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

» Philanthropic foundations step in for public media

» Nexstar acquires TEGNA to become the nation’s largest local media company

» FCC ‘urged’ to keep audience reach cap for broadcasters

» The local media dilemma

🆘 Philanthropic foundations step in for public media

Foundations including Knight, MacArthur, Ford, Robert Wood Johnson, Schmidt Family, and Pivotal have pledged $36.5 million in emergency funding, including $26.5 million to a new Public Media Bridge Fund and $10 million in direct support from MacArthur, to rescue and sustain at risk local public radio and TV stations after a massive $1.1 billion federal funding cut by Congress threatens about 115 stations serving 43 million people.

🤝 Nexstar acquires TEGNA to become the nation’s largest local media company

Nexstar Media Group and TEGNA entered into a definitive agreement on Tuesday for Nexstar to acquire all outstanding shares of TEGNA at $22.00 per share, in a deal valued at $6.2 billion. The combined company will emerge as the nation’s largest local media operator, covering about 80% of U.S. television households across 265 stations in 44 states.

📺 FCC ‘urged’ to keep audience reach cap for broadcasters

Reporters Without Borders, alongside 15 press freedom, civil liberties, and labor groups, urged the FCC to keep the longstanding 39% national audience reach cap for broadcast media to protect independent, local journalism and preserve diverse viewpoints amid growing news deserts. They warned that easing ownership limits would concentrate media power among wealthy conglomerates.

📱 The local media dilemma

E&P explores the local media dilemma: adapt to the dominant tech platforms that gutted their businesses or risk vanishing altogether. As audiences shift online, publishers are rethinking strategy to stay visible and viable.

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

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | RSS

Local news without an audience is just creative writing

This week on the podcast I sat down with Jonathan Kealing, Chief Network Officer at the Institute for Nonprofit News. I invited Jonathan on the podcast after reading his piece in Editor & Publisher, Journalism without an audience is just creative writing.

That article puts forth Jonathan’s thoughts on the relationship between publishers and audiences, and suggests that local media publishers have two huge goals to focus on: connecting with audiences and the monumental task of convincing Americans that news is a priority.

In our conversation, we talk about Jonathan’s background, tactics for building trust and habit with local readers, why nonprofit news is no longer an experiment but a proven model, how small outlets can draw inspiration from churches and cafes, and the crucial difference between covering communities and being in service to them.

Listen today wherever you get your podcasts 🍎 Apple | 🎵 Spotify

Local Stories

⏩ Email-based publisher The Flyover has 25 full-time staff two years after launch

⏩ Newspapers Rescued From Closure In Wyoming & South Dakota As Buyers Swoop In

⏩ 5 rural Arizona newspapers closed abruptly — including the longest-running in state history

⏩ Colorado AG Phil Weiser is open to 'creative ideas' to sustain local journalism

⏩ LMA announces newsrooms in the 2025 national cohort of the Lab for Journalism Funding

⏩ The problem with journalism and how to fix it, according to a Wisconsin professor

⏩ Ex-Portland Press Herald Editor Unleashes On New Ownership’s ‘Lack Of Watchdog Journalism’

⏩ The Elephant in the Newsroom

⏩ A verdant news desert in Skamania County

⏩ How should newsrooms use AI?

⏩ Kimbriell Kelly named editor-in-chief at Sun-Times, WBEZ