🔮 Predictions for 2026

Plus: Subscriptions and Ads Shouldn’t Be at War

Author

Paul Gewuerz
December 11, 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:

» Predictions for 2026

» Expanding networks based on new models

» Stabilization grants for public media

» Free AI tool for local journalists

🎧 Small Press, Big Ideas Podcast: Subscriptions and Ads Shouldn’t Be at War

🔮 Predictions for 2026

Nieman Lab released its annual predictions for journalism for the upcoming year. Some of the predictions include publishers striking back at big tech, long form video taking a bigger piece of the pie, local publishers realizing the value of their own archives, and about a hundred different takes on AI.

🌎 Expanding networks based on new models

Local news networks like TAPinto, The Salt Lake Tribune and The Texas Tribune are ramping up coverage in underserved regions. They’re using different approaches to fill news gaps: TAPinto uses a collaborative network model, while The Salt Lake Tribune and The Texas Tribune are leveraging nonprofit and community based newsrooms to restore trust and local accountability in areas hit hard by news closures.

📻 Stabilization grants for public media

The Public Media Bridge Fund is awarding $26 million in stabilization grants to 74 public media organizations that operate over 180 radio and TV stations, many of them in rural or underserved areas, to help them survive after recent federal funding cuts.

🛠 Free AI tool for local journalists

Startup Hamlet uses AI to process recorded videos of city council, planning commission, and school board meetings, turning hours of often dense footage into searchable, summarized clips. Although built to supply business intelligence to enterprise clients, the founder has announced that the tool will be free for local journalists.

🎥 New for 2026: Daily Vertical Video for Newsrooms

LocalPod.co is launching a done-for-you vertical video service built specifically for local publishers.

LocalPod turns your existing reporting into a short, high quality daily short form videos using templated text overlays and community sourced local b-roll.

We post every video directly to your social channels, giving you consistent visibility and opening up new audience growth and revenue opportunities.

👉 Now booking three Q1 pilot partners at a discounted rate.

Small Press, Big Ideas

A podcast about the business of local news

Subscriptions and Ads Shouldn’t Be at War

This week on the podcast I was joined by Stephanie Schroeder, Chief Revenue Officer for Forum Communications.

Forum is a family owned media company operating in the upper Midwest, and before Stephanie joined in 2018 they were 100% print. Flash forward to today and Stephanie and her team have grown Forum’s digital subscription base to over 100,000.

In our conversation Stephanie told me about testing (and failing) fast, why a visible “cancel” button boosts loyalty, Forum’s new high school sports streaming app, and a lot more.

Have a listen today in your podcast app of choice!

Sponsor this newsletter - Contact us