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An analysis of business approaches to drive community-specific media coverage in Japan
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Content
AN ANALYSIS OF BUSINESS APPROACHES TO DRIVE COMMUNITY-SPECIFIC
MEDIA COVERAGE IN JAPAN
by
Marika Sonoda
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ANNENBERG SCHOOL FOR COMMUNICATION AND JOURNALISM
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM)
December 2023
Copyright 2023 Marika Sonoda
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis chair, Professor Gabriel Kahn, for
guiding me through this journey with his expertise, invaluable patience and generous support. He has
given me advice through weekly meetings and countless messages, helped me structure the research with
his knowledge and generously connected me to many interviewees who contributed to this research. I am
also grateful to my thesis committee members, Professor Mike Ananny and Professor Elissa Grossman,
who provided me with knowledge and insightful feedback. I am also deeply indebted to the late Professor
Christopher Smith who inspired me through his communication course and encouraged me to share my
perspectives as an international student. Additionally, this endeavor would not have been possible without
the generous support from the Fulbright program, which financed my research.
I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all interviewees who graciously accepted my offers
and generously shared their experiences. This research is dedicated to those who are devoted themselves
to preserving and cultivating news for local communities, but they are the pioneers and navigators who
have shown me the way to go.
My special thanks go to my friends, family and partner. I would like to thank my roommate,
Arantxa Landa, for sharing not only the bathroom but all the ups and downs with countless joys and
emotional support. I am extremely grateful to my parents, Shigeki and Mitsuru, who financially and
emotionally supported me with unconditional love. Also, I would like to express my thanks to my sister
Misaki for inspiring me and motivating me. Most of all, I would like to send my greatest gratitude to my
wonderful partner Ryoma Toratani who has kept motivating me, inspiring me, understanding me and
supporting me despite the 17-hour time difference and 8,855.59 km distance. Your love has given me the
strength to push through all hardships toward this accomplishment.
ⅱ
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………………………. ⅱ
List of Figures ……………………………………………………………………………………………. ⅴ
Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………………….…….. ⅵ
Chapter1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….……... 1
1.1. Research Objective ……………………………………………………….…….. 3
1.2. Definitions …………………………………………………..….………………. 4
1.3. Research Review ………………………………………………………...…...… 5
1.4. Methods ………………..………………….……………………………………. 6
Chapter2. The Landscape of Local News in Japan ……………...…………………………………. 7
2.1. Scale and Density of the Japanese News Market ..…………………………..…. 7
2.2. National News and Local News ………………………………...………………. 8
2.2.1. Relationship between National and Local Newspapers ………..………. 8
2.2.2. Declining Circulation and Revenue …...…………………………...…. 11
2.3. Limited Coverage of Hyper-Local News …...…………………………………. 14
2.4. Questionnaire …………………...….………………………...………….…….. 18
2.5. Obstacles and Opportunities for Hyper-Local News ………..……………...…. 23
2.5.1. Obstacles ……………..…………….……...………...………….…….. 23
2.5.2. Opportunities ………………………….……...…...………...….…….. 25
Chapter3. Hyper-Local News in the United States ………………….……………..……...………. 27
3.1. Overview of U.S. Local News ………………….………………..…...….……. 27
3.1.1. News Deserts Are Rapidly Expanding ….………………..…...…...…. 27
3.1.2. Post-Pandemic Trend ….……………….……………..……...….……. 29
3.2. Case Studies: Individual Hyper-Local News Outlets ….………………...……. 31
3.2.1. Lookout Santa Cruz ….…...……...………...….…………...…………. 31
3.2.2. The Eastsider ……..………...….…………...….…………...………… 38
3.2.3. Kansas City Defender ………...……...….…………...….………....…. 47
3.2.4. Appendix1: The Inertia ………...……...….…………...….…………... 52
3.3. Case Studies: Local News Platforms ………...….…………...….………..…… 53
3.3.1. Patch.com ………...….…………...……...….…………...….………… 54
3.4. Case Study Analysis ………...….…………...….…………...……...….……… 58
3.4.1. Monetization Strategies .…………...….…………...…...….….……… 58
3.4.2. Efficient Content Production ……..….…………....………......……… 60
3.4.3. Community Building ……...….…………....……...….………………. 61
3.5. Government and Institutional Support ……...….…………....………………… 62
3.5.1. Government Support ……...….…………...…...……………………… 62
3.5.2. Institutional Support ……..….…………...…...….…………...….…… 64
ⅲ
Chapter4. Proposal ……...….…………....…………...….….………...….….………...….….…… 66
4.1. The Possibility of Local News Platforms ……...….…...….….……....….….… 66
4.2. Cultivate Donation Cultures ….…...….….………...….………...………..…… 67
4.3. Diversify Advertisement Menus .….….………...….….………………….…… 67
4.4. Tips for Efficient Content Production ...………...….….………....……….…… 68
4.5. Reconstruct the Tone of News Coverage ..……...….….………...….…….…… 68
4.6. Utilize User-Generated Content for Community Development ...….….……… 69
4.7. Government Indirect Financial Support .….….....….….……...………….…… 69
Chapter5. Conclusion ……...….…………....……...….….………...….….………...….…….…… 70
Bibliography ……...….……………...…....……...….….………...….….………...….….………….…… 72
ⅳ
List of Figures
Figure 1. Comparison of Japan and California. ……………….....….….………...….….…………...…… 8
Figure 2. The Market Penetration Rate of Local Newspapers in Comparison to National Newspapers. .... 9
Figure 3. Total Circulation of Newspapers in Japan. ……...….…………………..….….………….…… 12
Figure 4. Takashimadaira Shinbun. ……...….………………….………………..….….…………...…… 15
Figure 5. The Weekly Fujisawa Area Version of Town News. ….………………..….…...………...…… 16
Figure 6. Shibuya Version of Minnano Keizai Shimbun. ….………………..….….…………...……..… 17
Figure 7. Questionnaire “How Often Do You Read News Related to Your Residential Area?” ….…..… 18
Figure 8. Questionnaire “Where Do You Find and Read News Related to Your Residential Area?” ...… 19
Figure 9. Questionnaire “Have You Ever Heard of a Publication That Covers the City or Town
Where You Reside Except the Government-Issued Leaflet?” ……………………….……….. 20
Figure 10. Questionnaire - Importance of Genre. ….…………………..………..….….…………...…… 22
Figure 11. Total Circulation of U.S. Daily Newspapers. ….………………..….….………………..…… 28
Figure 12. News Desert in the U.S. ….…...……………..….….………………….………………..….… 29
Figure 13. Screenshot of the Lookout Santa Cruz’s website on May 31, 2023. ………………………… 32
Figure 14. Revenue Breakdown of Lookout Santa Cruz. ….………………..….….…………….……… 33
Figure 15. Lookout’s Marketing Partners. ….………………..….….………………….……...………… 35
Figure 16. Revenue Breakdown of The Eastsider. ….………………..….….…………………………… 39
Figure 17. The Donation Explanation Page on The Eastsider’s Website. ….………………..….…..…… 41
Figure 18. The Eastsider’s Newsletter Issued on June 7, 2023. ….………………..….…..……...……… 41
Figure 19. The Eastsider’s Reader Sponsor List. ….………………..….…..…….………………..….…. 42
Figure 20. Announcement for Newly Added Monthly Sponsors for The Eastsider. ….………………… 42
Figure 21. The Eastsider’s Newsletter Issued on June 8, 2023. ….………………..….…..…..….……… 46
ⅴ
Abstract
Hyper-local news coverage in the Tokyo metropolitan area has been scarce for nearly a century.
In most cities and towns in Tokyo, the official bulletin is the only source to know the local candidates'
campaign promises for the city council election. The city office website is the only place to look up the
available city services. The bedrock problem of this situation is the lack of a sustainable business model
that can survive in a market dominated by a few entrenched national players. However, even in the midst
of expanding news deserts, some news outlets in the U.S. have found a way to survive and even thrive
over the last two decades. Therefore, this research investigates the business models of successful cases in
the U.S. and proposes a potential application to Japan.
The research on the Japanese local news landscape, through secondary research, interviews with
the local news organizers and questionnaires, finds that the hyper-local news coverage is limited both in
the number of publications and content variety. It indicates the Tokyo metropolitan area is a blue ocean
market for hyper-local news with less competition and growing needs.
Then, it assembles five case studies of emerging and long-standing hyper-local news in the U.S.,
including four individual outlets and one platform. Those case studies are based on multiple interviews
with the newsroom organizers or staff members and analyzed from three perspectives; monetization,
content production and community-building. Some common factors include utilizing philanthropic
money, better storytelling about their value, adequate system application and content genre mix.
Finally, it proposes the potential applications of the American hyper-local news strategies to the
Japanese market. It consists of seven proposals, such as the application of local news platforms,
cultivating donation cultures, diversifying advertisement menus, efficient content production tips and
reconstructing the tone of news coverage.
These results lay out a possible road map that could lead to greater production of and access to
news about local communities.
ⅵ
Chapter 1. Introduction
Japanese newspapers boast the largest print circulations in the world. Japanese national
newspapers, Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun, recorded 6.9 million and 4.3 million circulation in the
first half of 2022,
1 or about ten times what The Wall Street Journal, the largest print circulation daily in
the United States, posted last year. Those Japanese national newspapers maintain a dominant presence in
the nation’s news industry even as their circulations have declined over the last 15 years.
2
In the shadow of this dominance, news coverage of numerous local communities has been
neglected. Before World War II, more than 13,400 news publications existed in Japan.
3 Currently, there
are several national newspapers and only one or a few local papers per prefecture. The Japan Newspaper
Publishers and Editors Association (NSK) counts 112 publications for their annual survey of total news
circulation in Japan,
4 which consists of 47 prefectures in a county of 126 million people.
The scarce journalistic coverage in cities or smaller communities especially stands out around
metropolitan areas. While all five national newspapers are headquartered in Tokyo, Tokyo Shimbun is the
only local newspaper that NSK counts for the Tokyo region.
5 Though around a dozen of the city- or
town-level newspapers or websites covering neighborhoods within Tokyo exist,
6 7
there is a paucity of
coverage of local issues, even in these densely populated areas.
7 Hirabayashi Masahide, “東京都新聞社⼀覧 [List of Newspaper Companies in Tokyo],” HIR-NET, accessed June 24, 2023,
http://www.hir-net.com/link/np/tokyo.html.
6 Grab The News, “地⽅紙 - 南関東 (東京・神奈川・埼⽟・千葉) [Local Newspaper List for the Southern Kanto Region],”
Grab The News, accessed June 24, 2023, https://news.j-blocks.com/chiho/kanto-minami.html.
5 The Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association, “メディアリンク [List of Member Companies],” The Japan
Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association, February 1, 2023, https://www.pressnet.or.jp/medialink/.
4 The Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association, “⽇刊紙の都道府県別発⾏部数と普及度 [Circulation and
Penetration of Daily Newspapers by Prefecture],” The Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association, October 2022,
https://www.pressnet.or.jp/data/circulation/circulation02.html.
3 Shu Satomi, “新聞社の社史に出てこない空⽩の歴史 [The Blank History Disappeared in the History of the Newspaper
Companies],” PRESIDENT Online, October 29, 2021, https://president.jp/articles/-/51098.
2 The Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association, “Circulation and Households,” The Japan Newspaper Publishers &
Editors Association, October 2022, https://www.pressnet.or.jp/english/data/circulation/circulation01.php.
1 The Bunka News, “ABC協会 新聞発⾏社レポート 2022年上半期平均部数 全国紙・地⽅紙の部数減続く[Japan
Audit Bureau of Circulations’ Newspaper Report: Average Circulation in the First Half of 2022 Declines in National and Local
Papers],” The Bunka News, September 6, 2022, https://www.bunkanews.jp/article/285391/.
1
National newspapers and broadcasters focus on the federal government and national issues,
resulting in reduced coverage of the Tokyo metropolitan government and cities in Tokyo. A study of the
scarce local coverage in Meguro City in Tokyo, home to 267,000 people, found that national newspapers
and broadcasters, the main sources of information in the area, report stories about the city less than once a
month.
8 Some residents express frustration and resignation about insufficient community coverage.
9
The lack of community news coverage might partly result from the adverse legacy of the wartime
censorship policy, “One prefecture, one paper,” which consequently allowed the established papers to
wield exclusive power, such as gaining preferential access to printing, paper and ink.
10 However, there
seem to be more ingrained reasons as to why the local news business has remained so crippled in the
nearly 80 years after the war, even with the power of the internet.
In other words, local news, constrained by limited financial and human resources, has not been
able to find a sustainably profitable business model. While the internet has shed a light to break through
the exclusive industry by opening up access to information and drastically diminishing distribution costs,
it has also severely depressed advertising revenue. As an American journalism professor Penny
Abernathy coined the word “news desert” to explain the rapidly expanding areas in the United States that
lacked any consistent news coverage, this phenomenon is also present in Japan. The difference is, it is a
relatively new phenomenon in the U.S. In Japan, it has been the status quo for close to a century. Still,
some news outlets in the U.S. have found a way to survive and even thrive over the last decade. The aim
of this research is to chronicle several success stories of local news in the U.S., analyze the strategies and
propose possible applications of these approaches in Japan, with the goal of growing community-specific
news coverage, especially in the Tokyo metropolitan area. By doing so, this paper hopes to lay out a
possible road map that could lead to greater production of and access to news of local communities.
10 Shu Satomi, “新聞社の社史に出てこない空⽩の歴史 [The Blank History Disappeared in the History of the Newspaper
Companies],” PRESIDENT Online, October 29, 2021, https://president.jp/articles/-/51098.
9 Kamide.
8 Yoshiki Kamide, “Lack of Information in Urban Area without Local Paper : A Study on Structural Vacuum Zone of Local News
in the Case of Meguro Ward,” Sophia-R Repository for Academic Resources (dissertation, 2014),
https://digital-archives.sophia.ac.jp/repository/view/repository/00000034340.
2
1.1. Research Objective
This research aims to show the possible solutions to grow local community news coverage in
Japan, particularly with a focus on the Tokyo metropolitan area, a region home to 37 million people,
comprising the Tokyo Metropolis and the adjacent prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama. In the
current state of lacking hyper-local news coverage, if a resident wants to know about the local candidates’
campaign promises for the city council election, the official bulletin and the candidate’s website are the
only sources. If a resident wants to know what parental support is available for childcare, the city office
website is the only place to look it up.
There are several possible reasons why the Japanese metropolitan areas historically have had
scarce community news coverage. The most frequently cited is that people in Tokyo have less of a sense
of belonging to local communities since most of them come from different parts of Japan for work in the
center of Tokyo and do not engage with the communities. The other is the lack of human resources. The
unique labor market and ethos in Japan, such as limited higher education for journalism, pervasiveness of
lifetime employment and less entrepreneurship mindset, hamper people from becoming self-employed or
entrepreneurial community reporters.
Above all, however, the more bedrock problem why the local news business has not flourished is
the lack of a business model that can survive in a market dominated by a few entrenched national players.
Over the last two decades, hundreds of local news websites were born with the power of the internet and
the smartphone, which have invalidated the established newspaper’s power that came with exclusive
access to printing, paper and ink. Yet, many of them have already disappeared, tired of chasing a penny
with clickbait content usually produced by underpaid temporary workers. Local news is in need of a
profitable business model that can sustain community reporting in this internet era.
Even Minnano Keizai Shimbun, an online local news network that covers 132 communities in
Japan, which is often referred to as a successful local news case, does not generate enough profit to hire
3
full-time journalists.
11 Most newsrooms under the network assign their workers as half-time journalists
while the workers have other main jobs. It is worth noting that they – and most other local publications,
too – intentionally exclude political and police news coverage.
12
In other words, they devote themselves to
entertaining readers but do not recognize themselves as a watchdog. “From the beginning, I knew that it
was impossible for such a small publication to cover the accident and crime report seen in the newspaper
or broadcast,” Tateki Nishi, a founder of Minnano Keizai Shimbun, said in an interview with Tokyo
Shimbun.
13 The access to police reporting in Japan is notoriously known for being exclusive. “Rather, I
wanted to focus on new shops opening, which seemed to me that more people living in Tokyo would be
interested in.”
In contrast, some local news outlets in the U.S. have succeeded in developing sustainable
business models over the last decade. Therefore, this research will investigate the business models of the
successful cases in the U.S. and propose the potential application to Japan. It will specifically focus on
monetization strategies, efficient content production, in either solutions reducing workload or content
bringing higher impact, and community-building strategy. By doing so, this paper hopes to contribute to a
process that will increase access to news that fills the information needs of local communities and allows
people to participate more in their community and gain a greater sense of belonging.
1.2. Definitions
National Newspaper: Newspapers that cover and distribute to the whole of Japan. There are five
newspapers: the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Asahi Shimbun, the Mainichi Shimbun, the Nihon Keizai
13 Oshima.
12 Tetsuhiko Hori, “「みんなの経済新聞」の成⻑から⾒た地域メディアの可能性 [Future of Local News Found in Minna
No Keizai Shimbun],” The Bunka News, June 30, 2021, https://www.bunkanews.jp/article/235347/.
11 Kosuke Oshima, “地域のニュースが街を彩る〜みんなの経済新聞 デジタルメディアの現在地(6)[Local News
Brings Color to the City: Minna No Keizai Shimbun],” Tokyo Shimbun Web, July 11, 2020,
https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/39989.
4
Shimbun (Nikkei) and the Sankei Shimbun, which are all headquartered in Tokyo. They focus more on
the federal government issues and national issues than official Tokyo or other local governments.
Local News: Newspapers or websites that cover one or more prefectures.
Hyper-Local News: Newspapers or websites that cover one city or smaller neighborhoods.
1.3. Research Review
There are some studies about local media in Japan and the U.S., but research addressing the
application of American local news business models to the Japanese market is very limited. Also, most of
the existing research about Japanese local news discusses the coverage of rural areas and does not
contemplate the situation that metropolitan areas lack local or hyper-local coverage even more than rural
areas.
Looking at the research in Japan, Yasuyuki Matsumoto, an associate professor of Contemporary
Social Studies at Setsunan University, has published articles about local news businesses, mostly in rural
areas, in multiple publications.
14 Yoshiki Kamide insists in his doctoral dissertation written after his
retirement from the Hokkaido Shimbun after more than 40 years as a reporter that central Tokyo has been
a structural vacuum zone of local news.
15 Keisuke Yoshie, a journalist for Kahoku Shimpo, visited
Denver, Colorado, in November 2021, and published a series “The Search for Local Newspapers’ Future
in the U.S.,” reporting on the struggle and efforts of the American local news.
16 Yuki Kageyama, the
author of the book “How to Create Local Media: Editing, Design, and Distribution Connecting People
and Communities,” introduces how to create local media, but focuses more on the production process and
tourist and lifestyle content.
17
17 Yuki Kageyama, ローカルメディアのつくりかた:⼈と地域をつなぐ編集・デザイン・流通 [How to Create Local
Media: Editing, Design, and Distribution Connecting People and Communities] (Kyōto, Japan: Gakugei Shuppansha, 2016).
16 Keisuke Yoshie, “The Search for Local Newspapers’ Future in the U.S.,” Kahoku Shimpo Online, February 18, 2022,
https://kahoku.news/articles/20220131khn000014.html.
15 Kamide.
14 Yasuyuki Matsumoto, “Challenges Local Newspapers Face in Contemporary Japan,” The Sociologist : Journal of the Musashi
Sociological Society, no. 22 (March 22, 2020): 173–87, http://hdl.handle.net/11149/2102.
5
As for international research, Anthony S. Rausch describes the trajectory of Japanese local news
in relation to censorship.
18 Satoshi Kitamura suggests the difference in local news consumption behavior
between people living in high-populated and less-populated communities in the article “Implications of
Urbanism for the Use of Local News Media: Effects of Population Concentration on Types of News
Acquisition in Japan” in the journal “Information, Communication & Society.”
19
There is a lot of room to investigate the lack of hyper-local news in the Japanese metropolitan
areas from a business perspective and to consider the application of American cases to the Japanese
market.
1.4. Methods
This research is done with three methods: Interviews with seven local news organizations in the
U.S. and four in Japan, mostly for 60 to 90 minutes, either in person or via Zoom call; secondary research
on academic and industrial articles and books; and a questionnaire to 41 Japanese news consumers.
19 Satoshi Kitamura, “Implications of Urbanism for the Use of Local News Media: Effects of Population Concentration on Types
of News Acquisition in Japan,” Information, Communication & Society 19, no. 11 (February 2, 2016): 1556–71,
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118x.2016.1140803.
18 Anthony S. Rausch, “A History of the Local Newspaper in Japan,” essay, in The Routledge Companion to Local Media and
Journalism, 1st ed. (London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2020), 34–43.
6
Chapter 2. The Landscape of Local News in Japan
This chapter describes the relationship between national newspapers and local news and the
shrinking trend of those markets. Following that, it addresses hyper-local news coverage, which
historically has been scarce, and analyzes the obstacles and opportunities for hyper-local news through
secondary research and a questionnaire.
2.1. Scale and Density of the Japanese News Market
When talking about the Japanese news industry, it is useful to understand the scale and density of
Japan. While the land size of Japan is nearly close to that of California, its population is more than three
times as large.
20 There are 47 prefectures in Japan, whereas there are 58 counties in California. About 14
million people reside in the Tokyo prefecture, which spans 2,194 km²,
21 while 9.8 million live in Los
Angeles County of 12,310 km².
22 This means that a local news provider targeting Tokyo prefecture would
be serving a population equal to 150% of Los Angeles County, but 18% of its area.
22 “Los Angeles County,” Data Commons - Place Explorer, accessed July 17, 2023, https://datacommons.org/place/geoId/06037.
21 Tokyo Metropolitan Government, “Tokyo’s History, Geography, and Population,” Population of Tokyo, accessed July 17, 2023,
https://www.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/ENGLISH/ABOUT/HISTORY/history03.htm.
20 Area size: Japan 377,970 km², California 424,000 km²; Population: Japan 125M, California 39M
7
Figure 1. Comparison of Japan and California.23
2.2. National News and Local News
2.2.1. Relationship between National and Local Newspapers
The Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association (NSK) counts 112 newspapers.
24 While
five of them are national newspapers, which are headquartered in Tokyo and usually have branches in all
47 prefectures, most of the others are local newspapers serving one to several prefectures.
There are also some non-NSK member newspapers serving local communities. Considering the
exclusivity of the Japanese media industry in general, however, people tend to recognize the NSK
member newspapers as media authorities and regard non-member publications as free community papers
with less authority.
24 The Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association, “⽇刊紙の都道府県別発⾏部数と普及度 [Circulation and
Penetration of Daily Newspapers by Prefecture],” The Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association, October 2022,
https://www.pressnet.or.jp/data/circulation/circulation02.html.
23 opposth66, “California vs. Japan (To Scale),” Reddit, June 2023,
https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/14hxup7/california_vs_japan_to_scale/.
8
The penetration rate of local news varies by region. In metropolitan areas, such as Tokyo,
Saitama, Kanagawa, Chiba and Osaka, national papers have dominance. For instance, the three most
subscribed newspapers in Tokyo prefecture are all national papers, Yomiuri, Asahi and Nikkei.
25
In
contrast, for most non-metropolitan areas, the top one or two newspapers are local ones.
26
Figure 2. The Market Penetration Rate of Local Newspapers in Comparison to National Newspapers. It shows the share of local
newspapers among the top three papers in each prefecture. The graph is created by the author based on the data at Prefectural
Statistics and Rankings.27
Over the past century, each prefecture usually has had one or several NSK-member local
newspapers. Tokyo, which has the largest population in Japan of about 14 million, is no exception. Tokyo
Shimbun has been the only local newspaper that NSK counts for the prefecture.
27 Tesuro Kubo, “都道府県別地⽅紙⽐率 [Market Penetration Rate of Local Newspapers],” Prefectural Statistics and Rankings
Todo Ran, January 10, 2018, https://todo-ran.com/t/kiji/13920.
26 Yomiuri Shimbun.
25 Yomiuri Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun Media Data 2022-2023, 2022,
https://adv.yomiuri.co.jp/download/PDF/mediakit/general/mediadata2022/mediadata2022-23.pdf.
9
In contrast, before wartime, more than 13,400 news publications existed in Japan, that is, from a
couple of dozen to several hundred local newspapers per prefecture.
28 This drastic decline in the number
of publications was caused by the wartime censorship policy, “One prefecture, one paper.” Beginning in
1938, the government started to integrate newspapers for the sake of easier media control and censorship.
It was not necessarily a nightmare for the news companies that emerged. As a matter of fact, the policy
consequently allowed the established papers to have exclusive power, such as preferential access to
printing, paper and ink.
29
The current relationship between national and local newspapers causes problems for both
metropolitan areas and rural areas when it comes to the range of local news coverage. From the urban
area perspective, the Tokyo metropolitan area has been an especially dead zone for local reporting. Since
the national newspapers and broadcasters, which are the main source of news for most residents, put more
emphasis on the national issues than on the Tokyo metropolitan issues, there has been insufficient news
coverage on the latter. Daisuke Tsuda, a journalist and media activist, insists in his book “Survive the
information war: Media literacy as a weapon” that the relocation trouble of Tsukiji market, which is the
world’s biggest fish market, happened partly because of the scarce local media coverage.
30
From a rural perspective, the problem is more complicated. While local newspapers hold more
influence in each region, national newspapers remain competitive to some extent. For instance, in Mie
prefecture, the 22nd largest population in Japan, the national dailies claim 40% of the market share, while
the local newspapers occupy 60%.
31 The national newspapers deploy reporters in every prefecture and
publish “the area versions,” which offer the local news in a double page spread a day. On one hand, those
customized versions are useful to read both nationwide news and local news. On the other hand, it is often
cited that national newspapers are Tokyo-biased.
31 Asahi Orikomi Nagoya. “Advertising Inserts in Newspapers.” Asahi Orikomi Nagoya, December 1, 2022.
https://www.asahi-o.co.jp/service/flyer.php.
30 Daisuke Tsuda, 情報戦争を⽣き抜く 武器としてのメディアリテラシー [Survive the Information War: Media Literacy as
a Weapon] (Tokyo, Japan: Asahi Shimbun Publications, 2018).
29 Satomi.
28 Satomi.
10
2.2.2. Declining Circulation and Revenue
Over the last 15 years, the circulation of Japanese newspapers has dramatically dropped, a decline
mirrored across the globe. According to the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association (NSK),
the total circulation in Japan has declined by 40%, from 51,491,409 in 2008 to 30,846,631 in 2022.
32 On
average, more than a million circulation has been lost every year. During the same period, the number of
journalists declined by 22%, from 21,093 to 16,531.
33
Almost all newspapers, including national and local newspapers, have decreased in circulation,
with the exception of two newspapers, Yomiuri Kodomo Shimbun – an outlet for children – and The
Japan News – an English news by Yomiuri Shimbun.
34
Whereas the conservative daily Yomiuri Shimbun still hesitates to offer digital-only access,
worried that it will cannibalize print subscribers, other national papers and many local papers are
accelerating the digital subscription strategies. Yet, it is not enough to cover the declined income. After
the number of digital subscribers to Nikkei reached 800,000 in August 2021, its growth slowed down.
35
35 Kenta Yamaguchi, “新聞の部数減少「デジタル化」で⽣き残れるのか [Newspaper Is Declining. Will Digitalization Be
the Way to Survive?],” Yahoo! News, January 23, 2023, https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/yamaguchikenta/20230123-00333910.
34 The Bunka News, “ABC協会 新聞発⾏社レポート 2022年上半期平均部数 全国紙・地⽅紙の部数減続く[Japan
Audit Bureau of Circulations’ Newspaper Report: Average Circulation in the First Half of 2022 Declines in National and
Regional Papers],” The Bunka News, September 6, 2022, https://www.bunkanews.jp/article/285391/.
33 The Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association, “新聞・通信社従業員数と記者数の推移 [Number of Total
Employees and Journalists],” The Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association, April 2022,
https://www.pressnet.or.jp/data/employment/employment03.php.
32 The Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association, “Circulation and Households,” The Japan Newspaper Publishers &
Editors Association, October 2022, https://www.pressnet.or.jp/english/data/circulation/circulation01.php.
11
Figure 3. Total Circulation of Newspapers in Japan.36
Looking at the NSK’s circulation data by region, the decline is larger in metropolitan areas. The
largest declines in 2021 from the previous year were in Osaka, with 8.0%, Tokyo, with 7.3%, and Kinki,
with 6.5%, while the country average was 5.8%.
37 “In Japan, the news desert phenomenon seems to
appear from metropolitan areas,” Masayuki Takada, a professor of Sociology and Media Studies at Tokyo
City University, argues.
38
Local news has also been struggling. Since 2010, seven local newspapers disappeared and 14
local papers ceased evening editions.
39 Considering that only a few publications cover one prefecture, the
damage of losing those papers should be larger than it sounds. In addition, national newspapers have
39 Takada.
38 Takada.
37 Masayuki Takada, “昨年も180万部減、全然⽌まらぬ「新聞」衰退の末路 [Last Year Lost 1.8M Newspaper Circulation
Again],” Toyo Keizai Online, January 10, 2022, https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/500413.
36 The Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association, “Circulation and Households,” The Japan Newspaper Publishers &
Editors Association, October 2022, https://www.pressnet.or.jp/english/data/circulation/circulation01.php.
12
reduced the number of correspondents stationed in every prefecture. A journalist based in Gunma
prefecture anonymously describes the weakened situation of Gunma in the interview with the author:
40
National newspapers used to deploy multiple correspondents at all four major reporting stations
in the prefecture. In some cases, they even had more reporting bases. But these days, the number
of correspondents has been reduced, and some bases were shut down. Sankei Shimbun, the fifth
national newspaper, now has no reporter to cover Gunma and stopped publishing the Gunma
edition.
There is no single cause for the news industry being in crisis. The most universal explanation is
the popularization of the internet and smartphone. In addition, there are several causes that are unique to
Japan.
One is the aging population. The aged population rate, which counts people aged 65 years old or
older against the total population, has increased from 20.2% in 2005 to 29.1% in 2022.
41 Some local
newspapers are facing the fact that many people cancel subscriptions due to the difficulty in reading
caused by aging.
42
On top of that, the unique ecosystem of news aggregators and newspapers is said to be an
obstacle in the Japanese news industry. In Japan, 75% of people are currently using online media as a
source of news in place of traditional mass media.
43 Free news portal sites, such as Yahoo! News,
SmartNews, LINE News and Gunosy, that aggregate online news articles from various publishers, play a
dominant role in online news distribution. Those aggregators pay compensation to the major publishers,
but the amount is decided by negotiation and it is not enough to cover the revenue lost by print
circulation.
44 Rather, this minimal revenue stream has put publishers in a “neither kill nor let them live”
44 Susumu Shimoyama, 2050年のメディア [Media in 2050] (Tokyo, Japan: Bungeishunju, 2019).
43 The Japan Press Research Institute, rep., 第15回メディアに関する全国世論調査 [15th National Public Opinion Poll on
Media] (The Japan Press Research Institute, November 12, 2022),
https://www.chosakai.gr.jp/wp/wp-content/themes/shinbun/asset/pdf/project/notification/yoron2022houkoku.pdf.
42 Yasuyuki Matsumoto, “Challenges Local Newspapers Face in Contemporary Japan,” The Sociologist : Journal of the Musashi
Sociological Society, no. 22 (March 22, 2020): 173–87, http://hdl.handle.net/11149/2102.
41 Statistics Bureau of Japan, “⾼齢者の⼈⼝ [Aging Population],” Statistics Bureau of Japan, September 18, 2022,
https://www.stat.go.jp/data/topics/topi1321.html.
40 Anonymous informant #1 in discussion with the author, personal, January 28, 2023.
13
situation and has led to the gradual shrinking of newspapers.
45 What is more, it is considered that such
free sites create a psychological hurdle for people to pay for online news.
46
2.3. Limited Coverage of Hyper-Local News
Compared with local news coverage about the Tokyo metropolitan government, hyper-local news
is even more scarce. While there are around a dozen hyper-local news outlets serving cities or
neighborhoods within Tokyo,
47 48 most cities and towns do not have news coverage about their city
council or mayoral elections.
A limited number of cities have paper-based newspapers called “town papers,” which are usually
free and delivered as an insert in the major paid newspapers, including national and local dailies.
Generally speaking, those town papers have longer histories of publishing, more journalistic content than
online media, and publish weekly, biweekly or monthly. For instance, Takashimadaira Shinbun,
established in 1972, publishes monthly. It serves 31,000 residents in the Takashimadaira neighborhood in
Itabashi city located in the northern east part of Tokyo. Its latest issue in June 2023 covers Itabashi City’s
supplementary budget proposal and the appointment of the city council chairperson.
49
49 Takashimadaira Shinbunsha, “Issue June 2023,” Takashimadaira Shinbun, June 15, 2023,
https://www.takashimadaira.co.jp/2306.html.
48 Hirabayashi Masahide, “東京都新聞社⼀覧 [List of Newspaper Companies in Tokyo],” HIR-NET, accessed June 24, 2023,
http://www.hir-net.com/link/np/tokyo.html.
47 Grab The News, “地⽅紙 - 南関東 (東京・神奈川・埼⽟・千葉) [Local Newspaper List for the Southern Kanto Region],”
Grab The News, accessed June 24, 2023, https://news.j-blocks.com/chiho/kanto-minami.html.
46 Shimoyama, 60-61.
45 Shimoyama, 332-333.
14
Figure 4. Takashimadaira Shinbun, Issue 636, published on June 15, 2023.
Those town papers usually work with a very traditional business model. The majority of their
income is from local business advertisements. Since they print and distribute without charge to the
readers, the publishers have to calculate and adjust the number of copies not to fall below the breakeven
point. Kazuki Harada, a president of the Fujisawa branch of Town News, a town paper covering 43 cities
surrounding central Tokyo, explains why they intentionally avoid covering and distributing in central
Tokyo:
Tokyo is a difficult area to launch a town paper. Due to its high population density, the cost of
print and delivery would easily exceed the expected advertisement income if we cover one city. In
theory, it might be possible to break down one city and cover smaller neighborhoods. But it is
important for our business strategy to match the coverage area to the administrative district, that
is, the electoral district. That’s because election candidates are one of our major advertisers.
That is, the high population density of Tokyo has hindered the traditional business model of paper-based
local newspapers. Consequently, only a limited number of cities have local coverage by town papers.
15
Figure 5. The Weekly Fujisawa Area Version of Town News, Issue 1179, Published on July 14, 2023. The headline is their own
analysis of the government spending on political activities. The Town News Co was founded in 1980 and now publishes 43 area
versions in cities and towns surrounding central Tokyo. Total circulation counts 1.8 million copies.
On the other hand, online news has also been struggling with content variety. As a whole, there
are more publications of online local media than paper-based outlets, and thus, more cities receive some
local coverage. However, their content variety is quite limited and mostly about restaurants, shopping and
events information. As mentioned in the introduction, Minnano Keizai Shimbun, an online local news
network that covers 132 communities, intentionally excludes political and police news, considering the
popularity of the content genre. Another popular local news network called Gogai Net sometimes covers
elections, but it only mentions how and where to vote and does not address candidates or their campaign
promises.
50 Most of Gogai Net’s content is about restaurants and events as well.
The reason why they stick to entertainment, restaurants and shopping is because of their
penny-seeking business model based on programmatic advertising as a main source of revenue.
Programmatic advertising allows media outlets to earn an average of only $1 to 5 per thousand
impressions,
51 and therefore, they are forced to focus on, if not clickbait, content that generates substantial
51 Google News Initiative, “Understand Direct and Programmatic Ad Revenue,” accessed August 20, 2023,
https://newsinitiative.withgoogle.com/resources/trainings/grow-digital-ad-revenue/understand-direct-and-programmatic-ad-reven
ue/.
50 Gogai Net, “2023年4⽉23⽇(⽇)は杉並区議会議員選挙![Suginami City Council Election Is Coming on April 23!],” Gogai
Net Suginami, April 17, 2023, https://suginami.goguynet.jp/2023/04/17/kugikaigiinsenkyo-20230423/.
16
traffic. In order to defend the revenue, the content production cost is extremely low, such as 500 Japanese
yen (about $3.5) per article, by using amateur writers.
52
Figure 6. Shibuya Version of Minnano Keizai Shimbun, Accessed on July 20, 2023. Most coverage is about restaurants, events
and local businesses.
When it comes to the profitability of existing hyper-local media, it does not seem to be promising
for either paper or online outlets. Minnano Keizai Shimbun reveals that the profit they are generating is
not enough to hire full-time reporters.
53 For Town News, the ordinary profit of the year 2022 recorded the
highest in the last four years.
54 However, the circulation has kept declining over the last six years, affected
by the decline of newspaper circulation.
55
55 Kazuki Harada discussion with the author, personal, March 16, 2023.
54 Townnews-sha Co., Ltd., Townnews-Sha 43rd Mid-Term Shareholders’ Report (Kanagawa, Japan: Townnews-sha, 2023),
https://kabu2.meclib.jp/A24812212/book/index.html#target/page_no=5.
53 Oshima.
52 Maji Media, “地域ニュースサイトの地域担当記者募集 [Job Recruiting for Local News Writer],” Maji.tv, accessed August
2, 2023, https://maji.tv/recruit-goguywriter/.
17
2.4. Questionnaire
This section summarizes the results of questionnaires about the Japanese audience’s news
consumption behavior conducted by the author, from December 2022 to January 2023. The survey
consists of three sections; news subscription status, news consumption behavior and local news
consumption. The questionnaire was open to all generations, regardless of residential area, and obtained
41 answers. Eighty-eight percent of respondents were in their 30s, 49% were living in Tokyo and 17%
were in Kanagawa, a commuter area of Tokyo. The key takeaways are as follows:
1) 36% Read Local News a Few Times Per Week
In response to the question, “How often do you read news related to your residential area?” 36%
of respondents answered a few times a week. Following that, 34% answered a few per month.
Figure 7. Questionnaire “How Often Do You Read News Related to Your Residential Area?”
18
2) Social Media and Free News Portal Sites Are Main Routes to Access Local News
When asked, “Where do you find and read news related to your residential area?” nearly 50% of
respondents answered “Local tab of the portal sites” and/or “Social Media.” The third largest route was
government-issued media, with 34%. TV programs, the local section of national and local newspapers
(paper), and the local section of national and local newspapers (web) count about 20% respectively.
Figure 8. Questionnaire “Where Do You Find and Read News Related to Your Residential Area?”
19
3) 56% Have Never Heard of Hyper-Local News Publication
In response to the question, “Have you ever heard of a publication that covers the city or town
where you reside except the government-issued leaflet?” 56% answered “never heard of it,” while 32%
read occasionally.
Figure 9. Questionnaire “Have You Ever Heard of a Publication That Covers the City or Town Where You Reside
Except the Government-Issued Leaflet?”
4) The Main Source of Hyper-Local News Is Government-Issued Publication
In response to the question, “Please list the publication name where you obtain hyper-local
news,” half of the responses were local government-issued publications, such as city council reports or
city public relations. The remaining 30% were online local news outlets that mainly cover gourmet and
event topics, and 20% were established local newspapers, such as Hokkaido Shimbun and Kochi
Shimbun.
20
5) Local Government, Medical and Health, and Education and Childcare Seems To Be
Underserved News Genres
Respondents were asked to rate the importance of each news genre. The rating was given as
follows: 4 as essential to everyday life, 3 as sometimes necessary, 2 as interested in this genre and 1 as not
important or not interested in. The six genres highest rated were, from the highest, weather, events, local
government, local restaurants, transportation, medical and health, and education and childcare. Fewer
people showed interest in crime and accidents, local businesses, sports, personnel, job board and obituary.
In addition, in response to the question “What would you like to know about your
neighborhood?” a third of respondents listed information about education and childcare in the free
description. Another third mentioned gourmet food and events. A few insisted on easy-to-understand
explanations of local government support available to residents.
Considering the existence of popular apps about the weather forecast and transportation, and
online local news outlets providing restaurant and event information, it is fair to regard local government,
medical and health, and education and childcare as underserved news genres.
21
Figure 10. Questionnaire - Importance of Genre.
22
Importance of News Genre
4
(essential to
everyday life)
3
(sometimes
necessary)
2
(interested in this
genre)
1
(not important or
not interested)
Score
Weather 24 6 4 7 129
Events 3 22 16 0 110
Local
government
4 20 14 3 107
Local
restaurants
5 19 13 4 107
Transportation 7 16 10 8 104
Medical and
health
2 22 12 5 103
Education and
childcare
6 17 8 10 101
Crime and
accident
5 14 13 9 97
Local
economics and
businesses
3 10 24 4 94
Sports 1 7 14 19 72
Personnel(com
panies/facultie
s/city officers)
1 5 7 28 61
Job board 0 3 9 29 56
obituary 1 1 7 32 53
2.5. Obstacles and Opportunities for Hyper-Local News
This section analyzes the obstacles and opportunities of the hyper-local news market in the Tokyo
metropolitan area, based on the research and questionnaire introduced above.
2.5.1. Obstacles
2.5.1.1. Less Sense of Belonging to the Community
People living in Tokyo have less sense of community compared with other parts of the country. A
study, conducted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in 2005, shows that people living
in more urbanized areas feel less sense of community than those living in less developed areas.
56 This is
caused because many people move to Tokyo for their education and jobs, and thus, do not have
connections with local communities. Masato Sato, a publisher of Kenoh.com, a hyper-local news site
serving 230,000 people in the central area of Niigata prefecture, says that people in Tokyo have a lower
sense of belonging to the local community and that it could lead to less interest and less need for local
news.
57
2.5.1.2. Less and Negative Recognition of Hyper-Local News
In addition, even for people born and raised in Tokyo, hyper-local news is merely recognized or
recognized negatively. The questionnaire shows 56% of respondents have never heard of hyper-local
news publications. This might be simply because the number of publications is extremely limited.
However, even for those who know the existence of hyper-local outlets, they do not seem to
appreciate them. Yuka Kaneko, one of the questionnaire respondents residing in Tokyo, told the author in
the follow-up communication after the questionnaire that, “Local news is closely related to our daily
57 Masato Sato in discussion with the author, personal, January 6, 2023.
56 National and Regional Planning Bureau, Survey on the Revitalization and Creation of Communities in Large Metropolitan
Areas § (2005), https://www.mlit.go.jp/kisha/kisha05/02/020801_.html.
23
lives, and there should be important information, but for some reason, I have an impression that local
news is ‘boring.’ It might partly be because their target audience is too wide.”
58
2.5.1.3. Limited Education and Human Resources
Another obstacle is the limited supply of local journalists caused by a unique labor market of
reporters in Japan. Only a few universities have journalism programs, so many aspiring journalists receive
primary education to be a journalist after they start working for established news companies. In addition,
the Japanese media industry is notorious for excluding freelance reporters. Therefore, almost the only way
to start a career as a journalist is to work for established companies.
Moreover, compared to the U.S., Japanese companies still have a lifetime employment system,
and it is hard to fire employees. Thus, journalists who started their careers at the major newspapers tend to
remain in the company.
Additionally, it is a chicken-and-egg phenomenon, but Japanese people tend to consider being an
entrepreneur as taking risks and to hesitate to risk their stable lives.
59 Jesús Sanchez, a founder of The
Eastsider,
60 a local news blog in Los Angeles, mentioned in the next chapter, recalls that many journalists
were laid off after the financial crisis in 2008, and some of them, including himself, started their own
media serving their neighborhood.
61 The fluid labor market in the U.S., consequently, allowed some
self-employed journalists to serve their own communities. Such a movement is hardly expected to happen
in Japan.
2.5.1.4. Insufficient System and Financial Resources
Considering the size of the hyper-local newsroom, which is often less than a handful, developing
and maintaining a website is a heavy burden. Websites for news production and delivery are far from just
61 Jesús Sanchez in discussion with the author, personal, January 27, 2023.
60 The Eastsider LA, July 19, 2023. https://www.theeastsiderla.com/.
59 Zach Marzouk, “Why Does Japan Lag behind on Startups?,” ITPro, October 26, 2021,
https://www.itpro.com/business-strategy/startups/361311/why-does-japan-lag-behind-on-startups.
58 Yuka Kaneko, personal message to the author, January 23, 2023.
24
creating a landing page or owned media. It requires multiple functions; not only a content management
system, newsletter and analytics, but also ad management, subscription or fundraising, and RSS if the
newsrooms want to deliver content to the major news aggregators. Though there are various web
development tools available for free, those are not well integrated. There are numerous website
production companies, but few of them provide integrated systems customized for news production. As a
result, the newsroom is required to sacrifice its limited workforce to take care of systems, which hampers
its business from growing, and it even barriers to entry.
“I wish there were a subscription system provider specialized in local news,” Sato, from
Kenoh.com, a hyper-local news in Niigata prefecture, says. The outlet has more than two decades of
history, and now Sato is the sole operator. Kenoh.com has gained a huge reputation for its original
journalistic coverage and was awarded the “Yahoo Japan Search Awards 2016” for the Niigata category.
“Even if I try to start a member subscription, the initial cost of system development and running cost will
be hardly compensated,” Sato says.
62
In addition, the lack of financial support keeps hyper-local newsrooms stuck on shoestring
operations. Sato describes the financial situation, saying, “This business is making as much profit as a
full-time salary for one person in the rural area by ads and everything-freelancing.” However, he also says
that he does not have enough time for ad sales, so he asks for ad placement during interviews or shooting.
2.5.2. Opportunities
Though there are some obstacles, there seems to be a blue ocean market there.
2.5.2.1. Less Competition
The hyper-local news market, especially around the Tokyo area, has less competition in multiple
aspects. As described in the 2.3 section, there is a limited number of hyper-local news publications. It will
lead to easier positioning in the market, including search engine optimization. It will also help
62 Masato Sato in discussion with the author, personal, January 6, 2023.
25
differentiate the content – rather, there should be lots of news that deserves to be reported but not due to
scarce resources of hyper-local news reporting. The exclusive custom of the press will not be a big
problem in city reporting because the established national and local newspapers do not usually deploy
reporters in city offices.
Moreover, ad sales should also benefit from a less competitive market with a large population of
Tokyo. If publishing online, there is no need to worry about balancing printing costs and ad revenues, as
Harada from Town News mentioned. Rather, there should be many potential advertisers, such as opinion
ads from politicians, construction and real estate, and lawyers and legal services, which are major
advertisers for local newspapers outside Tokyo.
2.5.2.2. Growing and Underserved Needs
In addition to the limited coverage of hyper-local news, established papers also have been cutting
off regional reporting, as mentioned in section 2.2. It is not hard to imagine local news will be even more
scant in the near future.
On the other hand, the underserved news genres observed by the questionnaire, such as local
government, medical and health, and education and childcare, mean that there is more demand than there
is supply. Those genres often require a professional understanding of the fields and regular following of
the topics.
This gap between a certain need for local news coverage and the declining or lacking supply of
those would be an opportunity for hyper-local news.
26
Chapter 3. Hyper-Local News in the United States
The Japanese media industry is said to be “10 years behind the United States” in terms of digital
strategies.
63 This is not necessarily a bad thing because Japanese newspaper companies still manage to
make some profit from printed newspapers. However, it is also true that the market is rapidly shrinking
and that many experts insist on the urgent need to rebuild the business model of newspapers.
This also means that the U.S. news industry began to struggle with newspaper monetization much
earlier and harder than occurred in Japan. Thus, the U.S. industry has explored many more new ways to
sustain journalism over the last few decades. Consequently, some news outlets in the U.S. have found a
way to maintain their businesses, and some institutions and local governments have started to show more
support for local reporting.
Therefore, this chapter reviews first the current state of local news in the U.S. and some positive
trends. Then, it assembles several successful and emerging business approaches for hyper-local news,
including individual outlets and platforms, based on multiple interviews and secondary research. Those
examples are selected regarding their replicability and analyzed from three perspectives: monetization
strategies, content production and community-building strategies. It will also introduce government and
institutional support for local news.
3.1. Overview of U.S. Local News
This section provides an overview of the current severe situation of local news in the U.S. as well
as some positive trends.
3.1.1. News Deserts Are Dramatically Expanding
Newspapers have been facing a drastic drop in circulation over the last few decades, and this
negative trend especially hit the local news landscape hard. The Pew Research Center estimated in 2020,
63 Yo Makino, “Where Does the Japanese Newspaper Industry Go?,” essay, in ⽶ハフィントン・ポストの衝撃 [Impact of the
U.S. Huffington Post That Changed the Way the Media] (Tokyo, Japan: ASCII Shinsho, 2013), 198–99.
27
their most recent report on the matter, that total U.S. daily newspaper circulation combining print and
digital was 24.3 million for weekday and 25.8 million for Sunday, which was less than half of 2005 and
38% of the peak record in 1984.
64
Figure 11. Total Circulation of U.S. Daily Newspapers.65
The news deserts, the regions lacking local news coverage, are rapidly expanding throughout the
nation and damaging more the traditionally underserved communities that need local journalism the most.
According to the report titled “The State of Local News 2022,” published by the Local News Initiative of
Northwestern University (LNI), more than two newspapers a week disappear on average, and most of
them do not get a replacement either in digital or print.
66 More than a fourth of newspapers published in
the U.S. have been lost since 2005, and there are 6,380 surviving papers now.
67 Seventy million people,
67 Abernathy et al.
66 Penny Abernathy et al., “The State of Local News,” Local News Initiative, October 4, 2022,
https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/projects/state-of-local-news/.
65 Barthel et al.
64 Michael Barthel and Kirsten Worden, eds., “Newspapers Fact Sheet,” Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project, June 29,
2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/newspapers/.
28
more than a fifth of the nation’s population, live in news deserts—without a newspaper or with only one
paper, usually a weekly.
68
Figure 12. News Desert in the U.S.69 The graph shows the counties with no or only one newspaper.
3.1.2. Post-Pandemic Trend
In contrast to the harsh local news business environment, the Covid-19 pandemic has
demonstrated the importance of local reporting and brought some optimistic outcomes. According to LNI,
subscriptions at local news have continued to rise after the pandemic, regardless of the size of the
newsroom, despite falling page views and unique visitors.
70 Among eight large metropolitan daily
newspapers surveyed by LNI, six showed significant increases in subscriptions from September 2021
through August 2022.
71 Matt Lindsay, president of Mather Economics, a consulting company specializing
71 Chandler.
70 Susan Chandler, “Subscriptions Still on the Rise at Most Newspapers in the Medill Subscriber Engagement Index,” Local
News Initiative, November 21, 2022,
https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/posts/2022/11/21/subscriptions-increasing/index.html.
69 Abernathy et al.
68 Penny Abernathy, “The State of Local News: Executive Summary,” Local News Initiative, June 29, 2022,
https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/research/state-of-local-news/report/.
29
in media and data analytics, explains this trend by saying, “Publishers are getting better at converting
subscribers so they are maintaining their numbers of new subscriptions.”
72
In addition, Jim Brady of the Knight Foundation also provides a positive outlook for the future of
journalism in the article titled “7 Hopeful Trends in Journalism in 2022.”
73 One of the most significant
trends is that the number of local independent and nonprofit news organizations has increased over the
past several years. This trend is proven in two numbers: the Local Independent Online News Publishers
records a 30 percent increase in its membership since 2020, and the Institute for Nonprofit News sees
local nonprofits double since 2017.
74 Also, there has been a movement to create new startups rather than
just trying to revive the existing local daily newspapers.
75
In addition, some states have started to provide more support for local news, such as funding the
journalistic project or providing tax breaks for local news advertisers. New Jersey passed the
first-in-the-nation law, Civic Information Bill, in 2018 to allocate public money for news outlets.
76
Following this, California has also passed a law to subsidize $25 million for a local news fellowship
program, supporting 40 reporters in underserved community newsrooms.
77 New Mexico is also
considering a similar bill. Colorado is taking a different approach with the Supporting Local Media Bill,
which allows small businesses to receive a tax credit of 50% of the money they spend on advertising in
local news outlets.
78
To summarize, whereas news deserts are continuing to expand, local news has seen some positive
developments, such as growth in subscriptions, the number of local news organizations and governmental
support.
78 “HB22-1121 Supporting Local Media Bill,” Colorado Press Association Network, accessed April 25, 2023,
https://coloradopressassociation.com/advocacy/hb22-1121-supporting-local-media/.
77 Brady.
76 Catherine Buni, “Meet the States Using Public Funding to Support Local News,” Nieman Reports, February 8, 2023,
https://niemanreports.org/articles/state-public-funding-local-news/.
75 Brady.
74 Brady.
73 Jim Brady, “7 Hopeful Trends in Journalism in 2022,” Knight Foundation, December 27, 2022,
https://knightfoundation.org/articles/7-hopeful-trends-in-journalism-in-2022/.
72 Chandler.
30
3.2. Case Studies: Individual Hyper-Local News Outlets
This section assembles the growing hyper-local news outlets articulating the hopeful trends
described in the previous section. Though the strategies and business objectives differ from newsroom to
newsroom, the common realms that boost their presence and that differentiate them from the traditional
local news can be seen in monetization strategies, efficient content production and community-building
strategies. These cases are collected through the secondary source analysis and the interviews the author
conducted with those local news media organizers.
3.2.1. Lookout Santa Cruz
Lookout Santa Cruz (Lookout) is an online local news outlet serving Santa Cruz County in
California, home to around 260,000 people. It was launched in November 2020 by Ken Doctor. It is run
under Lookout Local Inc., a public benefit corporation whose core mission is “to serve its communities
with a new and higher standard of news, information and community engagement.”
79
Though the publication form is digital-only, it has 15 full-time staff members working at the
physical office located in downtown Santa Cruz, which is relatively large for this size of the local
community.
80 With its high-quality and non-partisan news content backed by the robust reporter base, the
current monthly pageviews count about 250,000, growing at about 17% every year.
81 The membership,
which charges $187 a year, is also growing at a high rate, doubling in 2022, with more than 8,500 as of
January 2023.
82
82 Ken Doctor in discussion with the author, personal, January 8, 2023.
81 Doctor.
80 Ken Doctor, “Newsonomics: Two Years after Launching a Local News Company (in an Alden Market), Here’s What I’ve
Learned,” Nieman Lab, December 5, 2022,
https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/12/newsonomics-two-years-after-launching-a-local-news-company-in-an-alden-market-heres-w
hat-ive-learned/.
79 Lookout Local Santa Cruz, “About,” Lookout Local Santa Cruz, November 2020, https://lookout.co/santacruz/about.
31
Figure 13. Screenshot of the Lookout Santa Cruz’s website on May 31, 2023.
“We’re on track to meet our goal of sustainable recurring revenue by next summer,” Ken Doctor
says in an article published by Nieman Lab on December 5, 2022, in which he explains the Lookout’s
business model and two years of the journey after its launch. He humbly evaluates, “We’re not declaring
success yet, but we’re tangibly close, even as we ready ourselves for expansion into other communities.”
Rather, it does not overstate that the Lookout is already succeeding in its business even if it is a
few steps away from going into black. This is because, in the rapidly shrinking local news space, where
survival alone can already be considered a success, its membership and financial status are improving.
The following sections break down their efforts into three categories and analyze what has contributed to
their growth.
3.2.1.1. Monetization Strategies
Though the two-year-old Lookout does not disclose its financial reports, the founder Ken Doctor
foresees that it will generate “sustainable recurring revenue” by summer 2023.
83
Its current revenue
breakdowns are 50% advertising; 35% membership; and 15% targeted philanthropy for key growth
positions.
84
84 Doctor, “Newsonomics.”
83 Doctor, “Newsonomics.”
32
Figure 14. Revenue Breakdown of Lookout Santa Cruz.
Initial Investment
One of the reasons why its business is quickly picking up is the large initial investment. It raised a
couple of million dollars, at its launch, from several institutions, such as the Knight Foundation, the
Google News Innovation Challenge, The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the Silicon Valley Community
Foundation, and local and regional philanthropists.
85
It allowed them to hire 14 staff from the beginning,
including nine in editorial and five in sales and administration, which was large for their community
size.
86 Doctor insists on the importance of large initial investment, saying, “You have to have enough
investments to sustain you for several years because, no matter how smart you are, it takes time to make
inroads in the market.”
87
Advertisement Strategies
The other success factor is its diversified ad menus and its customized packaging for local
businesses. Its advertisement options range from branded content and display ads to job boards, event
promotions and obituaries. It also offers an Instagram reel video production for small local businesses.
87 Ken Doctor in discussion with the author, personal, January 8, 2023.
86 Joshua Benton, “In the Arena: Ken Doctor Is Moving from ‘Media Analyst’ to ‘Media CEO’ with Lookout, His Plan for
Quality Local News,” Nieman Lab, August 6, 2020,
https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/08/in-the-arena-ken-doctor-is-moving-from-media-analyst-to-media-ceo-with-lookout-his-planfor-quality-local-news/.
85 Doctor, “Newsonomics.”
33
Though Doctor confirms that promoted content, display ads and job board ads are the leading revenue
streams,
88 he emphasizes the importance of flexible packaging to meet clients’ needs. “It’s all
relationship-based selling,” Doctor explains.
89 “We are designing individual packages that meet the needs
of that business or nonprofit within their budget.”
One notable thing about their advertisement strategy is that they intentionally exclude
programmatic ads in order to prioritize the local community. They regard advertisements not only as a
profit-maker but also as a function that drives community bonding. “Our ads reflect the local small
business and nonprofit communities back to our whole community of readers,” Doctor describes in his
Nieman Lab piece.
90 “That means they not only bring in dollars, they reaffirm the community itself. It’s a
twofer.”
Compared to programmatic ads or traditional uniform display ads, this customized ad selling
requires much more human resources. Doctor revealed a few strategies that enable a small sales team,
with one person in charge, two salespersons and two interns, to achieve satisfying revenue. One is to
focus on relatively large-scale clients at the beginning, such as local educational institutions, banks and
credit unions, major independent grocery stores and health providers.
91 Though they are also trying to
expand the small retailers, restaurants and clubs, which are one of the most addressable businesses in
local communities, it is essential to secure clients with large budgets which bring financial stability.
Lookout proves it is not impossible for local news to convince those larger businesses to cooperate.
The other tip is that Lookout uses a third-party ad-management tool called Broadstreet.
92 The tool
looks similar to Google Ad Manager at first glance but focuses on publishers who have direct sales teams
such as hyperlocal news publishers.
93
It provides tools promoting smooth sales meetings and effortless
93 Broadstreet, “Broadstreet Ad Manager: An Introduction,” Broadstreet, accessed June 27, 2023,
https://broadstreetads.com/request-a-demo/.
92 Doctor in discussion with the author.
91 Doctor in discussion with the author.
90 Doctor, “Newsonomics.”
89 Doctor in discussion with the author.
88 Doctor in discussion with the author.
34
reporting with a cost of $299 per month at the lowest.
94 The use of such effortless tools could boost
performance.
Figure 15. Lookout’s Marketing Partners.95
It has found partners that have generous budgets and seek local connection.
Membership Strategies
Lookout’s membership is also growing at a high rate, doubling in 2022, with more than 8,500 as
of January 2023.
96
Its standard pricing is $187 a year or $17 a month, but it provides discounts for the first
year with $99 a year. It also offers student programs that allow local high school students and college
students access for free, funded by philanthropic donors. As of January 2023, all high schools in the city
of Santa Cruz, UC Santa Cruz and Cabrillo College have access to Lookout, which occupies the majority
of the total membership.
97 “We have donors that said that they see the value of student access and
engagement in the local news,” Doctor explains.
98
Messaging for Local Commitment
Above all these monetization strategies, Lookout’s communications with stakeholders
differentiate it from existing news outlets. As clarified in the mission statement, its fundamental mission
98 Doctor in discussion with the author.
97 Doctor in discussion with the author.
96 Doctor in discussion with the author.
95 Lookout Local Santa Cruz, “Advertise with US,” Lookout Local Santa Cruz, accessed June 27, 2023,
https://lookout.co/santacruz/advertise-with-us.
94 Broadstreet, “Pricing,” Broadstreet, accessed June 27, 2023, https://broadstreetads.com/pricing/.
35
is “to serve its communities with a new and higher standard of news, information and community
engagement.”
99
Its communication with advertisers and readers emphasizes this mission and lets them
know their contributions make this mission reality rather than just luring them with monetary value.
Here are the excerpts from the author’s interview that show their ways of messaging and its
implications:
100
What we are saying is we are a locally-owned, locally driven news medium that is here to help
make Santa Cruz County a better place for all to live. And we try to demonstrate that every day
through the product that we create. Over two years we’ve seen people say, “I really like that.”
The advertising sales pitch is really twofold: We can be effective for you and reach who you want
to reach and just like in any other kind of ad sales. We can offer a lot of analytics because we’re
digital, though most people don’t want them. And you want to be within our environment, which
is a strong local news site that feels like Santa Cruz. So it is both that emotional kind of thing that
I want to be here because this feels like the right place, and it seems to me the business owner that
it’s affected. Most of them don’t really measure it [advertisement effectiveness]. They’re not
measuring us against Google and Facebook. Generally, they’re using Google and Facebook for
other things.
We’re giving them a good value and good news product, but we’re also saying your membership
supports a better Santa Cruz. So, this is really important in the Lookout model that we’re trying to
really be mission-driven. In terms of the money we get both from advertisers and from members,
we want them to feel good about it as well as an exchange of value.
In this post-internet and smartphone era where media scarcity has been diminishing and the value
media delivers has become harder to measure on a monetary scale, there seems to be a shift in value
transactions between news publishers and stakeholders. In other words, the values difficult to measure but
meaningful, such as the educational impact on community and community engagement, could be
compensated by stakeholders resonating with their missions if news publishers’ message is delivered
effectively.
3.2.1.2. Content Production
Looking at Lookout’s website, their coverage appears to be high-quality reporting in classic
journalistic news genres with local essence, such as government and politics, business, housing, health,
100 Doctor in discussion with the author.
99 Lookout Local Santa Cruz, “About.”
36
environment, food, art and culture, and kids and parenting. Doctor recognizes that “This is old fashioned
community journalism in the U.S. matched with the most modern of digital tools.”
101
While high-quality journalism requires many human resources, digital-based news publishing has
several advantages in terms of content production and delivery. At first, it costs no ink, paper, print or
physical delivery, which used to be a heavy burden for publishers. Then, there are various Content
Management System tools that build websites, enable users to install subscriptions and email easily,
optimize online news delivery and measure the effect. However, it is tough for small newsrooms to handle
all those tools, and usually, those tools are hardly integrated.
Lookout has also been struggling with those technical issues until it met a technology provider
called Piano Media, which has standardized content management functions and releases writers from
unnecessary tech work.
102 Similar to Broadstreet, an ad management tool mentioned above, finding
suitable system tools is essential to solidify the daily reporting activities.
3.2.1.3. Community Building
The relationship with local students and schools is important for community building as well as
the membership strategy stated above. In addition to offering free access for students, sponsored by
philanthropic donors, Lookout partners with local schools and provides educational resources, such as
media literacy and current event discussion guides that teachers can use in classrooms, support for
student’s news production in class and student journalism scholarship.
Through the 2021-22 school year, Lookout worked with students at Diamond Technology
Institute charter high school in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District.
103 Provided with full access to
Lookout’s news and information assets, the students created profiles about key members of the
community for the “Unsung Santa Cruz” series. “Lookout is a great tool to support kids in learning how
to read and write expository and opinion texts,” Ian Licata, a humanities teacher at Diamond Technology
103 Ken Doctor, “Student Access & Engagement,” Lookout Local Santa Cruz, accessed August 21, 2023,
https://lookout.co/santacruz/news/student-access-engagement.
102 Doctor in discussion with the author.
101 Doctor in discussion with the author.
37
Institute, says.
104 “But also, to learn about the community and what’s happening here, I think it’s good to
hear from local voices and stories that appeal to the students because they’re connected to things they
know about.”
This kind of project would help local students and schools get involved more in local
communities and strengthen their sense of belonging to the communities. Moreover, it could easily be
expected to build long-term relationships with the local communities and attract parents’ interest as well.
3.2.2. The Eastsider
The Eastsider is a for-profit news outlet serving the Eastside of Los Angeles. The founder and
publisher Jesús Sanchez made his first post on Google Blogger in 2008 after he worked as a reporter at
USA Today and The Los Angeles Times for more than 30 years.
105 The platform of The Eastsider has
transitioned multiple times, from Google Blogger to WordPress, and to the combination of website and
newsletter. Coverage includes reporting on the affairs of local business, crime, local government and
politics, health, entertainment and real estate. Sanchez is the only full-time staff for The Eastsider,
assisted by four part-time reporters and editors and two consistent contributors.
106 Starting from a free
blog, it now has more than 9,000 newsletter subscribers
107 and 209 monthly donors.
108
“I realized after a couple of years it was not going to take me beyond survival,” Sanchez says of
the tough and competitive environment of hyper-local news.
109
It does not sound like a lucrative business,
but it has survived for 15 years as a for-profit entity in the hyper-local news field where survival alone can
be regarded as success. The source of revenue has changed over the years. It now has a mix of grants, ads
and fundraising, and aims to focus more on fundraising, which Sanchez thinks is a more dependable
109 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
108 Robert Fulton, “Daily Digest Newsletter from The Eastsider,” June 7, 2023.
107 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
106 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
105 Jesús Sanchez in discussion with the author, personal, January 27, 2023.
104 Student Access at Diamond Technology Institute, YouTube (Lookout Santa Cruz, 2022),
https://youtu.be/JV-dL6Dajm4?feature=shared.
38
source.
110 The following sections share the journey of The Eastsider with many trials and errors, and full
of suggestions.
3.2.2.1. Monetization Strategies
The Eastsider’s major source of revenue in 2022 was the grants, followed by sponsored posts,
fundraising and banner ads.
111 Though institutional grants have made up the biggest slice of the pie since
the pandemic, Sanchez aims to focus more on fundraising.
Figure 16. Revenue Breakdown of The Eastsider.
112
Grants
As was the case with many local news outlets around the world, the contributions of The
Eastsider was repeatedly recognized as essential during the pandemic. The Eastsider was selected as one
of the recipients of Facebook relief funds, which brought in $94,000.
113 Combined with fundraising from
readers described later, it was able to hire another business person and two other staffers part-time.
114
Until then, “It was pretty much a one-man show,” Sanchez recalls.
115
115 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
114 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
113 Jesus Sanchez, “Thanks, Facebook! The Eastsider Receives a Local News Relief Fund Grant,” The Eastsider LA, May 7,
2020,
https://www.theeastsiderla.com/news/thanks-facebook-the-eastsider-receives-a-local-news-relief-fund-grant/article_bf3ef74e-907
1-11ea-b3cb-3bddd1c0cb71.html.
112 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
111 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
110 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
39
However, the Facebook relief fund was a one-time gift, and money went quickly after about a
year. “What I’ve learned from that, even though we sort of doubled down, trying to sell advertising, I
realized it wasn’t going to work by itself,” Sanchez says. Since then, he also has gradually started shifting
the focus onto the reader revenue side.
Still, the grants are the biggest revenue driver, and Sanchez wants to diversify the grant sources as
well. In 2022, The Eastsider received a News Equity Fund grant from the Google News Initiative
116 and
launched another newsletter. It was also given a grant by a public school for educational coverage.
117 The
short-term goal for Sanchez is to diversify grant sources and to renew them by doing more face-to-face
connection as well as solidifying fundraising streams.
Reader Revenue
The Eastsider started fundraising around 2013 via PayPal. “It’s a very dependable source,”
Sanchez says.
118 “Those are people who are really into you. They’re really your supporters. They drive
traffic.” Then, he started to spend more time on fundraising, mimicking non-profit radio stations
constantly asking audiences for donations, and it leaped amid the pandemic. The Eastsider pulled $12,000
at the beginning of the pandemic. Then, it raised $18,000 from readers in the 2022 fall/winter fundraiser,
which consequently allowed it to hire a part-time editor.
119
Sanchez also says that newsletter subscribers are the most loyal and tend to contribute the most.
Although the fundraising campaign was promoted on multiple channels, from newsletter to social media
and website, “97% of the money came from people who subscribed to our emails,” Sanchez explains.
120
The Eastsider now has around 210 readers contributing monthly, whose amount ranges from $5 to
$40 per person.
121
It has set the goal of 300 people regularly donating money, applying the theory of The
121 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
120 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
119 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
118 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
117 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
116 Google News Initiative, “News Equity Fund,” Google News Initiative, accessed June 27, 2023,
https://newsinitiative.withgoogle.com/news-equity-fund/#selected-projects.
40
New York Times, which is one to two percent of readers actually pay.
122 Sanchez recognizes that 300
people is not enough to cover all the costs but provides a solid financial base.
The Eastsider is a for-profit venture, and thus, there is no tax incentive for donations. It explicitly
explains that reporting takes time and money and that the reader’s contribution allows its reporting, while
the descriptions of direct benefit to the readers are slightly different from place to place. It has a page
recognizing the reader sponsors and also offers public praise when a new major monthly donor joins.
Figure 17. The Donation Explanation Page on The Eastsider’s Website. The direct benefit is explained as keeping the readers
connected to the community.
123
Figure 18. The Eastsider’s Newsletter Issued on June 7, 2023. The direct benefit is described as providing more
community news that the readers cannot find anywhere else.
123 Jesus Sanchez, “Support Eastside Local News,” The Eastsider, accessed August 22, 2023,
https://donorbox.org/eastsider-la-daily-digest.
122 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
41
Figure 19. The Eastsider’s Reader Sponsor List.124
Figure 20. Announcement for Newly Added Monthly Sponsors for The Eastsider.
125
Ads
The sponsored posts occupy the second largest slice of revenue. The biggest clients are real estate
and agents.
126 Sanchez recognizes that the advertising business is very tough, especially in a big city such
126 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
125 Jesus Sanchez, “Thanks to Joel Sappell for Becoming an Eastsider Reader Sponsor,” The Eastsider LA, June 7, 2023,
https://www.theeastsiderla.com/reader_support/thanks-to-joel-sappell-for-becoming-an-eastsider-reader-sponsor/article_dbbd421
8-fdce-11ed-8891-9f169a5da301.html.
124 The Eastsider LA, “Meet Our Reader Sponsors,” The Eastsider LA, accessed August 22, 2023,
https://www.theeastsiderla.com/eastsider-reader-sponsors-contributors/article_eb664f98-b94d-11ea-b689-eb61e13317c7.html.
42
as Los Angeles. Whereas local restaurants and retailers, which used to be reliable ad clients in the old
days, are good at connecting with customers on social media, the big companies do not advertise with a
local outlet because they have established giant networks for marketing. “Selling ads does better in
smaller towns,” Sanchez says.
127 The advertising model for a small news outlet works better in smaller
cities where there are more cohesive connections and community awareness.
128
3.2.2.2. Content Production
The Eastsider’s most popular news genres by click count are, from top, restaurant, real estate,
crimes and transportation. Meanwhile, Sanchez thinks that real estate and development content probably
build the most community loyalty. With the 15 years of operation and more than 30 years of Sanchez’s
professional background, The Eastsider grasps the readers’ nuanced desire, which drives reader
engagement.
Newsletter
The other strategy that grows The Eastsider’s reader engagement is the newsletter. As mentioned
in the monetization section, the newsletter plays a key role in fundraising, generating 97% of contributors.
In the beginning, The Eastsider used an automated newsletter generator as a low-effort solution.
129
It
worked well, “but after a while it plateaued,” Sanchez explains. Then, it started to write little intros with
350-word limits in a more casual taste compared with the article on the website, and it took off. He
recognizes it as extra work pays off.
130
Generally speaking, the newsletter is one of the most recognized ways to connect with readers in
the news industry. Yet, having a newsletter alone does not maximize its effectiveness. Understanding the
reader’s habits and ethos toward the newsletter, as The Eastsider does, promotes its engagement with the
130 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
129 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
128 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
127 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
43
subscribers. Sanchez explains the newsletter has to be to the point and could be more informal compared
to the website:
131
You don’t have to say “LA County Board of Supervisors” every time. I know that’s the official
name, but you could just say “Board of Supervisors” because we are ready for an audience, that is
not in New York but in L.A. So you don’t have to explain everything.
…
Sometimes we’re a little bit embarrassed that we only have two or three sentences to tell you
today about this thing. But they’re fine because they’re getting news they can’t get [anywhere
else].
Publishing Technology
Starting from free Google Blogger in 2008, the Eastsider moved to WordPress a few years later
and operated with it for about seven years. The current website and newsletter have been in operation
since around 2018, supported by a provider called TownNews, which provides services to 1,500 small
news websites. “I can’t tell you how many times I would wake up and go to the site, and it’s not there,”
Sanchez recalls the times struggling with handling the system side. Now he recognizes TownNews as a
“very dependable system” and feels it is worth paying a couple of hundred bucks a month for it.
132
Though there are many third-party tools available free of charge for web content creation and
delivery, operating news requires specific tools, from user front pages, content management systems, and
analytics to newsletter and payment systems, which are not usually integrated. Finding an integrated and
easy-to-operate system is the key to reducing unnecessary workload and letting reporters focus more on
reporting.
Tell a Story like Chit-Chat but with Professional Standards
The Eastsider’s editorial strategy is intended to promote community building. The Eastsider’s
news content looks standard if just looking at genres, such as local business, crime, local government and
politics. Actually, it is much more. The reporters see what is happening in their neighborhoods as
132 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
131 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
44
residents there, they interact with other residents as they chit-chat on the street, and then write it up in a
familiar voice. At the same time, The Eastsider also tackles more ambitious stories.
For instance, a few familiar topics include “Readers Respond: Have mosquitoes been a problem
this year?”
133 with a quick survey from the readers; “Another Burger King bites the dust”
134
reports on the
closure of the last burger chain in the neighborhood. The example of more investigative article is
“Fighting gentrification in Highland Park, one alcohol permit at a time,”
135
including an interview with a
53-year-old lifelong resident and activist trying to convince the California Department of Alcohol
Beverage Control to slow down the process of issuing alcohol licenses, concerning gentrification of the
neighborhood.
What makes The Eastsider apart from other personal blogs or social media is, they balance
informal tone and professional reporting standards even when covering chit-chat style stories. “It’s almost
like TV or talk shows,” Sanchez says.
136 “I’m trying to balance that it is a bit more informal and
community building, but it still recognizes we are reporters, we have verified facts, and we’re providing
the information.”
Mood Setting
The Eastsider also cares about the atmosphere that The Eastsider produces. Sanchez has found
that even loyal readers don’t want to be depressed by too many crime reports, for instance. He therefore
emphasizes the importance of a combination of serious and fun content.
137 As stated above, setting up the
upbeat and casual mode in the newsletter is also useful to retain subscribers.
137 Sanchez.
136 Jesús Sanchez in discussion with the author, personal, January 27, 2023.
135 Barry Lank, “Fighting Gentrification in Highland Park, One Alcohol Permit at a Time,” The Eastsider LA, June 7, 2023,
https://www.theeastsiderla.com/neighborhoods/highland_park/fighting-gentrification-in-highland-park-one-alcohol-permit-at-a-ti
me/article_0b8505b2-f456-11ed-a154-6b6e85acf757.html.
134 Jesús Sanchez, “Another Burger King Bites the Dust,” The Eastsider LA, June 8, 2023,
https://www.theeastsiderla.com/eastsider_on_the_go/another-burger-king-bites-the-dust/article_fdfb442c-0573-11ee-866b-df95ab
7a22a6.html.
133 The Eastsider, “Readers Respond: Have Mosquitos Been a Problem This Year?,” The Eastsider LA, June 8, 2023,
https://www.theeastsiderla.com/polls_quizzes_surveys/readers-respond-have-mosquitos-been-a-problem-this-year/article_f3af87
12-0221-11ee-b508-371c528c3d6f.html.
45
3.2.2.3. Community Building
Regular Use of User-Generated Content
As many news outlets do, The Eastsider accepts submissions and suggestions from readers.
However, The Eastsider stands out for the frequent use of those contents contributed by the users. For
example, it introduces the pictures submitted by users almost every day at the top section of its daily
newsletter. This contributes to growing the audience’s sense of belonging to the community as well as
promoting efficient content production.
Figure 21. The Eastsider’s Newsletter Issued on June 8, 2023, showing a picture contributed by a resident and related
information. It gives the credentials and a link back to the contributor’s webpage.
46
3.2.3. Kansas City Defender
The Kansas City Defender (The Defender) is a nonprofit community news outlet serving the
Black communities of Gen Z and Millennials across the Midwest, established in July 2021. The founder,
Ryan Sorrell, raised in the greater Kansas City area, is 28 years old, himself. Within only a year of its
launch, it has gained over 25,000 followers on social media.
138 As of June 2023, it has nearly 31,000
followers on Instagram and 21,100 on TikTok, far above its followers on other social media, which
implies more engagement with Gen Z communities who are usually said to pay less attention to the news.
The newsroom of The Defender is small, as many other local or niche newsrooms are. Sorrell is
the sole full-time staff member assisted by two part-time members and nearly 10 interns and freelance
contributors. Financially speaking, as The Defender runs as a non-profit organization, its profitability
might not be something attracting the attention of Wall Street. However, it has found enough resources
from donations and fundraising to sustain its reporting and compensate staff, and its coverage and
audience keep growing, reinforcing its close-knit relationship with local communities.
In the following sections, their efforts for rapid growth are analyzed from three perspectives.
3.2.3.1. Content Production
Raise the Voice of the Community
One of the persuasive explanations for why The Defender has gained so much traction in such a
short term is the original reporting about race-related issues told through an authentic community voice.
“The message we were always trying to convey from day one and from everything we posted was to set a
tone of being a fierce Black, young Black news outlet, passionate about leading the fight on a range of
controversial issues,” Jay Taylor, the senior cultural producer at The Defender, says.
The Defender was born from the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 when Sorrell and his
friend Taylor founded a community organization called Black Rainbow to lead the demonstration for
138 “Our Story & Why We Exist,” Kansas City Defender, accessed April 27, 2023, https://kansascitydefender.com/about/.
47
police reform.
139
It is intentionally following the tradition of the Black and the abolitionist press, which
historically meant the abolition of slavery, Jim Crow and other systems of oppression. It now advocates
for the abolition of the prison-industrial complex.
140
It also questions the tradition of legacy, usually
white-owned media, which relies heavily on the police or other authorities for reporting.
141
Based on these backgrounds and missions, The Defender has broken multiple pieces of news
before the authorities or white-owned media reported them, which helped cement the credibility of The
Defender. One of those stories is of Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old Black male who was shot by an 84-year-old
white man, Andrew Lester, when Yarl mistakenly went to the wrong address to pick up his siblings. The
police initially reported “a case of mistaken identity,” while the victim’s race had been unidentified, and
the local Fox news station called it “shot in error.”
142 Then, Sorrell searched TikTok and reached out to
Yarl’s aunt. The Defender published an article titled “‘This is a hate crime’: Kansas City Black family
demanding justice.”
143
The other example is the story about a serial killer targeting Black women. Sorrell started
following the story after a local bishop shared a video claiming four Black girls were killed and three
were missing.
144 The Kansas City Police Department quickly responded and denied the rumor, and local
media followed it.
145 Less than a month later, a young Black woman, half-naked, with a metal collar and
padlock around her neck, escaping from a white man’s basement, appeared. She reportedly was
kidnapped, imprisoned and repeatedly raped.
146 Though there is no direct evidence found between the
video The Defender shared and this case, there were many overlapping details.
146 Dirks.
145 Dirks, “A New Iteration of the Black Press Is Changing the Media Landscape in Kansas City.”
144 Kansascitydefender, “Kansas City Serial Killer on the Loose,” TikTok, September 26, 2022,
https://www.tiktok.com/@kansascitydefender/video/7147343546595413291.
143 KC Defender Staff, “Black Family Demands Justice after White Man Shoots Black Boy Twice for Ringing Doorbell of Wrong
Home,” Kansas City Defender, April 16, 2023,
https://kansascitydefender.com/justice/kansas-city-black-family-demands-justice-white-man-shoots-black-boy-ralph-yarl/.
142 Sandhya Dirks, “A New Iteration of the Black Press Is Changing the Media Landscape in Kansas City,” NPR, May 24, 2023,
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/24/1173302204/a-new-iteration-of-the-black-press-is-changing-the-media-landscape-in-kansas-cit.
141 Dirks, “How a Black-Owned News Website in Kansas City Reported the Story of Ralph Yarl.”
140 Sandhya Dirks, “How a Black-Owned News Website in Kansas City Reported the Story of Ralph Yarl,” NPR, May 21, 2023,
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/21/1177391797/how-a-black-owned-news-website-in-kansas-city-reported-the-story-of-ralph-yarl.
139 James Anderson, “The Kansas City Defender Is a Nonprofit News Site for Young Black Audiences across the Midwest,”
Nieman Lab, August 11, 2022,
https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/08/meet-the-kansas-city-defender-a-nonprofit-news-outlet-aimed-at-young-black-people-acrossthe-midwest/.
48
Sorrel’s radical stance and hastily reported stories are often exposed to criticism. Eric L. Wesson,
the managing editor and publisher of The Kansas City Call, told NPR, “They ran out there with that story
without getting all the information, and had people in an uproar.”
147 Other authorities and local media also
criticize The Defender’s reporting without enough fact-checking.
However, some people recognize their audacity and momentum. “The Ralph Yarl story is not
known to America without the KC Defender,” Kansas City mayor Quinton Lucas says.
148
In addition,
Kansas City police re-established their missing persons unit in April 2023, after the case of missing
women occurred. Lucas also says that it probably would not have happened “without the KC Defender
and the narratives they were able to share.”
149
The Defender’s young, sometimes immature, grassroots narratives attract the young generations
in the community. In other words, The Defender has found and captured unmet needs of news coverage in
the community, not by customer segmentation or targeting in a business marketing sense, but by
immersing themselves in the community.
Social Media Optimization
The other important factor that led to its growth is social media optimization. They customize the
content for each social media platform so that it fits the ethos that each platform has and maximizes the
reach. Instagram posts differ from TikTok videos or Tweets.
A Mix of Hard-Hitting News and Fun Content
Another strategy is to have a wide range of content portfolios. Hard news, such as racial issues
described above, is the raison d'etre for The Defender. At the same time, it also has cultural or fun stories
149 Dirks.
148 Dirks, “A New Iteration of the Black Press Is Changing the Media Landscape in Kansas City.”
147 Dirks.
49
with headlines such as “The Revolutionary Aesthetics of the Black Panther Party & Its Impact on Fashion
Today”
150 or “2023 Guide to the Best Black-Owned Restaurants in Kansas City.”
151
Taylor explains that they put equal effort into hard news and fun content. “You have to put the
effort in for the fun content to really be fun, and you’ve got to put the effort in for that hard-hitting,
concise, factual content to be on point for sure.”
152 He also regards the fun content as a strategy, saying, “I
would post it strategically like at a certain time of the day and everything so that as soon as I post it, the
majority of my people will be available on their phone to see it.” He even added that if the restaurant
content does not work well for audience engagement, “I probably wouldn’t mess with it too much.”
153
Chat Group As Source
The Defender has a closed chat group that both the editors and around 120 younger people,
mainly students of high schools around the state, join.
154 Students share their experiences, information and
videos they encounter at school and daily lives. “We could pull information from it, fact-check sources
and all types of things, basically conduct investigative journalism, and then turn it into a real story,”
Taylor says.
155 “We started wanting ourselves as the media news outlet and established it as a safe space
for students to disperse information about inequalities or anything, anything bad going on somewhere that
they feel like they may not have a voice.”
Students joining this group chat invite other students, and the group is getting bigger. This
connection strengthens the community bond and consequently becomes an efficient way to gather and
access news sources.
3.2.3.2. Community Building
155 Taylor in discussion with the author.
154 Taylor in discussion with the author.
153 Taylor in discussion with the author.
152 Jay Taylor in discussion with the author, personal, March 3, 2023.
151 Kansas City Defender, “2023 Guide to the Best Black-Owned Restaurants in Kansas City,” Kansas City Defender, January 22,
2023, https://kansascitydefender.com/best-black-owned-restaurants-kansas-city/.
150 Victoria Rollins, “The Revolutionary Aesthetics of the Black Panther Party & Its Impact on Fashion Today,” Kansas City
Defender, March 10, 2023, https://kansascitydefender.com/fashion/black-panther-party-fashion-aesthetic/.
50
The Defender’s community-building strategy is outstanding. In addition to its method of news
reporting stated above, it also organizes multiple in-person community events, from poetry nights to
conversation sessions. The most significant event was the basketball park takeover, which took place at
Ryan Stokes Memorial Court, dedicated to an unarmed 24-year-old Black man killed by a Kansas City
police officer.
156
It was a three-day event, hosting a kids’ camp, a major park run and a second park run.
157
Seemingly more than a hundred young people gathered at the court and yelled for the local players and a
well-known street basketball player, Isaiah Hodge, as a guest.
158 The Defender received the community
engagement award of the 2022 Lion Local Journalism Awards.
159
While the event had been a trendy revenue stream until the pandemic, holding the live events has
been a burden for small newsrooms with less expected financial return. Still, The Defender emphasizes
the value of in-person events. “Even more than 60% of the content that we have on our page would not be
there, had it not been for the relationships that we actually have with the people in our community,”
Taylor says.
160
3.2.3.3. Monetization Strategies
The major revenue streams of The Defender are donations and fundraising. It has fundraised
around $70,000 from both young and older audiences in the community in the first year and a half.
161
It
was also awarded a $25,000 grant from Indie Capital, a program funding startup news publishers across
the U.S. and Canada.
162 As many non-profit organizations do, The Defender is seeking additional donors
and funds.
163
163 Taylor in discussion with the author.
162 KC Defender Staff, “Indie Capital Awards the Kansas City Defender $25K Grant,” The Kansas City Defender, April 12, 2022,
https://kansascitydefender.com/kansas-city/indie-capital-grant/.
161 Taylor in discussion with the author.
160 Taylor in discussion with the author.
159 LION Publishers, “Meet the Winners of the 2022 Lion Local Journalism Awards,” LION Publishers, October 28, 2022,
https://www.lionpublishers.com/meet-the-winners-of-the-2022-lion-local-journalism-awards/.
158 KC Defender, “KC Defender on Instagram: ‘Our First Basketball Park Takeover...,’” Instagram, June 18, 2022,
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ce7VRRZjy28/
157 KC Defender Staff, “KC Defender Brings Community Together with Historic Basketball Park Takeover,” Kansas City
Defender, June 21, 2022, https://kansascitydefender.com/kansas-city/basketball-park-takeover/.
156 Anderson, “The Kansas City Defender Is a Nonprofit News Site for Young Black Audiences across the Midwest.”
51
Though the amount of money it raised so far might not be that lucrative, it is astonishing that a
newsroom this size raised $70,000 from individuals in the community. It shows how its mission and
reporting are supported and needed by the community.
“We wouldn’t let anyone compensate or pay us, we just wanted people to support our mission and
cause,” it declares on its website. “We wanted our community to know our platform wasn’t transactional
and all we care about is The People. Because of that, we earned a lot of respect and support. We think that
loyalty and relationship are what separates us from other outlets in our region.”
164
3.2.4. Column1: The Inertia
The Inertia is a surfing niche news media based in Los Angeles, founded in 2010 by Zach
Weisberg. It covers worldwide surf and outdoor news and is one of the top two surf media in the world,
along with Stab Magazine founded in Australia in 2004. Currently, The Inertia has 410,000 followers on
Instagram and 358,000 on Facebook.
The Inertia’s top revenue source is advertisement or sponsored content, followed by online
courses, such as teaching tips for surfing, fitness and nutrition for surfing, surf photography, and then
affiliate content for gear reviews in the third.
165
It also makes some profit from video licensing and live
events. Though it has an e-commerce site, Weisberg says, “it is negligible.”
166
Though its audience profile is highly segmented – surfers and outdoor enthusiasts – The Inertia’s
advertising partners are not necessarily businesses in the industry. Its ad sales largely focus on securing
national or global campaigns. Recent clients include Toyota and Visit California, a non-profit tourism
marketing organization in partnership with the state’s travel industry. Weisberg explains its strategy and
relationship with ad clients:
167
It’s not necessarily the surf brands that are actually making the largest financially or doing the
most marketing. A lot of our partners are outside of the surf [industry] in some way. We work
with brands that surfing or outdoors is important to them, and they want to connect in an
167 Weisberg.
166 Weisberg.
165 Zach Weisberg in discussion with the author, personal, March 24, 2023.
164 “Our Story & Why We Exist,” Kansas City Defender.
52
authentic and meaningful way with the right audience, which is pretty challenging to access. And
in some ways, it’s getting easier, and in other ways, it’s getting harder, but that is who our readers
are. And we’re able to deliver really custom-tailored campaigns for those partners that are the
really high touch that custom content creation and voice. A lot of personal time investment from
our team to ensure that they work well.
…
I’d say with niche publications or enthusiast publications, it’s actually kind of a similar mindset.
They want to connect with the community, and they’re not necessarily expecting the same return
[as Facebook or Google Ads]. Or, they want to build out content that people will associate Toyota
with surfing, the outdoors or adventure. And so it’s kind of an awareness campaign.
…
Typically, we’re working with brands who are hoping to reach surf and outdoor enthusiasts, and
it’s not necessarily restricted to geography.
The Inertia currently does not collect any kind of reader revenue, such as subscription,
membership or donation, but has been exploring the way to do it. Just after the launch, The Inertia called
for donations, but it did not become a dependable source and stopped one and a half years later. After
years of focusing more on advertising and other revenue streams, it was on the verge of launching a new
subscription. However, it was acquired by Allgear Digital, which owns numerous outdoor and extreme
sports outlets, at the end of 2022, and the plan became fleshed out. With the technological support of
Allgear, it is looking for a new opportunity.
168
The Inertia’s focus is a bit different from general hyper-local news because it has a more niche
topic but covers a more geographically broad audience, which consequently allows it to attract particular
types of national and international clients. Yet still, this case implies that the traditional ad model could
work if the reader profile is highly segmented and fits the needs of national-level clients.
3.3. Case Studies: Local News Platforms
In contrast to the individual hyper-local news outlets described above devoting themselves to one
specific local community, the news platform services cover more than hundreds or thousands of local
communities. Examples include Patch.com, Axios and Nextdoor. What differentiates those platforms
from other media companies acquiring multiple local newsrooms is that all newsrooms use a uniform
168 Weisberg in discussion with the author.
53
system and run under a single brand name. The following section investigates Patch.com as an example
through the primary interview and the secondary source analysis.
3.3.1. Patch.com
Patch is a hyper-local news platform company that serves more than 1,200 local communities in
50 states and Washington D.C. It was originally founded in 2007 and acquired by AOL in 2009.
169 Under
AOL’s ownership, the business expanded rapidly to 900 sites
170 and had nearly 1000 employees at its
peak.
171 After experiencing financial difficulties, reportedly losing a few hundred million, the company
fired a third of its employees and sold a majority of ownership to Hale Global in 2014.
172 After a few
years of business realignment, Patch reportedly became profitable and had about 100 directly employed
journalists.
173174
As of November 2022, Patch’s revenue grew up to 20 percent a year, and it has 40 million unique
visitors per month, aggregating all 1,200+ publications.
175 Typically, each community serves a minimum
population of 30,000, and one journalist covers six to eight adjacent communities and produces several
articles each day.
176 Mike Carraggi, an ex-editor for Patch Melrose and now a product manager at Patch
headquarters, explains that, while most reporters are located in its coverage area, the headquarters in New
York has a back office team, including a direct sales team and engineers.
177
3.3.1.1. Monetization Strategies
177 Carraggi in discussion with the author.
176 Mike Carraggi in discussion with the author, personal, March 27, 2023.
175 Patch Support, “How Can Patch Help My News Organization?,” Patch Support, November 16, 2022,
https://support.patch.com/hc/en-us/articles/4404223230605-How-can-Patch-help-my-news-organization-.
174 Simon Owens, “Is Patch Actually Producing Quality Local Journalism?,” What’s New in Publishing, April 21, 2020,
https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/is-patch-actually-producing-quality-local-journalism/.
173 Adgate.
172 Adgate.
171 Peter Kafka, “The Alternative to Your Dying Local Paper Is Written by One Person, a Robot, and You,” Vox, February 11,
2019, https://www.vox.com/2019/2/11/18206360/patch-local-news-profitable-revenue-advertising-hale.
170 Digiday, “Now Profitable, Patch Wants to Be a Platform for Other Local News Outlets,” Digiday, May 9, 2017,
https://digiday.com/media/now-profitable-patch-wants-platform-local-news-outlets/.
169 Brad Adgate, “How Hyperlocal News Websites Are Surviving the Coronavirus Pandemic-and Some Are Even Profitable,”
Forbes, April 27, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradadgate/2020/04/27/some-hyperlocal-media-websites-are-profitable/.
54
Patch has been free to readers and developed a revenue model of various ad sources. The boldest
income stream is traditional ad sales, handled by the direct sales team in the headquarters.
178
It also
utilizes programmatic ads.
The other growing revenue source is what they call “platform revenue,” which includes
commission fees for classified ads, event calendars and business listings on each community site. For
classified ads and event calendars, the readers can post their event information, “yard sale” or “job list” in
their home neighborhood for free. But usually, those users want to promote it across several adjacent
communities by paying $2 a day.
Business listing is a function in which local business owners can list their basic business
information, such as house cleaning, outdoor pesticide application and sprinkler repair. Currently, almost
23,000 businesses are on the listings across Patch.
179 Though business listing is now free, “What we’re
currently doing is developing a way to charge or to make it worth people giving us money for different
benefits,” Carraggi explains its prospect.
180 “The events calendar is by far our biggest platform revenue
driver, but local businesses will be there probably by, if not the end of this year, certainly midway through
next year.”
Carraggi also mentions that, since traditional ad sales are volatile and hard to control, “what we
want to make most of our money on is platform revenue.”
181
3.3.1.2. Content Production
As stated above, one journalist at Patch often covers six to eight communities and produces
several articles each day. It sounds like they are producing very efficiently but sometimes it is
mischaracterized as low-quality reporting or rewriting aggregated web content. “Our bread and butter and
why we are good and why people come to us are in our bigger communities and the communities that
181 Carraggi in discussion with the author.
180 Carraggi in discussion with the author.
179 Carraggi in discussion with the author.
178 Carraggi in discussion with the author.
55
we’re really invested in original local reporting, so which is like anyone else,” Carraggi says.
182 “When I
was covering Melrose, I talked to the mayor’s office every day or the school department, or I watched all
the meetings or the Board of Health meeting. […] I watched everything, I reached out to people and I
called people. And people knew they called me. I was reporting just like anyone else.”
Carraggi details how Patch journalists are managing time and tasks. “If something is really
important and really interesting, I’m gonna spend like 80% of my time writing that one story. And then,
I’ll finish my time with a couple of smaller stories on the other sites at the end of the day.” A simple
article could be only seven sentences long, and a major story could be more lengthy based on interviews.
News Partner
The other way that Patch applies to drive efficient content production is to partner with other
news providers, such as City News Service, Associated Press and Kaiser Health News. Carraggi says that
it is important to be able to provide perspective and scope beyond the resources that one newsroom has.
“We had one very popular partner in Massachusetts that specialized in state government news — that
really shored up our coverage because we didn’t exactly have a statewide politics beat.”
183
3.3.1.3. Community Building
As many other newsrooms do, the relationship among local communities is built as a result of
journalists reporting on the ground. Also, the readers’ contribution, from news postings to classifieds,
generates a sense of belonging to the community.
Community Contributors
Patch also accepts posts from the readers. It aids their content production by providing new
information at a low cost and by increasing the frequency of the website updates, which consequently
183 Carraggi, email message to the author.
182 Carraggi in discussion with the author.
56
contributes to the search engine evaluation. But actually, it is much more. “It’s inherently hyper-local —
sometimes as much if not more so than even from reporters who live in the community,” Carragi explains
to the author in the follow-up communication after the interview.
184 “It’s about issues we know are
important to readers. It provides leads, helps take the temperature of certain issues, creates a conversation
with other neighbors.” It might be true that user content requires some measures to maintain content
quality to preserve the safety of the space, but considering the characteristics of hyper-local news, the
voice of the community is essential.
3.3.1.4. Benefits of Being a Patch Journalist
There are multiple benefits of this Patch model for both a reporter and the company, compared
with a self-employed journalist running their own news site for local coverage, such as The Eastsider.
Though less flexibility of tasks and coverage than self-employed journalists could be the drawbacks, its
benefits are unique in the hyper-local news landscape. First of all, a reporter employed by Patch can have
more financial stability, including all working benefits. Considering the fact that small newsrooms are
struggling more than the larger ones in monetizing, this Patch’s working condition could attract more
potential reporters who aspire to work for hyper-local news without concern on financial stability.
Secondly, a Patch journalist can focus more on reporting and worry less about technology and the
business side since the headquarters has those people in charge. Even though there are so many free web
tools, building a news site and maintaining systems requires so much work. Patch provides all those
systems needed for news production and delivery so that journalists can concentrate on reporting. A
similar logic applies to the business side. Since the ad wholesale team is in charge of generating income,
the local editors do not have to deal with ad sales that much. The only occasion the local editors need to
handle ads is to teach how to use the local listings to the potential client who has too small a budget for
the HQ sales team. Still, it is much less work than when running their own business. Also, separating
reporting and business offices is helpful to maintain the independence of reporting.
184 Mike Carraggi, email message to the author, August 27, 2023.
57
From the company’s perspective, the Patch model is an effective and scalable strategy for
cost-sharing, especially in system development and maintenance.
3.4. Case Study Analysis
This section summarizes the common success factors across the cases introduced above from
three perspectives; monetization strategies, content production and community building.
3.4.1. Monetization Strategies
3.4.1.1. Growing Philanthropic Contribution
For monetization strategies, a growing philanthropic contribution would be one of the most
notable changes for local news businesses which previously had been funded mainly by advertisements
and subscriptions. Those philanthropic contributions could take various forms, such as donations, grants
or fellowships, and could be one-time or annual. The amount of financial support is usually robust enough
to become the major – or even single – source of revenue for the local news outlets and to allow them to
invest in the publishing system, hire additional reporters and sustain their business for a few years before
finding other sources of revenue. However, the news outlets are also aware that philanthropic money is
not a permanent source and that they need to diversify revenue streams.
3.4.1.2. Reader Revenue
Other income sources still depend heavily on reader revenue and advertisement. Yet, news outlets
are getting better at communicating their value to stakeholders, and thus, readers and advertisers are
becoming more willing to pay for local news.
The news outlets introduced in this paper are trying to let the audience know that the reader’s
contribution makes the local news coverage happen. This is a turnaround from the traditional
transactional approach that tries to sell access to news in the form of a subscription. For example, the
58
Lookout’s membership registration page says, “Support the Future of Local Journalism,”
185 while the Los
Angeles Times says, “Subscribe and discover the West Coast perspective” and “Unlimited digital
access.”
186 The Eastsider has a similar message, saying, “Join the other Eastsider readers whose one-time
contributions and monthly sponsorships help pay our bills and allow us to provide you the news and info
that keeps you connected to your community,” on its donation page.
187 The Defender also declares, “Our
platform wasn’t transactional and all we care about is The People. Because of that, we earned a lot of
respect and support.”
188 Doctor, from the Lookout, explains the intention of their messaging, saying,
“We’re giving them a good news product, but we’re also saying your membership supports a better Santa
Cruz. [...] We want them to feel good about it as well as an exchange of value.”
189 On top of that, as
Sanchez mentions, 97% of the fundraising at The Eastsider came from newsletter subscribers, and a
newsletter plays a key role to convert readers to contributors.
190
3.4.1.3. Ads
As for ad sales, while The Eastsider and The Kansas City Defender, newsrooms with only one or
a few people, find it difficult to make meaningful revenue from ads, the Lookout is confident it can land
large-budget clients with five salespeople. Patch is also relying on direct sales. The environment of the ad
market differs in areas and categories, and the size of newsrooms also affects sales power. But those who
make a sizable amount of revenue from ads manage to secure clients with larger budgets, such as
educational institutions, banks, credit unions, major grocery stores, health providers or real estate. They
are also good at customizing the ad package and messaging. As Doctor describes, most advertisers at the
Lookout do not want to measure the effectiveness of ads, nevertheless Lookout has the capability to do so.
190 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
189 Doctor in discussion with the author.
188 “Our Story & Why We Exist,” Kansas City Defender.
187 Jesus Sanchez, “Support Eastside Local News,” The Eastsider, accessed August 22, 2023,
https://donorbox.org/eastsider-la-daily-digest.
186 “Subscribe to Los Angeles Times,” Los Angeles Times, accessed August 23, 2023,
https://www.latimes.com/subscriptions/digital-ptv2-c3.html.
185 Lookout Local Santa Cruz, “Membership,” Lookout Local Santa Cruz, accessed August 23, 2023,
https://lookout.co/santacruz/membership.
59
He explains that advertisers – local businesses – want to get involved in and support the local community
and that they use Google and Facebook when measuring is needed.
Programmatic advertising is not a dependable source for most of the local newsrooms introduced
in this paper. It is worth observing whether the platform revenue that Patch has will be an alternative to
programmatic ads as a lower-friction ad revenue stream.
3.4.2. Efficient Content Production
3.4.2.1. Appropriate and Efficient System Application is the Key
As newsroom organizers from both the U.S. and Japan state, the unintegrated and complicated
publishing system has always been a heavy burden. As both Doctor from the Lookout and Sanchez from
The Eastsider mention, it is the key to efficient content production to partner with a system provider that
has an integrated and optimized system for local news. In that sense, the Patch model to share the
platform development cost with more than a thousand newsrooms also makes sense.
3.4.2.2. Extra Work of Content Adjustment To Platforms Pays Off
It is natural to consider delivering the same content with the same messaging on every platform to
reduce workload, but in some cases, it is worth paying extra effort to tailor content to the delivery routes.
Sanchez recognizes that writing an intro message only for a newsletter lets it take off. The Defender
differentiates content and messages on each social media platform, which led to a rapid increase in the
number of followers.
3.4.2.3. Content Genre
Finding a good balance of mixing content genres is another key to maximizing its value. As most
of the news outlets introduced here mention, it is important to have a good mix of hard-hitting content,
such as political or racial issues, and entertaining content, such as restaurants and culture. While the
highbrow content helps to build authority, the lowbrow or less journalistic content retains the attention.
Thus, it has to be strategically considered what kind of balance the newsroom wants.
60
3.4.2.4. Chat Group
As The Defender does, a chat group where the editorial members and people in the community
join could be a source for original content, especially when the newsroom has a limited number of
reporters. The suggestion boxes or emails to the editor have been traditional ways for the reader to offer
possible topics, but this mutual communication tool seems to work better when the community is small
enough.
3.4.3. Community Building
While the primary role of hyper-local news is to deliver information that benefits the individuals
in the community, it also plays a role in forming the identity of the community, helping residents build a
sense of belonging and strengthening community bonding.
3.4.3.1. Content Genre Contributing to the Community Bond
Some newsrooms are aware that specific content helps build a sense of belonging to the
community. That is real estate for The Eastsider
191 and cultural coverage for The Defender.
192
Identifying
those topics will help strengthen community bonding.
3.4.3.2. User-Generated Content
As The Eastsider and Patch do, accepting content from community members could cultivate
community involvement. Considering the characteristics of hyper-local news, this mutual interaction
between a newsroom and community members brings the residents not only more eyes to the community
and more information but also a sense of being heard.
3.4.3.3. Connect with Local Students
As the Lookout demonstrates, the relationship with local students and schools contributes to
community building as well as financial stability. Providing free news access and educational resources to
students helps get young residents involved more in the community. It could also incubate future
contributors to the outlet, whether as readers, donors, local advertisers or any other form. Also, the
192 Taylor in discussion with the author.
191 Sanchez in discussion with the author.
61
relationship with students could pull the attention of their family members who often reside in that
community.
3.4.3.4. Event
Though in-person events have gone downhill since the pandemic, The Defender, born in the midst
of the pandemic, organizes events in the local community. It has held poetry nights, conversation sessions
and a three-day basketball park takeover. Taylor from The Defender is confident about the value of
events, saying “Even more than 60% of the content that we have on our page would not be there, had it
not been for the relationships that we actually have with the people in our community.”
193
3.5. Government and Institutional Support
While individual newsrooms and companies are making efforts to solidify the sustainable
business model, governments and other institutions have also been stepping in to save local news over the
last five years. Those efforts need further investigation to be considered a success, yet it is worth noting
that local news is going beyond the traditional for-profit business model, which sustained newspapers in
the 20th century. This section explains the external support for local news, including the emerging state
governments’ support around the U.S. and the institutions’ technical, educational and financial support.
3.5.1. Government Support
While Congress did not pass the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, which aimed to support
local newsrooms by providing tax credits and other benefits,
194 some states have taken action over the last
several years. Those states include New Jersey, California, New Mexico, Colorado and others. Though
approaches are different from state to state, they share the ultimate goal of preserving local news for
better civic outcomes, and it is often that those policies are one of the few policies that received bipartisan
support.
194 “The Local Journalism Sustainability Act of 2021,” Rebuild Local News, accessed June 30, 2023,
https://www.rebuildlocalnews.org/local-journalism-sustainability-act/.
193 Taylor in discussion with the author.
62
New Jersey passed the Civic Information Bill in 2018, which made New Jersey the first U.S. state
to legislate a policy to allocate public money for news outlets.
195
In 2021, the consortium allocated
$500,000 to 14 grantees with a $35,000 maximum for each grant.
196
In 2022, a total of $90,000 was
awarded to 22 fellows, including thirteen new grantees and nine existing grantees.
197
California has also passed a $25 million subsidy for local news fellowship programs in
cooperation with the University of California, Berkeley.
198 The program will start in September 2023 and
continue for three years at least. It will award up to 40 reporters per year as two-year full-time employees
of the UC with a starting salary of $60,000 to $65,000 with benefits.
199 Those journalists will be placed in
selected newsrooms serving underserved communities throughout the state. Those newsrooms will need
to contribute between $5,000-$25,000 a year, depending on the size of their newsroom.
200 While the
program itself provides educational opportunities to grantees, the newsrooms are also expected to support
them with editing and professional development assistance.
New Mexico has also passed a bill to spend public money to place journalism graduates into
newsrooms around the state. The state appropriated $125,000 to support the University of New Mexico’s
Communication & Journalism Local News Fellowships and Internships Program, which allowed the
program to grow from four to seven fellowships for the 2023-2024 program.
201 Each fellow will be paid a
competitive salary of $26,500 for 9 months.
202
202 “About the Program,” New Mexico Local News Fellowships and Internships, accessed July 3, 2023,
https://sites.google.com/view/nmlocalnewsfellowship/about-the-program.
201 Savannah Peat, “More Money, More News: State Funding Approved for C&J Program,” UNM Newsroom, May 3, 2023,
https://news.unm.edu/news/more-money-more-news-state-funding-approved-for-c-j-program.
200 “California Local News Fellowship.”
199 “California Local News Fellowship,” UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, accessed June 30, 2023,
https://projects.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows/.
198
Ivan Natividad, “State Funds Berkeley Journalism $25 Million to Strengthen California’s Local News Coverage,” Berkeley
News, September 9, 2022,
https://news.berkeley.edu/2022/09/07/state-funds-berkeley-journalism-25-million-to-strengthen-californias-local-news-coverage/.
197 NJ Civic Information Consortium Board, rep., Annual Report FY2022 (New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, September
2022), https://njcivicinfo.cdn-pi.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/NJCIC-annual-report-2022-1.pdf.
196 NJ Civic Information Consortium Board, rep., Annual Report FY2021 (New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, July 2021),
https://njcivicinfo.cdn-pi.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/NJ-CIC-2021-Annual-Report.pdf.
195 Buni.
63
Colorado is taking a different approach. In 2022, the Supporting Local Media Bill was
introduced, which allowed small businesses with fewer than 50 employees to receive a tax credit of 50%
of the money they spend on advertising in local newspapers and broadcasters.
203
These efforts have just begun, and the outcomes are still unclear. Those bills usually set a valid
term period, and thus, could be overturned depending on the policy of the times. Though it is uncertain
that public money would be a sustainable income source for local news, this trend might answer the
question of whether local news should try to survive in the free market or whether it could be rescued by
the public.
3.5.2. Institutional Support
Facing expanding news deserts, some projects have shown support for helping rebuild local
journalism.
Report for America is a program that places reporters in local newsrooms by paying 50% of
reporters’ salaries.
204 Since its launch in 2017, it has placed 604 journalists in 338 newsroom partners in
the U.S., Guam and Puerto Rico. The program is funded by philanthropic partners, including Meta
Journalism Project, Knight Foundation and Google News Initiative.
The American Journalism Project (AJP) is an initiative co-founded by the leadership of the Texas
Tribune and Chalkbeat, two of the largest local nonprofit news organizations, in 2019.
205
It aims to expand
their successful revenue model, avoiding heavily relying on a single revenue source and diversifying and
balancing the revenue portfolio, to nonprofit newsrooms around the country. AJP’s focus is three-fold:
providing grants to existing nonprofit news organizations, partnering with local communities to launch
new newsrooms and supporting entrepreneurs who want to launch a new newsroom.
206 While many other
projects directly provide money to local newsrooms, what makes AJP apart from other supporting
206 “What We Do,” American Journalism Project, accessed July 6, 2023, https://www.theajp.org/what-we-do/.
205 “American Journalism Project,” Center for High Impact Philanthropy, accessed July 6, 2023,
https://www.impact.upenn.edu/american-journalism-project/.
204 “About Us,” Report for America, accessed July 6, 2023, https://www.reportforamerica.org/about-us/.
203 “HB22-1121 Supporting Local Media Bill.”
64
projects is providing practical support for monetizing in addition to initial money-giving. It helps partners
access local philanthropic funds, educates them to diversify and expand the revenue sources, such as
digital subscriptions, advertising and fundraising, and gives them advice about establishing the
organization.
Tiny News Collective (TNC) is another project to rebuild local news. It was launched in 2020 by
News Catalyst to lower the barrier of starting a local newsroom by providing essential technology and
training. Google News Initiative has contributed about a half million dollars.
207 TNC provides partner
newsrooms with all-in-one packages for news publishing, tracking and fundraising. It programmed the
Google Doc-based publishing system, which aimed to provide a system for people without any
programming knowledge, while the most popular WordPress still requires technical skills.
208 Currently, 14
newsrooms are members, which are selected among over 100 applicants. Aron Pilhofer, a director of
News Catalyst, says that, though it is hard to tell whether member newsrooms are succeeding or not at
this point since the projects have just started, there are some members experiencing growth and revenue
generation.
209
209 Pilhofer.
208 Tyler Fisher, “Building a Technical Foundation for the Future of Local News,” Tiny News Collective, August 24, 2022,
https://news.tinynewsco.org/articles/technology/building-a-technical-foundation-for-the-future-of-local-news.
207 Aron Pilhofer in discussion with the author, personal, January 25, 2023.
65
Chapter 4. Proposal
As stated in Chapter 2, the biggest obstacles that hamper starting and growing local news in the
Tokyo metropolitan area in Japan are threefold: low recognition of the value of local news, limited supply
of freelance reporters and limited financial and system resources for local journalism. However, there are
several signals indicating the potential for community reporting, and the local news market seems to be a
blue ocean with little competition. Therefore, this chapter proposes the potential application of the
strategies and tips introduced in the previous chapter to overcome hurdles that the Japanese local news is
facing.
4.1. The Possibility of Local News Platforms
Considering the fact that local news organizers in Japan, which typically have limited resources
for system engineers or system investment, have been struggling with website development and
maintenance, the local news platform, such as Patch, could be a solution to provide easy-to-use,
integrated systems with local newsrooms at low cost by sharing the system development and maintenance
cost with multiple publications. When it comes to the idea of cost-sharing for system investment, the
third-party system provider could also be a solution.
The platform model that has a centralized department in charge of sales would also benefit the
business expansion as well as editorial independence. Whereas hyper-local newsrooms often cannot
afford a salesperson due to their limited resources, and thus, editors have to handle ad sales, the
independent sales team will help to maintain editorial independence. It will also help editors and reporters
focus on reporting. The platform revenues, also known as self-service ads, could be another solution for
the reality that scarce human resources limit the sales force in the newsroom.
The Patch model is also good from the employment perspective. Generally speaking, Japanese
people put more priority on job stability than the flexibility of tasks. Also, people tend to be risk-averse
and hesitate to begin a startup. Under the Patch model, journalists are directly employed by the company
66
and have access to all benefits. It will motivate individuals to be local reporters by mitigating a sense of
risking a stable life.
A concern of applying the platform model is branding. It is sometimes good to name the outlet
with unique and familiar words within the community. In Japan, there is a classified website called
Jimoty, meaning local people, which has nationwide popularity.
210 Collaborating with those established
classifieds could help smooth the application of local news platforms.
4.2. Cultivate Donation Cultures
As observed in the previous chapter, philanthropic contributions, whether as institutional
donations or individual fundraising, play an important role in supporting hyper-local news. On the other
hand, the donation culture in Japan is much less developed than in the U.S. There is not much institutional
support for financing local news in Japan.
However, there is a positive prospect of a growing donation culture. Crowdfunding, introduced in
Japan in 2001, has now accumulated one trillion yen, about seven billion U.S. dollars, of contributions
over the last two decades.
211
In order to cultivate individual donations for local news, the messaging to
share the mission with the readers and let them know how their money supports reporting activity will be
the key. A newsletter could be an effective tool to connect with loyal readers, which eventually could
become donors.
4.3. Diversify Advertisement Menus
The popular options for ads among Japanese outlets are display ads and sponsored articles by
direct sales, and programmatic advertising. Classified ads could be added to the ad portfolio. Though
classified requires tech investment, the platform model or third-party tool could solve this problem. If a
211 Yano Research Institute, “2022年版 国内クラウドファンディングの市場動向 [2022 Market Trend of Crowd Funding in
Japan],” Yano Research Institute, July 22, 2022, https://www.yano.co.jp/market_reports/C64107100.
210 Jimoty, “ジモティー 無料の広告掲⽰板 [Jimoty Free Classified Ads],” Jimoty, accessed August 23, 2023, https://jmty.jp/.
67
newsroom can afford enough resources for sales, it could also be an option to sell customized packages to
maximize the satisfaction of advertisers, as Lookout does.
4.4. Tips for Efficient Content Production
There is no universal solution that every newsroom can apply, but this paper collected some tips
for efficient content production, whether by reducing content production costs or by maximizing its
effectiveness. Some of them include the necessity of an integrated system optimized for local news, the
extra work of content adjustment to delivery routes and finding a good mix of content genres. Also, a
group chat could be one way to collect primary information or topic inspiration as well as connect with
the community.
4.5. Reconstruct the Tone of News Coverage
The questionnaire reveals that while some people regard local news as boring, they also recognize
the need for particular topics, such as local government news, medical and health issues, and local
education and childcare. It implies that the genre and topic selection that many local newsrooms currently
do could be reconstructed.
The case studies of this research suggest that a good mix of highbrow and lowbrow would
contribute to retaining the audience. One of the examples is, as The Kansas City Defender does, to mix
hard-hitting pieces, such as coverage of racial issues, and entertaining articles, such as restaurant guides
or local artist profiles. The other way is, as The Eastsider does, to combine a chit-chat topic, such as local
Burger King closure, with professional journalistic coverage, such as an exclusive interview about
gentrification.
Such content from the local residents’ perspective would ultimately contribute to cultivating the
reader’s sense of belonging to the community as well.
68
4.6. Utilize User-Generated Content for Community Development
User-generated content is much more than free content. As The Eastsider and Patch showcase,
content from community members is an essential drive for community involvement. In the hyper-local
sphere where most reporters are also the residents of the community, the mutual interaction between a
newsroom and community members is the key to community development. It brings the residents not
only more information but also a sense of being heard and a sense of belonging.
Many hyper-local newsrooms in Japan hear the voice of community members when they produce
stories, yet in most cases, the final outcome is one-way from a newsroom to the residents. The more
frequent use of content contributed by community members could drive community involvement.
4.7. Government Indirect Financial Support
Since Japan has a less-developed donation culture than the U.S., it could possibly work better to
provide tax benefits or subsidies for companies spending money on advertising in local news outlets, such
as Colorado does. Compared to the U.S., it may be a bit of a stretch to persuade legislators that “local
news is in crisis in Japan,” where local news has not grown that much in the first place. However,
everyone in Japan understands that the news industry as a whole is in crisis. It might not be impossible for
the government to start subsidizing the established news and then applying it to the local news sphere.
69
Chapter 5. Conclusion
This research investigates the current situation of local news in Japan and assembles the
successful cases of American local news outlets in order to propose possible solutions for the limited
news coverage of local communities in Japan. This study specifically focuses on the problem that the
Tokyo metropolitan area has been the blank zone of community news coverage, and thus, many cities
have no local news outlets even about city mayoral elections.
Chapter 2 follows the trajectory of Japanese local news mostly through secondary research and
describes the shrinking situation of the Japanese newspaper industry, including national and local
newspapers. Then, it examines the limited hyper-local news coverage both in the number of publications
and content variety by observing the actual outlets and interviewing. Then, based on the questionnaire
conducted by the author, the Japanese audience’s news consumption behavior is discovered, in such ways
that “56% have never heard of hyper-local news publication.” Thereafter, the final section of the chapter
analyzes the obstacles and opportunities of the hyper-local news market in the Tokyo metropolitan area
and presents a point of view that a blue ocean market stretches out there.
Chapter 3 showcases the hyper-local news landscape in the U.S. After exploring the expanding
news deserts and positive outlook, such as increasing subscriptions, it assembles five case studies of
emerging and long-standing hyper-local news in the U.S., including four individual outlets and one
platform. Those case studies are based on multiple interviews with the newsroom organizers or staff
members and analyzed from three perspectives; monetization, content production and
community-building. Though there is no single or universal strategy for success, some common factors
emerge, such as utilizing philanthropic money, better storytelling about their value and how readers’
financial contribution supports their reporting, adequate system application and content genre mix. Some
findings are unique to the specific outlets, yet worth sharing. It also introduces government and
institutional support for local news.
70
By combining the research results of the previous two chapters, Chapter 4 proposes the potential
application of the American hyper-local news strategies to the Japanese market. It consists of seven
proposals, from what the individual news outlets can immediately apply to what society needs to consider.
Those are not the only solutions, and there should be more. But here it aims to spread the lessons from
predecessors and share the idea to grow community-specific news coverage in Japan.
One limitation of this research is that it does not fully address how to overcome one of four
obstacles listed in Section 2.5.1, a lower sense of belonging to the community. It needs further research on
how to incubate a sense of community in the Tokyo metropolitan area or how local news can play a role
in improving people’s lives with less sense of belonging. The other limitation is that it needs further
investigation on how and how much structural differences, such as human resource development and
legislature support for local news, relate to the fate of hyper-local journalism. Also, it requires further
analysis on how the difference of the entity form, whether for-profit, non-profit or benefit corporation,
could cause business approach.
To summarize, it is a fact that local news has been crippled for decades, however, there is some
hope to revive and strengthen the power of local news. Jeff Jarvis, a professor at the City University of
New York Graduate School of Journalism, explains in his book, “Geeks Bearing Gifts,” published in
2014, that it took 150 years after Gutenberg invented the printing press to print the first newspaper in the
world and another 100 years before it learned how to make money.
212 “[We are] only two decades past the
introduction of the commercial browser and web in 1994,” he says. It turns 30 years now, but still, it
seems natural that the news industry is struggling with making money rather than being in jeopardy or
terminal cancer. Therefore, this paper hopes to contribute to enhancing the common knowledge of local
news businesses in this internet era with the ultimate goal that people will have more access to news
fitting their diversified needs.
212 Jeff Jarvis, “Introduction.” In Geeks Bearing Gifts: Imagining New Futures for News (New York, NY: Cuny journalism Press,
2014), 197.
71
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Abstract (if available)
Abstract
Hyper-local news coverage in the Tokyo metropolitan area has been scarce for nearly a century. In most cities and towns in Tokyo, the official bulletin is the only source to know the local candidates' campaign promises for the city council election. The city office website is the only place to look up the available city services. The bedrock problem of this situation is the lack of a sustainable business model that can survive in a market dominated by a few entrenched national players. However, even in the midst of expanding news deserts, some news outlets in the U.S. have found a way to survive and even thrive over the last two decades. Therefore, this research investigates the business models of successful cases in the U.S. and proposes a potential application to Japan.
The research on the Japanese local news landscape, through secondary research, interviews with the local news organizers and questionnaires, finds that the hyper-local news coverage is limited both in the number of publications and content variety. It indicates the Tokyo metropolitan area is a blue ocean market for hyper-local news with less competition and growing needs.
Then, it assembles five case studies of emerging and long-standing hyper-local news in the U.S., including four individual outlets and one platform. Those case studies are based on multiple interviews with the newsroom organizers or staff members and analyzed from three perspectives; monetization, content production and community-building. Some common factors include utilizing philanthropic money, better storytelling about their value, adequate system application and content genre mix.
Finally, it proposes the potential applications of the American hyper-local news strategies to the Japanese market. It consists of seven proposals, such as the application of local news platforms, cultivating donation cultures, diversifying advertisement menus, efficient content production tips and reconstructing the tone of news coverage.
These results lay out a possible road map that could lead to greater production of and access to news about local communities.
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Sonoda, Marika
(author)
Core Title
An analysis of business approaches to drive community-specific media coverage in Japan
School
Annenberg School for Communication
Degree
Master of Arts
Degree Program
Specialized Journalism
Degree Conferral Date
2023-12
Publication Date
12/11/2023
Defense Date
12/13/2023
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Los Angeles, California
(original),
University of Southern California
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business model,Japan,local news,news desert,OAI-PMH Harvest
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theses
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Language
English
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Kahn, Gabriel (
committee chair
), Ananny, Michael (
committee member
), Grossman, Elissa (
committee member
)
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msonoda@usc.edu,sonoda.marika@gmail.com
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https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC113788107
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Tags
business model
local news
news desert