Lost in the pro-democracy media conversation: Local messengers
As the conversation about Democrats investing in left-leaning media projects continues in public and private, one key area of investment that is often overlooked is arguably the sector that could have the greatest direct impact: local news and messengers. Here’s why:
As national news outlets build paywalls around their critical reporting, smaller local outlets and hometown newspapers have been purchased by national or international conglomerates and have quickly followed suit. More than 3,200 local newspapers have gone out of business in the past twenty years, representing one-third of all local outlets in the country. More than half of America’s counties have just one or no local news sources to rely on.
Those that remain are struggling to continue. Today, it is difficult to find a local newspaper in America that doesn’t paywall its reporting. In addition, cash-strapped local news outlets are even further behind the curve than national news outlets when it comes to reaching audiences where they increasingly spend their time online with their reporting, and in formats like vertical video explainers or social graphics that people consume today. As a result, local news in this country continues to be on a downward trajectory.
As local newspapers are often the only sources of information on down-ballot elections like state legislative races, this shift has transformed the information landscape around state and local politics. Fewer people than ever are getting their news from traditional local newspapers, and those who do are disproportionately college-educated, higher-income, white, and vote for Democrats. Meanwhile, those who live in counties with no local news source overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump in 2024.
Despite the slow decline of traditional local news around the country, Americans still place outsized value and trust in local, community-centric news and its messengers. According to a 2022 study by the Knight Foundation and a 2024 study by the Reuters Institute, Americans say they generally trust local news sources far more than national news outlets or other sources of information. They are also increasingly getting this type of content on their social media feeds from hyperlocal creators, citizen journalists, and pop-up digital lifestyle brands supported by local advertisers.
In part, local news is dying because they have simply failed to package and deliver information in many people’s preferred mediums, platforms, and formats. This is happening despite an infusion of new, national philanthropic efforts to save local journalism, in part due to these efforts tending to focus more on shoring up traditional and paywalled distribution strategies, rather than making investments that exclusively focus on helping local outlets produce and distribute social-first news content that will actually reach the millions of non-elite Americans who primarily get their news on social media today. If we want to increase the reach of quality, values-driven local news coverage to more Americans, we need to see more urgent investments into local, social-first media projects and creator networks.
One example of a new, unconventional approach to local news distribution includes @onlyindade, a “citizen journalism” brand on Instagram and other platforms that shares entertainment and news content focused on Miami Dade County in South Florida. The account has over 1.9 million followers on Instagram and 400,000 on Facebook, which makes its audience larger than that of nearly every established news outlet in the area. Critically, @onlyindade publishes a varied content mix of “hard” local news aggregation combined with funny community-centric memes and user-submitted videos. That combination has helped the brand grow a broad audience beyond just elite audiences searching for straightforward news content. When the account posts about politics, it is often from a right-leaning perspective.
This social-first approach has been successful in other localities as well. In our nation’s capital, one of the most popular local news brands is primarily on Instagram: @washingtonianproblems. That brand has deployed the same strategy of combining hard news with entertaining videos and memes to build an audience of over 552,000 followers—more than half the population of Washington, DC. In my own hometown of Newport, Rhode Island, my community relies primarily on two hyperlocal social media and newsletter brands for all of our local news and events information - and increasingly, these are the brands my community turns to for our local, state, and even sometimes national political news! These social-first brands tend to be run by 1-2 people, usually on a volunteer or part-time basis, but are directly shaping the information ecosystem in their communities.
With all the recent talk of investing in media and content efforts, pro-Democracy investors should prioritize building, buying, and scaling similar social-first local brands that can quickly grow and land in the feeds of news-avoidant Americans. At COURIER, this model of local news distribution has defined our work for nearly six years now, and we have big plans to double down on building a bunch of trusted local messengers and accounts in 2025 and beyond.
From Iowa to Arizona, New Hampshire to Wisconsin, our teams of social-first reporters and vertical video correspondents are publishing hundreds of pieces of content each week and growing their audiences along the way. We also work closely with partner organizations on the ground, and have started to knit together a network of local, non-political creators in our 11 states who we pay to help amplify our coverage and free newsletter products to their trusted communities online who might not otherwise find our reporting on their own. This strategy has enabled us to reach and earn the trust of over 7 million Americans who go to social media to find their news and information. These are also the audiences we know are less engaged with politics and elections, and who we are keeping informed and engaged on both through our local reporting every single day, year-round.
I consider this type of work to be absolutely critical and complimentary infrastructure to national left-leaning media and creator investments, and I hope this local angle isn’t missed in the current national conversation. If you don’t already, you can find links to all of our state-based newsrooms in the COURIER network here, and make sure to follow them on social media to see their work in your own feeds, as that is how our audiences consume them!
- Tara
New from the team:
How is this better?! Hot off the presses: Last week, our national team launched a new video series + podcast with Akilah Hughes, called “How is This Better?” The series will feature weekly 25 to 30-minute videos covering everything from politics and culture to tech and late-stage capitalism. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and watch the first episode here.
REPRESENT. Speaking of YouTube, our national team also launched the first episode of REPRESENT this week, a short series documenting the campaign of first-time candidate and content creator Deja Foxx as she runs for Congress in Arizona. Watch the first, deeply inspiring episode here.
Upcoming Events + Briefings:
Meet us in person! I wanted to invite you to join COURIER for Like & Subscribe, an evening reception in Washington, DC on June 26th celebrating the launch of our newest national podcasts and digital series — and an exclusive preview of what’s coming later this year. Details + RSVP here >>
Care about what’s happening in Texas? Join our Courier Texas team for an exclusive virtual event on Wednesday, June 11 at 7:00 PM ET to go beyond the headlines and explore how we’re covering the stories shaping 2025 in the Lone Star State, from public education and reproductive rights to local politics and community resilience. Register here >>.
Powering a movement that wins: Please join me on Tuesday, June 17 at 5:00 PM ET for a briefing for new and long-time supporters of COURIER to hear from me directly on how our team is uniquely positioned to meet this moment. While others are just entering the progressive media space, COURIER has spent the last six years building data-proven strategies, audience-first content, and a scalable model that’s already making an impact. RSVP here >>
What I’m reading/consuming this week
A 1,400-County Crisis For Democrats (The Daily/New York Times, 6/3)
"435 counties voted more Democratic in 2024 than did so in 2012, by an average improved margin of 8.8 percentage points. 2,678 counties became more Republican, by an average of 13.3 percentage points. That's six times as many counties moving toward the G.O.P. than toward the Democratic Party — and by a substantially wider margin."
This Conservative Is Doing Just Fine, Thank You, After Getting Dumped by Trump (Wall Street Journal, 6/3)
“Leonard Leo has more than $1 billion to back Hollywood blockbusters that shield viewers from diversity and other progressive ideas.”
The Substack Election (The Bulwark, 5/26)
“Democrats are hoping the platform can provide the audience and influence they want for 2028.”
NPR sues the Trump administration, a wolf not in sheep’s clothing (Nieman, 5/27)
“In its filing, NPR argues that Trump is violating the First Amendment by trying to eliminate its funding because of its speech. Trump’s executive order defends his action by arguing “neither [NPR nor PBS] presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens,” instead offering “biased and partisan news coverage.” (The plainness of Trump’s motivation is what inspired the Scalia cite; this wolf hasn’t bothered to play dress-up.)”
Why is Trump so hellbent on attacking the news media that made him? (The Daily Beast, 5/27)
President Donald Trump is facing an awkward paradox: he hates the “fake news.” But he wouldn’t really be here today without them. “He still longs for acceptance by the press,” Oliver Darcy, a former CNN media reporter and Status newsletter creator, told The Daily Beast Podcast this week. “He’s very frustrated by the fact that he is no longer the narrator of his own story and he feels betrayed.”