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A comment on Local Journalism Is How Democracy Shows Up Close to Home. Parent comment

Re:Local Journalism Is How Democracy Shows Up Close to Home by nerdponx on Tuesday January 13, 2026 @11:57AM (#46603719)
Small team does local journalism, motivated locals donate to keep it running. It's that simple. Some people are happy to donate $20 a month to their favorite Twitch streamer or open source project, and other people are happy to do the same for their local newspaper.

The failed model is trying to run it like a journalism factory: producing articles at some marginal cost and selling them at a fixed price that exceeds marginal cost.

Just look at NPR and member stations. The federal government ended their funding, but they kept right on going because of donations.

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Re:Local Journalism Is How Democracy Shows Up Close to Home by spmartin823 on Tuesday January 13, 2026 @12:29PM (#46604382)
NPR member stations in many communities have _not_ made up lost federal funding through donations, in fact many are at risk of closing: https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/rural-alaska/2025/07/22/kotz...

Donations are definitely a piece of the puzzle but local journalism will never reach the level it was in the early 2000s without a new revenue stream.

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