that have shaped the field the past few years and how they might accelerate in 2025 and beyond.
Many have been searching (in vain) for a financial “silver bullet” that will save local news, but it should be clear by now a single solution is unlikely to emerge. But there have been a number of advances that, taken together, are helping make local news more sustainable. The rise in philanthropic giving, the emergence of public policy at the state and local level, support for underserved communities, improved infrastructure and the promise of AI add up to a better environment for local news publishers.
Let’s look a little deeper at each of these key trends.
💸 Philanthropy blitz (or “funding surge”). It’s been great to see how Press Forward has super-charged philanthropy for local news. The funding coalition, through its pooled fund and aligned funding, invested more than $170 million last year. And it plans to invest another $20 million early this year with its infrastructure open call grants. Most importantly, Press Forward—through its local chapters—has catalyzed local funders around the country to support local news for the first time. These funders realize that local news can’t be taken for granted; it’s a public good that will need some philanthropic support to survive. 2025 goal: We fill the map by launching far more local chapters of Press Forward, with an ultimate goal of local funders continuing to invest in local newsrooms long after Press Forward winds down.
🏛️ Public policy spreads around the country. Following the lead of Illinois, New York and California, other states are developing tax breaks for local newsrooms that would go straight to their bottom lines. The hope is that these policies will benefit all local news publishers: nonprofit and for-profit, big and small, legacy and new. Federal legislation on this front remains elusive, but states are continuing to be the “laboratories of democracy” and some cities are now committing percentages of their marketing budgets to independent community media outlets. 2025 goal: Rebuild Local News, Free Press, Press Forward’s Public Policy Working Group and others continue to drive momentum that leads to new public policy wins and new lines of revenue for publishers.
🙌🏾 Underserved communities get served. People talk frequently about the challenges of news deserts, typically rural and/or communities of color that have little to no access to trusted local news. Slowly but surely, we are making progress in uplifting these diverse communities. Press Forward led the way with its open call to close persistent coverage gaps, with $20 million invested in 205 newsrooms–40% led by people of color. Other important programs such as Maynard 200 (supporting mid-career journalists of color), Report for America (46% of corps members are people of color) and Tiny News Collective (70% of founders are people of color) continue to emphasize equity. And the rise of Press Forward local chapters is starting to address some of these news deserts as well. 2025 goal: The trend of support for underserved communities accelerates and many news deserts—be they in sprawling rural areas or urban “micro-deserts”—begins the process of pollination.
⛏️ Infrastructure and support organizations find synergy. Journalism support organizations have matured and grown alongside all these trends, providing much of the infrastructure newsrooms need to succeed. At their best, these support orgs can make publishers’ lives easier and save them money. But these organizations may also duplicate efforts and make it harder for publishers to find and choose the right solution. 2025 goal: That journalism support organizations will find new ways to collaborate, partner or merge so publishers will be able to better identify and secure services, and support organizations can better utilize limited financial and human resources.
🦾 Artificial intelligence becomes a friend to newsrooms. We are two years into the ChatGPT revolution, and newsrooms all over the country are using AI tools to help automate routine tasks and/or dig through large amounts of data in a flash. The Digital Democracy tool at CalMatters, helping track public hearings and political donations, is a good example of what can be built to serve newsrooms and communities. The recent Axios deal with OpenAI is another interesting development. For most of the last 30 years, many newsrooms have looked at new technology as a threat first and an opportunity second. AI is our latest—and maybe most important—opportunity to flip that script and seize the opportunity so newsrooms can save time and money. 2025 goal: Bigger and bolder AI experimentation will occur in newsrooms, and the development and ownership of AI tools that enhance journalistic integrity will be prioritized.
Taken together, these trends have the potential to accelerate the business model transformation of local news. That transformation remains Knight’s focus for 2025, and if you are a local funder or donor interested in joining this movement, we’d love to talk.
Other news around the horn…
Investments
🗽Knight doubles down on Report for America investment. The eight years of partnership between Knight and Report for America (RFA) has seen incredible success in bringing more diverse people into reporting at the local level. RFA has helped more than 370 newsrooms in every state (plus Puerto Rico, Guam and Washington D.C.) raise nearly $30 million in local donations, with 82% of RFA journalists continuing to work in the field after completing their corps work and 46% of them are journalists of color. So it made sense for Knight to re-invest in the partnership, and we recently announced a $20 million multi-year grant to help RFA expand with another 500 corps members, placing many in rural and under-served areas. The grant will also expand RFA’s Local News Sustainability team to help newsrooms raise more than $100 million in revenue and philanthropy over the course of the grant. “Recruitment and retention of exceptional journalists paired with custom newsroom support is the model for local news that serves our communities and democracy,” said Kim Kleman, executive director of RFA.
💡 Documented to help train newsrooms in multilingual products. Documented has had so much success in reaching immigrant communities in New York that Knight invested $2 million over three years so it could train other newsrooms around the country to replicate its achievements. The investment will help Documented create a special curriculum and trainings to help community media reach wider audiences with new responsive, multilingual products, along with a community of practice for longer-term learning and sharing. Led by Nicolás Ríos, Documented’s chief product, education and research officer, newsrooms will be trained to better understand local immigrant communities’ needs and help them develop new products and platforms to serve those communities. Ríos has deep experience building new products for Latino, Chinese and Caribbean New Yorkers, as Documented has been successful meeting readers where they are, whether that’s WhatsApp, WeChat or Nextdoor.
📹 Video Consortium launches Newsroom Collective, plans summit. We all know the supreme importance of video, especially with the rise of creators on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. So it’s good timing for the Video Consortium (VC) to launch a new Newsroom Collective to serve local newsrooms around the country who want to use video to enhance impact, expand their audiences and increase revenue. The new program, supported by Knight, will include trainings from top video creators, a Slack community, mentorship to increase skills and strategies, and free access to events and trainings. Plus, the Collective will officially launch at the first Future of Nonfiction Video unconference in February at Columbia Journalism School. The event will bring together students, creators, newsroom leaders and industry professionals for a solutions-focused approach to using video for more impactful journalism. “Video is the fastest and most authentic way to connect with the audiences we’re serving,” said Sky Dylan-Robbins, VC’s founder and executive director. “It needs to be holistically built into every newsroom. We’re extremely excited to help make that happen.”
Impact
🎉 Celebrating the 10th year of NewsMatch, 15th year of INN. It’s a big year for the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) and the NewsMatch program that it helps run. Both are celebrating big anniversaries, with INN turning 15 and NewsMatch turning 10. (Yes, it makes us all feel old.) INN now has more than 475 members, a figure 18 times greater than when it was founded in 2009. INN also gets kudos for recently teaming up with Google to provide fast-track grants up to $10,000 for newsrooms (including non-INN newsrooms) reporting on the Los Angeles wildfires. Meanwhile, NewsMatch has grown by leaps and bounds, with a record match pool of $8.2 million for the campaign in 2024 and $5 million already raised for 2025, including a multi-year commitment from Knight for $3 million per year through 2028. From 2017 to 2023, newsrooms leveraged $31 million in NewsMatch funding to help generate $300 million in support from local communities. So what’s next? The program will help newsrooms secure more matching funds locally from community foundations, businesses and major donors.
Rural
🚜 Collaboration boosts internships in rural newsrooms. It’s not surprising that America’s rural areas are also those with the most news deserts or zombie newsrooms (those without local staff). So it’s nice to see a collaboration between INN, Scripps Howard Fund and Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Journalism to offer 13 internships in rural newsrooms across the country. The goal is to equip young journalists from diverse backgrounds to get the skills and experience they need to serve these rural communities. The 10-week internships will be hosted at INN member nonprofit newsrooms, with two of them focused on investigative reporting through the Ida B. Wells Society. This will mark the third year of the program; in the first year, two of the eight interns were hired full-time by their newsrooms. “After a strong two-year pilot, we are excited to offer even more opportunities for hands-on reporting in areas that need it most,” said Mike Canan, senior director of journalism strategies for Scripps Howard Fund.
🔮 Philanthropy, creators and AI fill crystal balls for 2025. With the rise of artificial intelligence and the challenges facing legacy news outlets, 2025 presents an interesting moment for local news as we consider what comes next. Nieman Lab figured you can’t have enough predictions (and maybe some will come true?), so they’ve expanded their annual journalism predictions to dozens and dozens of experts. Yes, many of them consider the rise of AI and what it means, while others cover podcasting super-fans, data and context, and going beyond fact-checks. The Local Media Association also got into the prediction game, with its staff considering the rise in philanthropy, branded content and collaborations. As for AI, Apryl Pilolli, director of technology services for the Knight x LMA BloomLab, wrote that “local media companies should embrace AI strategically and prioritize human-centered journalism. Establishing clear and transparent guidelines on AI usage will be essential to ensure that its implementation benefits both staff and audiences.”
Call-out
Evidence-based reporting toolkit from SciLine. This toolkit provides tips for journalists on understanding scientific research and how to incorporate it into reporting, along with background briefings and context from experts on some of the biggest and most contested issues newsrooms will confront in 2025. Request a toolkit here, and learn more here.
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April 11–13
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Quote of the Week
“Local newsrooms shouldn’t necessarily look to national foundations, which think in short cycles and fund big infrastructure projects. Instead, they should understand their community’s needs and make a case for how they can address those gaps… What are your community’s needs? What are the gaps, and how will you help solve them? And you need to make a case for what your organization’s future looks like.”
—Sarabeth Berman, CEO of American Journalism Project, discussing fundraising for local newsrooms in a recent E&P story
News @ Knight Credits
Written by Jim Brady, with Mark Glaser
Edited by Jim Brady and Kara Pickman