šŸš« Dozens of local newspapers abruptly shut down

Plus: The poisonous metric that could kill your newsroom

Author

Paul Gewuerz
August 14, 2025

Your weekly briefing of stories from around the local news space about business, policy, trends, and more

Hello! Hereā€™s whatā€™s in this weekā€™s issue:

Ā» Dozens of local newspapers abruptly shut down

Ā» Nonprofit news + local TV

Ā» NYT offers fellowship for local investigative work

Ā» Gray Media acquires 10 local stations

Ā» Is the time right for micropayments?

šŸŽ§ Small Press, Big Ideas Podcast: The Poisonous Metric That Could Kill Your Newsroom

šŸš« Dozens of local newspapers abruptly shut down

News Media Corp., an Illinoisā€‘based publisher, has shut down dozens of its small town newspapers across Wyoming, Illinois, Arizona, South Dakota, and Nebraska. The closures are due to ā€œfinancial challenges, a significant economic downturn impacting our industry, revenue lossesā€ according to CEO J.J. Tompkins.

šŸ“ŗ Nonprofit news + local TV

Nieman Lab reports on how nonprofit newsroom Spotlight PA is partnering with Nexstar TV stations in Pennsylvania to experiment with getting nonprofit reporting onto broadcast TV. With a $500,000 grant from Press Forward, the three-year pilot aims to leverage TVā€™s massive reach to bring investigative reporting to audiences who donā€™t engage with digital or print.

šŸ’¼ NYT offers fellowship for local investigative work

The New York Times is offering a one year Local Investigations Fellowship, paying around $85K annually, for early career journalists to pursue ambitious investigative stories in their home communities. You can apply here to be considered for the 2026 cohort.

šŸ¤ Gray Media acquires 10 local stations

Gray Media is acquiring 10 TV stations from Byron Allenā€™s Allen Media Group for $171 million, expanding its presence across new markets while also creating seven new duopolies in markets where it already operates. The deal, expected to close in Q4 2025 pending regulatory and FCC approval, aims to boost local news, weather, and sports programming.

šŸ’” Is the time right for micropayments?

After decades of fizzled trials, the media industry may have finally found fertile ground for micropayments, if publishers rethink how they pitch and package them for todayā€™s audiences. This time, the focus is on alternative models like ā€œmonthly access paymentsā€ that feel like low commitment, high value experiences rather than one off gambles.

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Small Press, Big Ideas

A podcast about the business of local news

The Poisonous Metric That Could Kill Your Newsroom

This week on the Small Press, Big Ideas podcast, I was joined David LaFontaine, a veteran journalist, UX designer, and managing consultant at True Path Analytics for a conversation that might just change how publishers think about their metrics.

As mentioned in the click-baity title, David reveals the ā€œpoisonousā€ number too many publishers obsess over, why it can quietly sink your newsroom, and what to focus on instead.

Along the way, we get into everything from the $300 million UX mistake still plaguing publishers to using AI for audience engagement (without losing the human touch), plus why influencers might be your newsroomā€™s untapped growth engine. This episode is a practical, no-nonsense guide for local and niche publishers who want to grow trust, retention, and revenue in 2025.

David unpacks a ton of value for anyone in the industry, and as a bonus you get to listen to his sweet dulcet tones for an hour šŸ˜‰ 

Listen today on your podcast app of choice! šŸŽ Apple Podcasts | šŸŽµ Spotify

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