A collective of Los Angeles media leaders and philanthropists have partnered with the American Journalism Project to bolster community-focused journalism in the city. This new organization, the Los Angeles Local News initiative, successfully raised nearly $15 million for their foundation.
A Response to the Decline in the Media Industry
Within the broader media industry, the local news ecosystem in Los Angeles was hit especially hard, resulting in cuts and layoffs. Even the Los Angeles Times cut 115 staffers in January, having laid off 74 newsroom staffers last year. The cuts affected largely Latino staffers and led much of the senior staff to resign.
Community Before Profit
This new initiative is intended to support a community-first network of media outlets, partnering with nonprofit newsroom CalMatters to emphasize regional accountability.
“L.A. County is far too complicated and diverse a place for any one outlet to serve all local news needs of all residents,” said Michael Ouimette, the chief investment officer at the American Journalism Project.
News Deserts and Media Needs
As of 2022, the American Journalism Project interviewed 845 LA County residents in 244 zip codes and found that many residents felt their needs were not met by local news. They don’t have access to outlets that voice their particular concerns, let alone meet basic needs.
News deserts are on the rise in the United States, and outlets are often stretched too thin to address comparatively minor, but still essential, local matters. Everyone in every zip code needs access to reliable, nonpartisan insight to help make informed decisions about their lives.
“When people think about news deserts,” said Monica Lozano, board chair of the LA Local News Initiative and former CEO of La Opinión, “they’re thinking about rural America, or communities that are off-grid, but we have those same sorts of deserts in the region.”
An Experiment in Hyperlocal News
This kind of “hyperlocal” news model as an interconnected media web is a promising idea, but similar California startups have had mixed success. The Long Beach Post was one such hyperlocal initiative, receiving praise before going through similar layoffs to other news outlets. Earlier this year, however, Look Out Santa Cruz was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News reporting.
Fortunately, the LA Local News Initiative has found the model they want to replicate: Boyle Heights Beat. A bilingual, nonprofit newsroom serving the Latino community since 2010, the Boyle Heights Beat has become a digital news outlet serving East LA, but reporting on the communities they live in.
Boyle Heights Beat has integrated itself with the community, holding quarterly meetings to speak with locals and give voice to their concerns. Their reporters, editors, and coordinators hand deliver print editions to local establishments, including libraries and community centers—all 30,000 of them.
While it is not certain how far their model can spread, the success and community response have been remarkable. To increase accountability journalism and local news coverage in LA, they will use this basis to launch and operate community publications in areas needing greater coverage.
Further Initiatives and Responses in Media
They also plan to launch the LA Documenters initiative, which will act as a local affiliate to the existing Documenters Network. The network has its origins with the Chicago civic media outlet City Bureau, which both trains and pays local residents to attend and cover public meetings, such as school board meetings.
Another hope for LA journalism comes in the form of the California Journalism Preservation Act, a bill proposing that tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Meta pay to link to a news outlet’s work. This would give many struggling news outlets a boost in online spaces and a new stream of income to build better journalism.
