When 24-year-old Jasmine Shiffer packed up a minivan this summer and set out to visit independent news organizations across America, she wasn't chasing a vacation. She was searching for answers.
A columnist and reporter for New York's Shawangunk Journal and Kingston Wire, Shiffer wanted to see firsthand what life inside local newsrooms looked like at a time when headlines about the industry seemed dominated by layoffs, closures and uncertainty. Alongside her best friend, she has spent the summer traveling from community to community, documenting her visits through a weekly column while interviewing publishers, editors and reporters along the way.
She expected to find an industry fighting to survive.
Instead, she found one still fighting to serve.
Optimism where she least expected it
Growing up in a newspaper family, Shiffer understood the challenges facing local journalism long before she began this journey. That made her biggest discovery all the more surprising.
"I would say, as a whole, I'm surprised," she said, explaining that she found "more optimism than I thought I would." Rather than discouraged newsrooms, she encountered journalists who remain deeply committed to their communities. "I've met so many journalists who really believe in this, in spite of all the media madness going on around us. It's been very heartening for me."
One of the stereotypes her trip quickly challenged was the belief that local journalism is being sustained only by veteran reporters nearing retirement. Instead, Shiffer discovered newsrooms filled with people much like herself.
"A bunch of the interviews that I have done have been with young women my age, young men my age," she said. "It's not just a room full of old people reminiscing about the past. There are other young journalists out there doing this work."
For someone representing Generation Z, that realization reinforced her belief that local journalism still attracts talented young people willing to invest in the profession.
Every community defines local news differently
As Shiffer traveled farther west, she discovered another important lesson: there is no single formula for local journalism.
One of her most memorable visits took her to the Sundance Times in Sundance, Wyoming, where publisher Sarah Pridgen showed her a community that still depends heavily on print.
"When you live in such a small town in which you have to rely on satellite internet—or none at all—the print newspaper is still how people get their information," Shiffer said. Looking at the publication's subscriber numbers, she remarked that "they looked like they did in New York 20 years ago."
A few stops later, she found a completely different model at Portland's Willamette Week. There, investigative journalism—not daily news—defines the publication's mission. "They're more of an investigative operation and they really dive into things," she said. "They take their time. To me, that was very inspiring because there's still room in the journalism landscape for these really attentive types of stories."
Those experiences reinforced something she hadn't fully appreciated before leaving New York: every newsroom reflects the unique needs of the community it serves.
Holding power accountable looks different everywhere
Perhaps nowhere was that lesson clearer than when conversations turned to journalism's watchdog role.
While interviewing a reporter covering the Los Angeles Police Department for the Los Angeles Times, Shiffer learned how much effort goes into maintaining sources while holding powerful institutions accountable. Days later, at Arizona's Kingman Miner, she encountered a very different philosophy.
She recalled asking whether the paper spent much time covering the ownership structure of its own parent company. The editor's response surprised her. "He told me, 'That's not what my readers want to read. They want to read about my grandkids at the baseball game.'"
Rather than seeing those approaches as contradictory, Shiffer came away believing that accountability journalism takes different forms depending on the audience. "It really depends on the community who you're holding accountable," she said.
AI may change journalism, but not storytelling
Artificial intelligence inevitably entered nearly every conversation she had with publishers and editors.
Shiffer made a point of asking each newsroom how it viewed AI's growing influence, expecting dramatically different answers. Instead, she found remarkable consistency. "They've all told me something like, 'AI will exist and we cannot escape it, but we are going to keep doing what we do because we believe in it,'" she said.
That commitment strengthened her optimism about journalism's future. While she acknowledges that AI will reshape how news is produced and distributed, she remains convinced that audiences will continue seeking authentic human storytelling.
"Maybe human-told stories are not going to be a mass product anymore," she said. "But there will be a niche. There's always going to be people who want to hear stories that other humans have told."
Her own advice to aspiring journalists reflects that balance. She believes young reporters should embrace versatility, becoming comfortable with writing, video, podcasting and social media because "we really don't know how the media landscape will look even in a couple of years."
Still, she cautions against allowing technology to replace the human connection that makes journalism meaningful. "Embrace it at your own risk," she said of AI. "It's a new frontier, and I love new frontiers. But I believe human-told stories are the only way that we will ever truly reach each other."
After thousands of miles on the road, Shiffer's biggest takeaway isn't about newspapers versus digital, print versus broadcast or old media versus new media.
It's about people.
Across nearly a dozen newsrooms, she found publishers, editors, reporters and photographers who continue showing up every day because they believe local journalism still matters. For a 24-year-old reporter who began this journey searching for the future of local news, that may have been the most encouraging discovery of all.
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