“All politics is local” is a famous pronouncement about the true nature of United States politics. It’s also true that “All news is local.” The public is understandably concerned with what occurs in the nation’s capital and financial centers. Still, local government’s decisions and the condition of the area’s economy often have more of an immediate and noticeable impact on households, communities, businesses and jobs.
Ironically, as many studies indicate, the public trusts local news and media more than national news outlets, but local news and media are struggling to sustain themselves. Readers of Editor & Publisher know the challenges, and many experience them daily.
Various professional associations and organizations have supported and promoted the news and media industries for decades, some for more than a century. Today, that support is even more critical with news deserts, consolidations and venture capitalists purchasing and gutting newsrooms to pursue profit over serving the public’s need to know.
“Helping local media companies discover new and sustainable business models” is the sole focus of the Local Media Association (LMA). The Local Media Foundation (LMF) is a charitable trust and “serves as the innovation and transformation affiliate of LMA.” Together, they are making a concerted effort to transform legacy media business models for the digital age and assist local media entrepreneurs to establish their credibility and build a loyal audience.
“We aren’t a journalism organization. Our mission is to make the craft of journalism possible by bolstering the revenue lines that pay for it. These days, that means some combination of subscription or membership (B2C) revenue, advertising marketing revenue (B2B) revenue and philanthropic support for public-interest journalism on critical topics. Our labs, collaboratives and other programs aim at providing direct support to all three revenue streams,” said Jay Small, co-chief executive officer.
2025 marks the next stage in the association’s five-year plan. Nancy Lane, the organization’s long-time CEO, will transition to CEO emeritus. Liz White Notarangelo, former fifth-generation owner and publisher of the Record-Journal in Meriden, Connecticut, will become the new co-CEO with Small.
“The beauty of the co-CEO model is it allows each ‘co-’ to play to her or his strengths and shore up any areas where the other ‘co-‘ might have less experience or comfort. It adds breadth and depth to the leadership of an increasingly complex organization with an admittedly difficult mission,” Small said.
Lane is stepping into the CEO emeritus role as a carefully planned part of LMA’s five-year succession plan. During a two-year transition period, she will serve as an adviser to Jay and Liz and the board of directors. Her top priorities will be fundraising and Word In Black, in addition to the adviser role.
White Notarangelo’s journey to her new role reflects LMA/LMF’s commitment to local news and media. Her experience eminently qualifies her to become an industry-wide leader for the more than 3,000 newspapers, TV stations, radio stations, directories, digital news sites and research and development partners that are LMA members.
White Notarangelo discovered LMA early in her career. She was attracted to the innovative thinking of LMA leaders and members and spent the next decade learning new ideas and business models to initiate at the Record Journal. The newspaper was an LMA member for 15 years, and White Notarangelo has been on the LMA and LMF boards for eight years.
“All of the strategies helped the Record Journal to remain independently owned for much longer than we ever expected so that we could continue to provide trusted local journalism to our communities. Along the way, Nancy became a truly inspiring mentor to me,“ White Notarangelo said.
White Notarangelo is also very active in LMA programs, having served as a consultant in 2024 and helping Frank Mungeam, chief innovation officer, lead the first two statewide cohorts of the Lab for Journalism Funding. With that opportunity, she gained a better understanding of how to support the industry and listen to those organizations’ challenges, needs and successes.
“So, now, in my next chapter, helping people in this industry feels like a calling to me because I’d like to pay it forward after having so many people help me, sharing innovative ideas, advice, experiences, support and anything else I needed and my family’s company needed,” White Notarangelo said.
LMA’s four strategic pillars in action
LMA’s four strategic pillars are the foundation for many of its programs, including these examples.
Business Transformation: The Branded Content Project is a collaboration between LMA, the Local Media Consortium and the Meta Journalism Project. The project helps local media publishers present the value of storytelling to local advertisers through various turnkey branded content series, training and consulting. Advertisers have another opportunity to build their brand with local consumers, and local media companies have new sources of revenue.
Journalism Funded by Philanthropy: Philanthropic support of local media has become crucial with the disruption and stagnation of the for-profit model. The Lab for Journalism Funding is the primary program behind LMA’s second strategic pillar.
“The lab has been blazing trails since 2020, training 148 local newsrooms to incorporate philanthropy as a sustainable funding pillar. Newsrooms participating in the lab have collectively raised more than $27 million (and counting) to support local civic journalism,” Small said.
Industry Collaboration: Word In Black is a transformative example of industry collaboration, combining the strengths of 10 legendary Black news organizations and LMA/LMF to create a separate brand and company. It produces a national-scale website, myriad newsletters, in-depth articles on critical topics, and soon, a research capability offering unique insights into Black America.
Sustainability for Publishers of Color/Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: In three years, the Knight x LMA BloomLab has helped 25 Black-owned local media companies improve their prospects for long-term sustainability and independence. Participants reported a cumulative 194% digital revenue growth during the first two years and saved more than $3.25 million on new and upgraded technologies through the BloomLab technology program.
Larry Lee is the president and publisher of The OBSERVER Media Group, the parent company of The Sacramento OBSERVER, which is one of the most respected Black newspapers in the U.S. Lee’s late parents, Dr. William H. Lee and Kathryn C. Lee, founded the paper, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2023.
Lee is also the immediate past chair of LMF and one of the 10 founding members of Word In Black. Much like White Notarangelo, Lee’s career in local news and national prominence in the Black press qualifies him for his leadership role with LMF.
“Word In Black is quite an amazing collaboration, and it wouldn’t have happened without the commitment of LMA/LMF. The Bloom Lab has been instrumental in helping us grow our capacity as a news organization. We’ve expanded our digital capabilities and ability to generate revenue and build an audience. The Lab for Journalism Funding has allowed us to add reporters with philanthropy funding part of their salaries,” Lee said.
New initiatives for a challenging media environment
As valuable as LMA/LMF programs are for thousands of local media companies, they always need more support, assistance and guidance.
To address the impact of AI on local media companies, LMA/LMF launched the AI Community Journalism Lab in late 2024, with support from the Walton Family Foundation. Thirty news organizations will receive modest stipends from the Knight x LMA BloomLab and Family and Independent Media Sustainability Lab to conduct and report on experiments using AI in news organizations, as well as gauge community reactions to how AI is used in journalism.
Word In Black will launch a data platform to organize first-party data from the 10 publishers and as many as 30 other Black-owned media brands during the next three years. The data will be used for research, commercial and philanthropic purposes and provide access to Black American perspectives and experiences.
“Our most exciting new project is LatidoBeat, in collaboration with six of the country’s leading local Latino publishers. We will use the Word In Black playbook to quickly scale this new national brand. We are currently in the fundraising stage but expect to launch in the second half of 2025,” Nancy Lane said.
The Lab for Journalism Funding will add three more statewide cohorts — California, Illinois and New Mexico — in 2025, with all receiving support from Google News Initiative.
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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