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

» How the next generation gets news

» The local news playbook

» Axios expanding local coverage

» LA local news superbloom

» Layoffs in Atlanta

📱 How the next generation gets news

Next Gen News 2 explores how the next generation will engage with journalism by 2030, highlighting a trust gap and a shift toward more personal platform native content. It calls on publishers to evolve fast by rethinking tone format and where they show up.

📓 The local news playbook

A new report from FT Strategies looks at data collected from over 1,000 publishers worldwide to identify five core value drivers behind resilient local media businesses. Community connection, revenue balance, and “intelligent” innovation top the list.

🚀 Axios expanding local coverage

Axios has announced that it will launch 9 new local newsletters in Colorado, Arizona, Florida and Ohio in 2026 in partnership with OpenAI. The initiative will use Open AI’s tech to “streamline workflows, surface local trends, and reduce time spent on administrative tasks, giving journalists more capacity to focus on original reporting.”

🌴 LA local news superbloom

Five new local news outlets have launched in Los Angeles in the past five months, signaling a burst of startup activity in a city whose traditional news ecosystem has thinned as legacy players shrink. These new ventures range from digital newsletters to niche publications and aim to fill gaps in local coverage by experimenting with different business models and audience strategies.

📉 Layoffs in Atlanta

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is cutting about 50 jobs, 15 percent of its workforce, as it shifts more resources toward digital growth after ending its print edition. Leaders say the move will help fund stronger storytelling, tech, and community coverage while staying financially sustainable.

Small Press, Big Ideas

A podcast about the business of local news

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | RSS

🌲 The challenges of rural local news

First on the podcast this week I sat down with Jordan Brechenser, President and Publisher at Vermont News and Media, to talk about the unique challenges facing local newspapers in rural America.

We talked about the economics of print journalism, the critical shift to mail based delivery due to rising costs, and the strain placed on rural postal infrastructure. Jordan offers great insight into how these shifts impact both newspapers and the communities Vermont News and Media serves with its publications the Battleboro Reformer, Bennington Banner, and Manchester Journal.

Listen or watch today: Apple | Spotify | YouTube

📆 Fixing broken local events discovery

Next on the podcast I spoke with Brian Feister, a longtime software engineer and the creator of Meet Near Me: a platform designed to make it easier for publishers to gather and share local event data.

Brian explains how Meet Near Me tackles the real challenge of aggregating hyper local events like open mic nights, high school sports, or city parades, events that often get overlooked by major platforms like Eventbrite or Meetup.

Sign up for the Meet Near Me beta here

Watch or listen: Apple | Spotify | YouTube

More Stories

⏩ California Local News Fellowship

⏩ Blueprint points path forward for North Dakota’s strained local newspapers

⏩ Funding innovation from the ground up: How the National Trust for Local News is rethinking change

⏩ Death of a Newspaper: the Long, Awkward Afterlife of the 'Star-Telegram'

⏩ Should Broadcasters Produce News That Looks More Like YouTube?

⏩ Chicago Reader, the city’s struggling alt-weekly, is going monthly under new owners

⏩ Philadelphia Inquirer chief explains turnaround to profitability

⏩ Creative Destruction in the Collapsing Local News Market: Innovation vs. Intervention

⏩ Reinventing Local Journalism: What Happens When Experience Meets Experimentation

⏩ News publishers limit Internet Archive access due to AI scraping concerns