Local news success stories from California to Long IslandAnd Substacker Judd Legum says investment in fact-based political reporting is paying off
Good morning from London where we have a (belated) round-up of news about the US publishing scene. We’ve spoken to the editor in chief of SFGATE Grant Marek to find out how the fast-growing local news website supports a 60-strong editorial team with coverage from the bits of California other publishers might miss. If you are trying to make ad-funded local news work, it helps if your patch is the world’s fourth largest economy. But SFGATE’s focus on original local content nonetheless provides lessons for all publishers. On the other side of the country, we caught up with the founders of Greater Long Island Media Group who have found similar success (albeit at a smaller scale). Founder Michael White’s formula for making a local news business work is ultimately a simple one: “Know your audience. Listen to your audience. Watch how they react and behave around your content and social media. And if they are responding, serve up more of it. Give that audience what they want, not what you want or feel they need, and they will live and die with you and all mistakes will be forgiven.” The final US news media success story I’d like to highlight is Substacker Judd Legum whose liberal political news outlet Popular Information now has four full-time staff and at least 20,000 paying subscribers. Encouragingly, Legum says he trades in facts rather than polemic. He said: “You have to tell the truth. Not just claim it. Actually check and double-check everything. People need to trust that what you say is accurate. “A lot of outlets are focused on appearing objective. But I think a bigger audience is now looking for something less constricted, more authentic, and more transparent about who is actually doing the writing.” Thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend when you get there! Making local news pay the Greater Long Island way
How SFGATE is making local news pay and filling California’s news gaps
Substacker Judd Legum on doing journalism that ‘went out of fashion’
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