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Trippin' on the Shoestring Podcast

Ep. 35: On Local News, with Jason Pramas, Corinne Colbert, and Brian Zayatz

On this week’s episode, a discussion about the threats to local news and how we and our peers are pushing back.


This week, our guests let us in on an open secret in the journalism world: nobody knows how to fund local news anymore. With the traditional pillars that supported local information ecosystems eroding and eventually collapsing over the last few decades, recent years have seen experimentation with all kinds of economic models, including the nonprofit. 

In this episode, Shelby Lee and Dusty Christensen are joined by three guests fighting to save local news: Jason Pramas, executive director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism; Corinne Colbert, editor-in-chief of the Athens County Independent in Ohio; and Brian Zayatz, managing editor of The Shoestring. Together, the group discusses the crisis in local news, how to duct tape together an information ecosystem, and some of the organizing we’ve done together to advocate for reforms that would support stronger local news for everyone.

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Produced by Dusty Christensen. Music by An Archaeologist.


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As a small local news outlet, The Shoestring relies on local researchers and reporters to dive deep into the important news of the day. Want to write for The Shoestring? Find out how to pitch us here: https://theshoestring.org/about-2/

Trippin’ on The Shoestring

Trippin’ on The Shoestring is a podcast that brings you voices from across western Mass and goes deeper into The Shoestring’s reported stories. Catch new episodes, hosted by Dusty Christensen and Shelby Lee, every other Wednesday at theshoestring.org or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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