🏈 How local sports can help the local news ecosystem

Hello! Here’s what’s in this week’s issue:

» How local sports can help the local news ecosystem

» The nonprofit suing OpenAI

» Only 1% of readers pass a paywall

» Oregon proposal fails

» Cloudflare launches ‘pay-per-crawl’ marketplace

🏈 How local sports can help the local news ecosystem

The Local News Initiative’s Eric Rynston-Lobel interviewed former Meet the Press Anchor Chuck Todd, who believes local youth and high school sports coverage could be a key to reviving local newsrooms. Todd believes that hyperlocal sports beats alongside similar roles like micro-weather and consumer/food reporters could reconnect audiences to their communities.

⚖️ The nonprofit suing OpenAI

Nieman Lab recently wrote about the lawsuit against OpenAI filed by the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting. CIR stands nearly alone among small news nonprofits in pursuing litigation rather than licensing deals, with CEO Monika Bauerlein stating “We wanted to be at the forefront of this litigation in part because so many others can’t do it”, citing the lack of resources of many nonprofit news outlets.

🧱 Only 1% of readers pass a paywall

According to a new survey from The Pew Research Center, only 1% of Americans who encounter a paywall on a news story pay for access. The number one next step audiences take after encountering a paywall is to look for the information elsewhere. Also in the survey: 83% of US adults haven’t paid for news in the past year, with the top reason being that they can find plenty of articles for free.

🚫 Oregon proposal fails

Oregon’s Senate blocked Senate Bill 686, the "Oregon Journalism Protection Act", in a 15–14 vote on June 24th, killing a proposal that would have made Big Tech pay at least $122 million annually to local news outlets for publishing their content. Bill sponsors have promised to to reintroduce the measure next session.

🤖 Cloudflare launches ‘pay-per-crawl’ marketplace

Web security and infrastructure company Cloudflare announced the rollout of a beta pay per crawl marketplace that will allow publishers to charge AI bot crawlers a micro fee or block them. Cloudflare claims the move is to help shift the web to a permission and compensation model in the age of generative AI.

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Local Stories

⏩ How SFGATE is making local news pay and filling California’s news gaps

⏩ $6.5 Million to Strengthen Chicago’s Local News Ecosystem

⏩ Canada-based publisher Eden Fineday joins LION’s Board of Directors

⏩ Juneau Empire changes signify concerning trend for Alaska newspapers’ future, longtime journalist says

⏩ How TAPinto is Rebuilding Local News, One Town at a Time

⏩ Wisconsin Public Radio cuts staff, will end shows to reduce deficit

⏩ Portland Tribune to stop publishing print edition, trim staff

⏩ Improving news coverage in paradise: Hawai’i Journalism Initiative

⏩ FOX Television Stations CEO Jack Abernethy addresses future of local news at Florida broadcasting convention

⏩ News-Press gets $25,000 grant for Spanish-speaking listening sessions