💸 How to not annoy readers: tell them how much an article costs to produce

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

» How to not annoy readers: tell them how much an article costs to produce

» Google AI Overviews hurting news clicks

» Connecting with audiences before it’s too late

» A community hub that supports local journalism

» The dangers of reporting on extremism locally

💸 How to not annoy readers: tell them how much an article costs to produce

This story out of the UK shows how one local publisher, Ipswich.co.uk, keeps their journalism free without “annoying” readers with advertising. At the bottom of each article, they tell readers how much the article costed to produce by “multiplying the time spent (research, interviews, writing, editing, etc.) by our modest hourly rate, which includes salary and employment costs.” They then thank three local businesses whose support made each article free to read.

📰 Google AI Overviews hurting news clicks

According to TechCrunch, searchers not clicking through to news sites are up from 56% in May 2024, when Google rolled out AI overviews, to 69% in May 2025. This trend coincides with a decrease in organic traffic from 2.3 billion last year to 1.7 billion today and news related prompts in ChatGPT growing by over 200%. Read more here

📣 Connecting with audiences before it’s too late

Penn State’s Tom Davidson recently wrote in Editor & Publisher about why publishers need to own their audience connection and shift from ceding it to platforms that know users better. Davidson argues that publishers should take lessons from social media creators to “Use the platforms for distribution … but strategically work around them to build direct relationships with individual audience members, then nurture them towards financial support.”

☕ A community hub that supports local journalism

This piece looks at the Villager Café, a community hub in Camden, Maine that offers coffee, meals, a newsstand, and space for events that supports its weekly local newspaper the Midcoast Villager. Similar models have appeared around the US, have a listen to my interview with Max Kabat to hear how he did something similar in Marfa, TX.

⚡ The dangers of reporting on extremism locally

Columbia Journalism Review dives into how local reporters covering extremism face personal danger from doxing and swatting to physical intimidation from groups whose ideologies are now bleeding into mainstream politics. According to CJR, it’s “intensely personal” for local journalists.

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Local Stories

⏩ Newspaper consolidation and the state of local journalism in Illinois

⏩ OPB expands its rural and suburban coverage across Oregon and Southwest Washington

⏩ Local news media is declining in Canada—we have to reverse the trend

⏩ Toledo nonprofit empowers youth through hands-on media training

⏩ Systemic collapse: Why local news dies when journalism follows money over community need

⏩ Gray Media And Scripps Agree To Swap Some Stations

⏩ Radio News Hub: From Huddersfield basement to global success in ten years

⏩ Many in my generation never touch newspapers. But they still rely on my reporting