🐂 Local media industry bullish for 2025

Plus: OpenAI to fund Axios expansion

Author

Paul Gewuerz
January 16, 2025

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

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

» Local media industry bullish for 2025

» OpenAI to fund Axios expansion

» Local TV surges during LA fires

» Local media organizations announce board moves

» Why more traditional local media professionals are starting their own outlets

🎧 Small Press, Big Ideas Podcast: How to Build Durable News Products

🐂 Local media industry bullish for 2025

According to a survey from the Local Media Consortium, local media industry pros are expecting increased digital revenue in 2025. With a focus on “the continued maturation of video-focused efforts, subscriptions and newsletter engagement strategies”, 83% of respondents predicted digital revenue to increase or stay flat in the new year.

📩 OpenAI to fund Axios expansion

OpenAI has agreed to underwrite the creation of four newsrooms for Axios as part of a publisher deal. Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Boulder CO and Huntsville AL will bump Axios’ coverage from 30 to 34 US cities. In return for the investment, ChatGPT will use Axios content to answer user queries with attributed summaries.

🔥 Local TV surges during LA fires

Local broadcasters saw viewership surges of nearly 90% during the devastating fires in Los Angeles last week, with residents turning to their local stations for up to date information and aerial coverage of the fires.

✨ Local media organizations announce board moves

Multiple local media organizations have announced moves in the board room for 2025. The LMC announced multiple changes to their executive board, as did both the LMC and LMF.

🤔 Why more traditional local media professionals are starting their own outlets

This piece from Poynter highlights the story of a fired Gannett editor who’s now launching her own site, Ottawa News Network. The article points out a growing trend: local news startups being founded by people who have been let go from or become dissatisfied with larger corporate entities in order to better serve their communities.

Post your job or event for free: Your job or event will be listed for free in the newsletter for up to 30 days. We do ask that the listing pertain to the local news industry or be closely related. To get started just click the link below.

Small Press, Big Ideas

A podcast about the business of local news

How to Build Durable News Products

💥💥 Season three of the Small Press, Bid Ideas podcast has launched!! 💥💥

For the first episode of the season I sat down with Cory Brown, founder of Impact TK and the 99 Newsletter Project.

Cory is an interesting guy whose roots in journalism go back to his first job, loading bundles of newspapers onto a truck at age seventeen.

Since that time Cory’s career has weaved in and out of the journalism world, most recently culminating in founding Impact TK to help newsrooms develop reader experience and subscriber strategies that grow revenue, reduce churn and build loyal audiences.

Cory and I had a wide ranging discussion that touched on the importance of sustainability for small newsrooms, the relationship between editorial and the business side of news organizations, and some great tips on audience engagement.

Cory was full of great insights and useful anecdotes from his years in the biz such as making sure the audience gets a little bit of dessert to go with their hard news vegetables, and leading with “how can I help” when bridging the editorial/ business side cultural divide.

Listen to the full episode wherever podcasts are found (links above), or read my full summary of our chat and have a listen on my website.

Local Stories

Sponsor this newsletter - Contact us