In addition to the constant struggle to balance revenues and costs and generate profits, news publishers are focused on sustaining and strengthening trust with their audiences, amid turmoil in the body politic. Trust starts with sharing well-researched facts, not misinformation and obtuse speculation.
Currently, the state of the economy is top of mind for many people as they navigate rising prices and watch the social safety net that supports many people shred and unravel. The public is also concerned with how their federal, state and local tax dollars are being used and demands accountability from government officials and elected representatives. Local news and media outlets that share more factual information about economic conditions and how tax dollars are spent can build even more trust with their audiences.
Since many news outlets have had to shrink their staffs, providing comprehensive “tax accountability” reporting is difficult. More than 1,300 local newspapers, radio and television stations have found a trusted partner in The Center Square. It shares its robust reporting on the economy and tax accountability — from Washington, D.C., to every state in the Union — and was the first media organization in the country to provide its content at no charge. This is the mission of The Center Square’s highly experienced and regarded editors and journalists: “A taxpayer sensibility distinguishes our work from other coverage of federal, state and local issues.”
The Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart rates The Center Square’s reporting as more accurate and balanced than The New York Times and The Washington Post. Plus, its position in the center of the chart is evidence of its reliable, credible and fact-based news.
Having reached this level of trust with its media partners in just six years is another indication of the integrity of its journalism and the success of its mission. The Center Square is a project of the 501(c)(3) Franklin News Foundation. It was rebranded in 2019 by new leadership from the original organization, the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, which was founded in 2009.
According to Laurel Abraham, the Franklin News Foundation’s chief operating officer, The Center Square’s name reflects a time when people gathered in the public square to voice their concerns about local government. The Center Square emulates that concept by providing a baseline of information for people engaging with its content, so they can use it to advocate for accountability and change.
“We are a nonprofit, but inside our nonprofit, we own for-profit businesses, commercial advertising and video production. We wanted to make sure we weren’t completely dependent on donor dollars. We knew that purely for-profit, commercial revenue wouldn’t enable us to grow in scale. We accept donor dollars and have philanthropic support. We want a strong diversification of revenue,” Abraham said.
Transitioning for growth
According to Abraham, the original foundation was dissolved, all staff were released and board authority was transferred to John Tillman. He is a prominent national leader in the field of free-market public policy, most notably at the Illinois Policy Institute. Tillman and Chris Krug, a media veteran with more than 30 years of experience as an editor, publisher and news executive, successfully operated the Illinois News Network. Krug joined with Tillman to create and lead The Center Square and is CEO and publisher.
“John Tillman has been a great mentor for me as I’ve transitioned from a for-profit news-media operator to succeeding in the nonprofit space. Illinois News Network (INN) and Illinois Radio Network (IRN) were points of origin for The Center Square and our audio products. The mission, vision and values of The Center Square were developed by our core staff and built around commitments to quality journalism that were necessary in the news-media ecosystem,” Krug said.
Krug and his team adopted the free, daily newswire service for local media, focused on taxpayer-centered news.
“What we are doing today at The Center Square is an evolution of what a newswire service should be doing for its partners, looking at their needs and their challenges, and providing them with the best possible solutions in the market. We take our core journalistic work and share it in creative, useful ways that allow more Americans to access the news they seek, which would otherwise be absent from the broader marketplace. Cision Data, the third-party media-tracking company, shows The Center Square journalism reaches more than 141 million (52.3% of all U.S. adults) each weekday,” Krug said.
New platforms and initiatives to build more audience trust
With its evolved editorial and business models in place, local media’s interest in The Center Square’s content quickly increased. To serve them and their readers’ news appetites, new platforms and initiatives were launched over the last four years.
During the summer of 2025, The Center Square launched another initiative to support public radio stations that were losing funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The partnership program features two news products: The Center Square Radio Hour and The Center Square Newswire. Both are available at no cost, without contracts or long-term commitments. Participating stations receive professionally produced audio content and The Center Square’s high-quality journalism on government accountability. A partnership is easy to set up and includes technical support.
As chief content officer at the Franklin News Foundation and executive editor of The Center Square newswire service, Dan McCaleb has editorial input across all platforms and news products. His more than 35 years in journalism include, most recently, serving as editorial director at Shaw Media and as top editor at the Northwest Herald in suburban Chicago.
“The founders of Illinois News Network noticed newspapers and other media outlets didn’t have the resources to cover state government. As an editor at a group of Illinois newspapers, we started using the Network’s content. When its initial editor left, and because I was familiar with the content, I decided to join INN,” McCaleb said.
McCaleb manages five regional editors and more than 60 full-time, part-time and freelance contributors. Greg Bishop is the Illinois editor and is primarily responsible for the Illinois Radio Network. The Center Square also has news bureaus in priority states with the largest audiences and a staff in Washington, D.C., to cover national news.
Newsletters have also proven to be valuable products for The Center Square, its partners and readers. National newsletters include National News, Education, Elections, Energy and Public Safety. Weekly newsletters are published for California, Illinois, Louisiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.
Although The Center Square launched in Illinois, a generally blue state, it has attracted significant audiences in several red states, especially Texas and Florida. It had credentials to the White House during the first Trump administration, the Biden administration and now the second Trump administration. For the first time this year, it was able to join the White House press pool.
According to McCaleb, The Center Square has a carefully crafted internal AI policy that uses the technology to transcribe interviews, press conferences and committee hearings.
“We do not use AI to write our stories. We’ve just started dabbling in AI for research. The key point is that there must be a human touch to anything we do with AI. If we use it for research, then we double-check original sources,” McCaleb added.
Enhancing the accountability mission with investigative reporting
By definition, The Center Square’s focus on tax accountability is investigative reporting, but to add even more depth to its reporting, it launched an Enterprise and Investigative Unit (EIU) in 2025 after receiving a grant for the program. After 15 years as an investigations reporter and editor at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Art Kane was initially hired as The Center Square’s West Coast managing editor and then became the EIU’s managing editor. His career also includes many major recognitions for his work, including two DuPont-Columbia awards, a Peabody and an Emmy.
“When I started in June, I was charged with finding five reporters for the team. Investigative reporting is expensive and time-consuming, and the many legal issues require reporters with considerable experience and expertise. Frankly, it’s hard to find good journalists who do government accountability work. Many of those I’ve interviewed are activists, not journalists, who want to dig into government. Having a team that has the time to review 5,000 pages of public records, knows how to file those records and fights for them is a special skill set. I was lucky to find five very good reporters,” Kane said.
The five EIU reporters are located in California, Washington State, Atlanta, Iowa and Washington, D.C. Kane is actively hiring more reporters on the West Coast.
The Center Square recognizes that many news outlets don’t have the staff and other resources for investigative journalism. Their audiences, however, want to see them digging into government and exposing how tax dollars are spent.
“It’s a boon for many of our media partners to access and republish our investigative reporting for free. Since I’ve been here, we’ve received plenty of positive feedback and republications. The content also drives people to local media websites, and tens of thousands of them visit our website because they don’t find it locally,” Kane said.
Boosting reach and revenues with audio and video
With the Illinois Radio Network as a model for the successful use of the audio medium, The Center Square is fully invested in creating more audio and video content to help its media partners improve audience engagement and advertiser interest.
Initially, Cole McNeely joined The Center Square in 2021 to lead its America’s Talking Network, the foundation’s podcasting hub. He oversees audio and video production for both the nonprofit and for-profit businesses, with four full-time people working on nonprofit content and two full-time on for-profit content.
“Local publishers are experiencing less audience engagement and a decline in CPMs, which depresses advertising rates. We want to help them increase stickiness on their sites. If we can offer a solution that fits their editorial standards and simultaneously offer a commercial gain, then that’s a win for everyone,” McNeely said.
A major initiative in 2025 has been to involve more reporters in presenting their stories first in audio, then creating video versions of the audio content.
“We’re focused on helping reporters be more comfortable with audio and video production. We emphasize that we don’t want to water down or change their work, but to amplify their reporting,” McNeely said.
With the launch of the EIU, McNeely and his team work closely with Kane to create video content for investigative reporting, especially explainer videos. Adding graphics, animation and other supporting content enhances in-depth investigative pieces, which, in turn, increases readership. Although the common strategic thinking is that audio and video content will help any local publisher and The Center Square’s local partners attract a younger audience, McNeely says there has been a notable increase in adults 50 and older engaging with this content.
Krug reflected on the almost seven years since the launch of The Center Square by stating, “From our humble beginnings with a handful of people, our newsroom has more than 60 full-time, part-time and freelance contributors bringing content to The Center Square newswire. That group is incredibly productive and ultimately valuable to our partners and their audiences because it produces high-quality journalism with accuracy, velocity and frequency every day. Local market partners need help, and we love supporting the industry as a whole. That is where we bring value to the marketplace and where our contributions mean the most to our audiences.”
Bob Sillick has held many senior positions and served a myriad of clients during his 47 years in marketing and advertising. He has been a freelance/contract content researcher, writer, editor and manager since 2010. He can be reached at bobsillick@gmail.com.
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