POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: Sullivan eyes secretary of state run

 

BY LISA KASHINSKY Presented by Associated Industries of Massachusetts NEW: SULLIVAN MULLS SECRETARY BID — Tanisha Sullivan, an attorney and president of the NAACP Boston Branch, is considering running for secretary of state, according to three people familiar with her thinking. Sullivan is “taking a serious look at this race" and is "weighing this critical moment for our democracy and our commonwealth, and the vital work to preserve and expand voting rights,” according to one person who is advising Sullivan on a potential bid. Sullivan did not return calls for comment. Sullivan’s interest in serving as the state’s top elections official wouldn't be coming out of left field: She was an honorary co-chair of the 2020 ballot campaign for ranked-choice voting; advocated alongside Rep. Ayanna Pressley to pass the For the People Act, and has been vocal online about the need to “remove barriers to the ballot box ." The NAACP Boston Branch was also active in the Boston mayor's race without endorsing a candidate. Secretary of State Bill Galvin has been coy about his 2022 intentions. Galvin continues to push voting reforms in Massachusetts and nationally, but he declined to say last month whether he was running for another term, telling WCVB’s “On the Record” only that “I enjoy what I do.” Republican Rayla Campbell is running for the seat. GOOD THURSDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. As Boston Mayor Michelle Wu works to expand a fare-free bus pilot program to help low-income riders in three neighborhoods, new polling from the MassINC Polling Group and the Barr Foundation shows 71 percent support statewide for free buses in low-income neighborhoods. In fact, the statewide poll of 1,026 registered voters from late December showed majority support for several types of free or discounted public transportation: — 61 percent support for free buses; — 58 percent support for free subways; — 53 percent support for free commuter rail trains and ferries; — 79 percent support for low-income fare discounts. One of the biggest questions around reduced-fare or fare-free public transit is how to fund it. Wu, for instance, is looking to tap into federal aid to expand the city’s pilot program. There could be another option coming down the pike: the so-called millionaires tax headed for the ballot this fall as a constitutional amendment. It would slap a 4 percent surtax on the portion of a person’s annual income over $1 million, and proponents say the money would be funneled toward education and transportation. Seventy percent of voters said they support the millionaires tax. As for how they’d like the tax revenue to be split, 39 percent preferred to share it evenly between transportation and education, 19 percent said they wanted more for transportation and 26 percent wanted more for education. MassINC Polling Group Research Director Rich Parr breaks it all down on this week’s episode of The Horse Race. TODAY — Wu shares an update on Mass and Cass at 10 a.m. at the Women’s Inn at Pine Street, and is on WBUR’s “Radio Boston." State AG Maura Healey announces a settlement with a student-lending conglomerate at 12:30 p.m. Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) host a Twitter Spaces event at 3:30 p.m. to discuss abolishing the filibuster to protect voting rights. U.S. attorney Rachael Rollins is on GBH’s “Greater Boston” at 7 p.m. Assistant House Speaker Katherine Clark will preside over the House floor during the debate over the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act. Tips? Scoops? Email me: lkashinsky@politico.com.   A message from Associated Industries of Massachusetts: The 2022 State of Massachusetts Business Address will look at all the challenges and opportunities that employers face at the dawn of a new year. Join us as AIM President and CEO, John Regan, summarizes the Massachusetts business economy in 2021, comments on what it will mean for 2022, and gets feedback from some of the region’s top business executives. Register here   ON THE STUMP — GETTING IN: Veteran Democratic activist and volunteer Kate Donaghue is running for state representative in the new 19th Worcester District. “As a mother to a son who died of an overdose, and a caregiving spouse who recently lost my husband to cancer, I have experience and insights into the challenges with our health care system that plague too many families” in the district, Donaghue said. “I intend to use my voice to fight for our communities on health care, tackling climate change and supporting public education.” Donaghue, who filed a candidate committee with the state last week, is running in an incumbent-free district created during last year’s redistricting process. Mapmakers said at the time that the district — which is built around parts of Northborough, Southborough, Framingham and Donaghue’s longtime home of Westborough — could be an opportunity for the GOP based on voting patterns. — FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Suffolk County sheriff candidate Sandy Zamor Calixte has been endorsed by former state Rep. Marie St. Fleur, former Boston city councilor Matt O’Malley and community leaders Anthony Seymour, Marilyn Forman and Jose Ruiz, per her campaign. — FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Labor attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan is continuing to build out her team for a potential run for state attorney general. Liss-Riordan has brought on the firm Bryson Gillette to provide strategic communications counsel. That team includes Rebecca Pearcey, a former political director for Sen. Elizabeth Warren; Kasey Poulin, another Warren alum, and Tess Seger. — “Gubernatorial hopeful Sonia Chang-Díaz secures more endorsements as waiting continues for AG Maura Healey to enter race,” by Alison Kuznitz, MassLive: “State Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz released a new slate of endorsements Wednesday afternoon in her bid for governor, as the gubernatorial field remains in flux.” THE LATEST NUMBERS — “Massachusetts reports 22,184 new coronavirus cases, COVID hospitalizations top 3,000 patients,” by Rick Sobey, Boston Herald: “COVID-19 hospitalizations on Wednesday surpassed 3,000 patients for the first time since the start of the pandemic as local hospitals get packed to the brim. The state Department of Public Health on Wednesday reported 22,184 daily coronavirus cases.”   BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we’ve got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don’t miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now.     DATELINE BEACON HILL — SAVE THE DATE: Gov. Charlie Baker has confirmed his State of the Commonwealth address will be Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. at the Hynes Convention Center. — “Baker approves commutation requests for two convicted of murder,” by Matt Stout and Shelley Murphy, Boston Globe: “Governor Charlie Baker on Wednesday approved commutation requests for two men serving life sentences for murder, marking the first such recommendations of his tenure and the first time a sitting Massachusetts governor has agreed to commute a life sentence in a quarter-century. Baker’s decision to grant the clemency petitions of Thomas E. Koonce and William Allen won praise from both advocates and the district attorney offices that once prosecuted them, and could clear the way for both men to be released after nearly three decades apiece in prison.” — “Sweeping offshore wind bill headed toward House,” by Bruce Mohl, CommonWealth Magazine: “The Legislature’s energy committee approved a bill Wednesday evening that would give the state’s Clean Energy Center a major role in the development of the offshore wind industry and tap consumer electricity and natural gas bills to pay for tax credits, grants, and investments to make it happen.” — “Massachusetts higher education commissioner to step down,” by The Associated Press: “Commissioner Carlos Santiago, who works with leadership and helps shape state-level policies to benefit the state’s public community colleges and universities, has held the job since 2015.” VAX-ACHUSETTS — “New measure of COVID hospitalizations may obscure strain on system, but will help with planning,” by Kay Lazar, Boston Globe: “The Baker administration said that beginning next week, it will break the hospitalization numbers it publishes into two sets: one that records those patients being treated primarily for COVID-19, and a second for those patients who were hospitalized for other reasons but happened to test positive upon admission.” — “As state ignores at-home COVID test data, boards of health come up with their own solutions,” by Sarah Betancourt, GBH News: “Residents and public health workers are frustrated by the barriers to report results from home rapid tests, and count those numbers in a tangible way so the public has a greater understanding of the pandemic in their communities. Some towns have launched their own forms for collecting at-home test results.” — “Forced to improvise COVID policies, school nurses are reaching a ‘ breaking point’,” by Gabrielle Emanuel, WBUR: “Surging COVID numbers have made for a sometimes-disorganized return to school after winter break. There are record case counts and changing guidelines for testing and isolation. A heavy burden has fallen on school nurses, who say they feel overwhelmed and under-supported.” — "Massachusetts’ digital vaccine passport leaves some residents frustrated: ‘Couldn’t find anything for me’," by Alison Kuznitz, MassLive: "[S]cores of Massachusetts residents hoping for an easy process to obtain their electronic vaccine records encountered glitches as they entered their information on a state government website. The most common issued seemed to be missing COVID booster shot information." — “Boston will roll out a vaccine certificate app on Jan. 15,” by Hiawatha Bray, Boston Globe: “Boston is going with a smartphone app called B Together that lets the user simply display a photograph of the white CDC card issued at the vaccination center.” — SHOT: “Needham COVID-19 testing site reported to Attorney General,” by John Monahan, Boston 25 News. — CHASER: “Worcester ‘looking into’ free COVID testing site on Grafton Street that’s run by company under investigation in other U.S. locations,” by Michael Bonner, MassLive.   A message from Associated Industries of Massachusetts:     FROM THE HUB — “Boston clears tents from Mass. and Cass,” by Sean Philip Cotter, Boston Herald: “The day dawned over the troubled streets of Mass. and Cass lined with dozens of tents — but by dinnertime, crews were hauling pieces of the last sidewalk structure away. ‘Today was really a transition,’ Mayor Michelle Wu told reporters after dark in the middle of an almost unrecognizably barren Atkinson Street. ‘Today was not the first day of work here, and it’s certainly not the last day.’” — More: “‘ Nothing is different’: People struggle to find housing after city clears tents at Mass. and Cass,” by Tori Bedford, GBH News: “Wu emphasized that her administration would deviate from previous attempts by city officials to clear the area by focusing on housing and ‘meeting each person where they are,’ identifying specific health or housing needs and ensuring that congregate shelter would not be the only option. … But [Wilnelia Reabyng] and [Avalberto Delbrey], along with several others living in encampments in the area, were not provided permanent housing, and were instead told to stay at nearby shelters.” — And more: “Exclusive look at new housing for people who lived at Mass & Cass in Boston,” by Karen Anderson and Kevin Rothstein, WCVB: “Two weeks after moving out of a tent on the street, one woman is using a small cottage to serve as a temporary shelter home, full of her makeup, clothes and all kinds of personal items.” — “Anti-vaccine mandate protesters bring their opposition to Mayor Wu’s Roslindale doorstep,” by Saraya Wintersmith, GBH News: “Most mornings in the past week or so, a small band of protesters stationed themselves outside the modest two-family house where Boston Mayor Michelle Wu lives with her husband and two school-age sons. Her elderly mother lives on the first floor. The clutch of activists have a mission: to stop Wu's vaccination mandate that is scheduled to go into effect Saturday.” — “Judge won’t stop Boston coronavirus vaccine mandate ahead of deadline,” by Sean Philip Cotter, Boston Herald: “Mayor Michelle Wu’s worker vaccine mandate will move ahead, a judge ruled just days before enforcement is due to begin. … Suffolk Superior Judge Jeffrey Locke said following a Wednesday hearing ‘I think the public health emergency now is of such a nature that it outweighs the competing claims of harm by the plaintiff.’” — “As Boston schools grapple with COVID surge, Cassellius says they’re taking every step to avoid remote learning,” by James Vaznis, Boston Globe: “Boston Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said on Wednesday the district is taking every step possible to avoid moving learning online amid a surge in coronavirus cases, while student leaders announced they are planning a walkout [to advocate for remote learning].” WHAT CITY HALL IS READING — “Mayor Wu is creating a new cabinet role: chief of planning,” by Catherine Carlock, Boston Business Journal: “Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration is finalizing the job posting for a chief of planning role, a newly created cabinet-level position that could ‘help oversee’ the Boston Planning and Development Agency.” — “Who will take Lydia Edwards’ Boston City Council seat?,” by Christopher Gavin, Boston.com: “Under the city charter, officials must hold a preliminary election on a Tuesday within 62 to 76 days after a City Council election order is approved. The general election would then follow, 28 days later. ... There are a few candidates expected to run, and many more who are apparently weighing a run for the council seat, which represents the North End, Charlestown, and East Boston.” PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES — “Regional bus ridership down 52 percent from pre-pandemic levels,” by Shira Schoenberg, CommonWealth Magazine: “Ridership has rebounded at Regional Transit Authorities, according to a new report, but ridership still remains well below normal and is spread unevenly throughout the system.” — “A deal with implications for passenger rail was rejected last year but gets a new hearing Thursday. Elected officials weigh in,” by Danny Jin, Berkshire Eagle: “Though a federal board rejected a proposed railroad merger last year, the deal, which has implications for Western Massachusetts passenger rail projects and freight service, gets a new hearing Thursday.” THE PRESSLEY PARTY — “Pressley to Biden: Forgive student loans immediately,” by Rebecca Tauber, GBH News: “U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley is calling on President Joe Biden to take executive action on canceling student debt, emphasizing that student loans are a racial justice issue as well as a socioeconomic one.” — Pressley also slammed the state’s Covid-19 response, saying “voluntary mask advisories or other half measures are just simply inexcusable.” Pressley, who recently got a breakthrough case, called for an “aggressive, comprehensive statewide plan” including an indoor mask mandate. Asked if there should be a statewide vaccine requirement for some indoor venues like Boston’s pending mandate, Pressley replied, “I don’t see why not.” — ENDORSEMENT ALERT: Pressley rolled out her first slate of midterm endorsements yesterday, a list of six Democrats that includes fellow Bay Stater Rep. Lori Trahan. FROM THE DELEGATION — “Rep. Lori Trahan, Sen. Bernie Sanders reintroduce Masks for All Act to get Americans N95 masks,” by Benjamin Kail, MassLive: “U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan of Massachusetts on Wednesday partnered with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and dozens of Democrats to reintroduce a plan to ramp up production of protective N95 masks and get at least three to every American during the surge of the omicron COVID-19 variant.”   STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.     DATELINE D.C. — “Walensky’s growing pains,” by Alex Thompson, Max Tani and Tina Sfondeles, POLITICO: “CDC [Director Rochelle Walensky] did not relocate full-time to Atlanta and continues to work remotely from the Boston area, with frequent trips to CDC headquarters and Washington. … Asked if she flies commercial and pays out of pocket for her travel back-and-forth to Boston, as Labor Secretary Marty Walsh’s team says he does when commuting back-and-forth to Boston, a CDC spokesperson asked to talk off the record. Ultimately, they did not respond to our questions.” FROM THE 413 — “Newly-named Catholic diocesan committee announced, to usher in new era of accountability,” by Stephanie Barry, Springfield Republican: “The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield on Wednesday announced a new, nine-member Implementation and Oversight Committee in an effort to ensure reforms around the organization’s response to clergy abuse allegations.” THE LOCAL ANGLE — “Two WPI students die during winter break marking six student deaths in the past six months for the school,” by Tom Matthews, MassLive: “Since July 2021, six [Worcester Polytechnic Institute] students have died, the school confirmed. Three of those six deaths are known suicides.”   A message from Associated Industries of Massachusetts: Where does the Massachusetts economy go now, almost two years into an unprecedented public health crisis that has scrambled the job market, disrupted global supply chains and redefined the very nature of work? Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM), the state’s largest business association, serves more than 3,300 businesses representing 150 different industries in the Commonwealth. We hear from our members daily about their challenges and opportunities which gives us an extraordinarily unique perspective on the Massachusetts business community. Join us Friday January 21st at 7:30 for the State of Massachusetts Business address as AIM President and CEO, John Regan, summarizes the Massachusetts business economy in 2021, comments on what it will mean for 2022, and gets feedback from some of the region’s top business executives. Register here   MEDIA MATTERS — “After 2020 surge, Boston Globe digital subscriptions plateau,” by Don Seiffert, Boston Business Journal: “After a pandemic- and politics-fueled increase in online subscribers in 2020, the Boston Globe’s digital subscriptions leveled off, and even declined last year for the first time, according to the newspaper’s filings with a nonprofit that tracks newspaper circulation. The Globe continues to enjoy one of the widest online readerships of any regional daily newspaper in the U.S., and the slowdown last year is part of an industry-wide trend.” — “ Gannett to stop Saturday print editions at 136 newspapers nationwide,” by Don Seiffert, Boston Business Journal: “Sources told the Business Journal that while the chain’s two largest dailies, The Providence Journal and the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, will not be affected, most others will, including the Cape Cod Times, the Fall River Herald News and the New Bedford Standard Times. Some of Gannett’s dailies, such as the Patriot Ledger in Quincy, have already discontinued Saturday print editions.” TRANSITIONS — Paulina Mangubat is digital director for Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. HAPPY BIRTHDAY — to Gina Christo of Rivera Consulting and GBH’s Paul Singer. NEW HORSE RACE ALERT: THE LONG INTERMISSION — Michael Bobbitt, executive director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, joins hosts Jennifer Smith and Lisa Kashinsky to discuss the challenges Covid-19 still presents for the arts community. MassINC Polling Group Research Director Rich Parr breaks down the latest polling on transportation. Subscribe and listen on iTunes and Sound Cloud. Want to make an impact? POLITICO Massachusetts has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Bay State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness among this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com.   Follow us on Twitter Lisa Kashinsky @lisakashinsky   Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook  |  Playbook PM  |  California Playbook  |  Florida Playbook  |  Illinois Playbook  |  Massachusetts Playbook  |  New Jersey Playbook  |  New York Playbook  |  Ottawa Playbook  |  Brussels Playbook  |  London Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters FOLLOW US

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How we can save local news

Originaly fire photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

“Instead of complaining about what’s been lost … it’s much healthier for those of us who care about local journalism to build–to go do what we think needs to get done and see if that works.” –Ken Doctor, founder of Lookout Santa Cruz, a full-scale online newspaper launched last fall

If Hollywood wanted to make a gritty movie about the work of dig-it-out newspaper reporters who uncover big local stories of government doings and corporate misdeeds, it couldn’t have chosen a more picture-perfect location than the boisterous newsroom of New York’s Daily News. Once the largest-circulation paper in America, the Daily News embodied the rich history of brawny tabloid journalism, even serving as the model for DC Comics’ The Daily Planet, workplace of Clark Kent and Lois Lane in Superman.

But there’d be a problem with filming at the Daily News now: Its owners have eliminated the newsroom, leaving reporters, editors, photographers, et al. with no shared workplace. Yes, today, it’s a newspaper without a newsroom.

This once proud publication is now owned and run by Alden Global Capital, a multibillion-dollar hedge fund with a long record of buying papers on the cheap, selling off their assets, and slashing pay and jobs. Media watchers have labeled these vulture capitalists the “ruthless corporate strip-miners” of local journalism. And sure enough, in the past couple of years Alden’s profiteers have steadily plundered the paper, eliminating half of its newsroom staff. Then, last August, they told the remaining journalists they would no longer have a physical place to work.

To be clear, this closure was not a temporary measure to protect staff from Covid-19. Nor was the newsroom abandoned in favor of relocation to a less expensive office (an increasingly common cost-saving decision). Indeed, real newspaper publishers realize that the collective hive vitality of a newsroom, with its camaraderie and reportorial cross-fertilization enrich the journalism.

But Alden is in the business of making money, not journalism. The Wall Street bosses emailed staff that they weren’t selling the offices–just leasing them to other businesses, creating a new revenue stream for fattening the profits of the fund’s investors.

Unfortunately, such crass corporate calculations are typical of the new model of a nationalized, conglomeratized, and financialized “local” journalism that has already taken over thousands of papers in big cities, suburbs, and rural areas across America.

The scale and speed of that transformation have been breathtaking:

• Alden’s high-flying hedge funders have amalgamated the second biggest newspaper conglomerate in the country, having swallowed up more than 200 papers, including metro dailies in Baltimore, Boston, Boulder, Chicago, Denver, Hartford, Norfolk, Orange County, Orlando, San Jose, and St. Paul.
• Last August, in one blow, the 30 papers owned by the venerable McClatchy family fell to yet another multibillion-dollar hedge fund, Chatham Asset Management (led by a former Wall Street junk-bond dealer). With this buyout, Chatham’s clique of global speculators grabbed the major dailies in Charlotte, Fort Worth, Kansas City, Lexington, Miami, Sacramento, and Seattle.
• Then there’s the colossal Gannett conglomerate, now owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group. It runs USA Today, as well as more than1,000 local papers across the US, including the main dailies in Austin; Burlington (VT), Cincinnati, Detroit, Des Moines, Indianapolis, Louisville, Milwaukee, Nashville, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Providence, Reno, and Springfield (MO).

The operational mandate of newspaper hedge funds is absolute: Sacrifice local newsgathering and community interest to squeeze out every bit ot profit and siphon it off to unknown investors in WhoKnowsWhereLand. The papers Alden acquired were reportedly profitable, with annual margins of around 10%. But the hedge fund sharpies demanded that all their papers deliver 20% or more–a level at which the squeeze becomes deadly to quality journalism.

Community life cannot thrive without community news, which in turn depends on reporters and editors who are of the community and have the know-how, time, and resources to investigate, educate, expose, inform, entertain, and generally enlighten the citizenry. But what does some obscure, aloof, money manipulator know or care about your community or its democratic vitality? Zilch, that’s what.

A SHOT IN THE DARK

I live in a city with one of these dailies (Gannett owns the Austin American-Statesman) and in my travels I’ve read dozens of similar outlets and talked to their readers. Money managers have reduced most to mere remnants of real journalism. They have slashed reporting staff and consolidated even the editing, layout, printing, and other basic production work in remote, centralized hubs. Thus, most of the flavor and timeliness of the “local” paper is lost, replaced by chopped-up national material, two-day-old sports stories, product promotions, and other filler.

One especially revealing measure of hedge-fund journalism’s commitment to its dual responsibility of informing the public and inspiring civic action is failure to report on themselves. Their takeovers are done in the dark. BANG! Suddenly your local news is controlled by distant profit seekers who’ve never been to your town. What deal was struck? By whom? At what price? To whom do they answer? What say will you have in their coverage? These are basic questions that any investigative reporter worth their salt would ask of any transaction of such consequence to the community. But local reporters, mayors, community groups, et al. are not even given the names of–much less access to–the financial chieftains who secretly directed the buyout, control operations, and pocket the profits. And it would be worth their jobs if they tried. The most taboo topic in corporate journalism is corporate ownership.

The damage caused by impatient hedge fund speculators is especially harsh for small cities and rural areas. Forget the demand for profits north of 20%; even a 10% return is a stretch in markets with fewer than 100,000 people. So, with no personal ties to these communities and even less commitment to the civic mission of local journalism, the predators often just cash out the physical assets, pull the plug, and skip town.

Thus, hundreds of smaller papers have been shuttered in the last decade–some 300 in the last two years alone–and this winnowing has created “news deserts” (counties with no local news outlets at all) across large swaths of America. As for remaining corporate media, a new Pew survey found that 57% of folks in rural areas say that their “local” news media mostly cover some other area.

THE ORACLE SPEAKS

Playing the billionaires’ news game, mega-investor Warren Buffett once held a portfolio of 31 dailies and 49 weeklies, including such major city papers as the Buffalo News and the Omaha World Herald. He specialized in squeezing out competitors. Once he’d created monopoly papers, Buffett chopped staff and content to glean annual profit margins above 30%. Then along came the internet, allowing people to root around–for free!–to find local information missing from Buffett’s hollowed-out papers. Unsurprisingly, his newspapers soon began losing readers, advertisers, and profits, and, in 2020, Buffett bailed, selling off his entire portfolio. Rather than concede that maybe his slash-and-burn, profit-maximization approach had produced inferior products, “The Oracle of Omaha,” as Wall Street hails him, blasted the whole idea of local newspapers as dinosaurs, a doomed species beyond anyone’s ability to save them. They’re “toast,” he proclaimed.

Not so fast, your Oracleness.

Day by day, when they’re done right, timely local publications both chronicle and help shape a community’s story. And that’s a social benefit that is as valuable–and as marketable–as ever. It’s not that people have given up on local news, but that most of today’s papers are not really local, not very newsy, and not of, by, and for the workaday people in our multifaceted communities.

For example, nearly every corporate daily publishes a business section, chock-a-block with corporate press releases, meaningless syndicated filler (“CEOs optimistic about growth”), and puff pieces about yet another high-tech start-up. Does even 1% of the population read that stuff? Meanwhile, how about economic news of interest to the great majority of locals: workers? Where’s the regular section that digs into the area’s wages, job losses and openings, workplace conditions, commuting advice, affordable housing, worker safety, job discrimination, child care availability, abuse hotlines, unionizing efforts, and the myriad of other real-life issues that confront this majority on a daily basis? As I’ve long maintained, the relevant indicator of the wellbeing of nearly every American family is not the Dow Jones Average (which newspapers cover obsessively), but the Doug Jones Average. How are Doug and Donna doing? That’s news that would sell papers.

A PHOENIX RISES!

While investment syndicates aggressively merge, purge, shrink, and loot traditional businesses in my town and yours, a phoenix is rising in the spaces they’ve left behind. We don’t need to surrender to the local-papers-are-toast narrative, for imagination and grit are loose on the land. From big cities to rural counties, hundreds of determined efforts, often led by people of color, are underway to revive local newspaper journalism.

Take just one aspect with both a substantive and symbolic impact: The newsroom itself. Sparked by populist creativity, scrappy new community papers are moving into friendlier, more central, street-level newsrooms–set in public libraries, journalism schools, etc.–so that regular people can see and directly access them. The Ferndale (CA) Enterprise works from an old Victorian home and rents rooms to vacationers for additional income. The editor of the Sahan Journal in Minneapolis moves his weekly editorial meeting to the offices of various grassroots groups so their members can have input. And in Marfa, Texas, the new owners of the Big Bend Sentinel are truly serving the public, not only with a good weekly, but also with The Sentinel–a combo coffee shop, cozy bar, cafe, event space, and hangout for locals to meet and greet.

It was not so very long ago that dozens of scrappy, independent newsweeklies sprang up in city after city, town after town. By creating a viable alternative model of free tabloids, they outflanked the monopoly dailies in their markets, dramatically increasing coverage of ignored community issues and voices. Now come “paperless” city papers like Lookout (Santa Cruz), Billy Penn (Philadelphia), and DigBoston; special topic news sites like Daily Yonder (rural) and Circle of Blue (water); and hundreds of hardscrabble community papers like Flint Beat and Iowa’s Storm Lake Times.

In ways big and small, dedicated local journos are experimenting with funding, structures, staffing, etc., to produce the news that democracy requires:

• Foundations are seeding local projects and journalist positions. Take, for example, the Local News Lab–a project of the Democracy Fund. The Lab reports on the many new “experiments in journalism” and provides resources for anyone who wants to get started. localnewslab.org
• LION Publishers (Local Independent Online News)–with more than 275 members–provides resources and community to independent news entrepreneurs as they try to build sustainable local businesses. lionpublishers.com
• The Institute for Nonprofit News connects more than 300 independent news organizations dedicated to the radical proposition that “everyone deserves access to trustworthy sources of news.” inn.org
• Assorted community media consortiums in several states and cities gather local news outlets and grassroots groups to share business strategies, fundraising, staff training, tech info, story ideas, etc. These include the Chicago Independent Media Alliance (more than 40 news sources), Colorado Community Media Project (24 local papers), and New Jersey Civic Info Consortium (state-funded support for a network of local news).

Note to hedgefunders: These projects aren’t intended to “scale,” since–as Josh Stearns of the Democracy Fund says–it was corporate ambitions to cut costs by consolidating and “scaling” that got us into this mess. Instead, by sharing ideas, learning, and resources, these local projects help each other succeed. And unlike the hedge-fund papers, their success is not measured simply by financial return, but also by community benefit–how they help keep citizens informed and engaged.

MEANWHILE…

• Unionization is sweeping into dozens of hedge fund papers, so journalists themselves gain clout to report on and unify against corporate cuts, banality, and plundering.
• More city governments are mandating that a fair portion of their advertising budgets go to local community pubs, rather than remote chains.
• And Ralph Nader, always the creative thinker and doer, has launched Reporters Alert, a digital publication pointing out important topics that news outlets should be covering.

These and so many more examples are glimmers of real journalistic hope across our land. Committed community journalists are determined democracy fighters, butting their heads against the money wall to bang out honest news for local residents, not windfalls for profiteers. Instead of bemoaning the decline of the free press, let’s join with these gutsy journalists and activists who’re actually working to “free” it! Subscribe, donate, volunteer, spread the word … and generate your own ways of helping them help us.

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Hello Wall Street, Pottstown Calling

The callous shriveling of local people’s news coverage by Wall Streeters is sacrilege to hard-nosed newshounds like Evan Brandt, a proud 23-year veteran of The Mercury in Pottstown, PA, some 40 miles northwest of Philly. Until it was sold in 1998 to the Journal Register Company (known for gutting its newsrooms), The Mercury had a full-fledged staff covering Pottstown and surrounds. In 2011, though, Alden Global Capital swept in to grab The Mercury off the bargain table. Instead of investing in the paper’s potential, the hedge fund milked it for profits: It pocketed the subscription and ad revenue while making round after round of cuts to staff and coverage.

By 2019, Brandt was the only one left, serving as both editor and sole reporter for a publication responsible for covering vital local doings–from government action to corporate shenanigans, sports to elections, weather to protests. Impossible. Alden even sold off The Mercury‘s downtown office building, so Brandt’s “newsroom” is attic space in his home. And then last year, Alden pulled a whopping 30% profit from its Philadelphia- area properties, including the Pottstown paper. Brandt says that this “grilled my onions.” So, the portly, 55-year-old journalistic maverick did the unthinkable: He drove his Toyota Corolla 240 miles to New York so he could put a question to his boss–not the boss of Alden’s newspaper division, but the Big Boss, a guy named Heath Freeman, president of Alden Global Capital.

Heath lives in a waterfront mansion in Montauk, Long Island, one of the Wall Street power elites’ tony seaside villages. The rumpled reporter, in a black T-shirt proclaiming “#NEWS MATTERS,” went right up and knocked on Freeman’s door. As he later told the New York Times, when the door was opened onto the mansion’s foyer, Brandt caught a glimpse of the 40ish tycoon of vulture capitalism standing upstairs. The encounter lasted only a few seconds, but Brandt seized the moment, locking eyes with Freeman, and pointedly asking: “What value do you place on local news?”

The vulture just shook his head and fluttered away.

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