Rewriting the California story: USA Today bets big on statewide local journalism

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USA Today’s latest move into statewide journalism is more than a branding exercise; it’s an experiment in scale, relevance and the redefinition of regional identity. With the launch of “TODAY Californian,” Greg Burton, executive editor of The Arizona Republic and a regional editor for USA Today, says the goal is to amplify local strengths while connecting communities across one of the most complex states in the country. “We’ve used those reporting teams to tell regional and national stories,” Burton explained, “but we’ve never really taken it to the metro areas.”

USA Today has long operated eight local newspapers in California, including The Desert Sun and Record Searchlight. But this new product aims to unify their coverage and expand into key metros such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sacramento. “Even though we really haven’t had reporting in LA Metro or the Bay Area or Sacramento Valley,” Burton said, “USA Today Network has generated a significant audience to the tune of 800 million page views in a year of Californians who are reading USA Today Network stories.” The strategy, he says, is “to raise up like a digital startup in the state with a newsletter,” aiming to reach one billion page views by 2026.

A fresh take on California’s complexity

What sets TODAY Californian apart from other statewide efforts is the depth and diversity of its storytelling promise. “We believe we can present the fullest picture of the state, a fresh take on California news, sports, culture,” Burton said. But he cautions that the state defies easy narratives. “It’s a very nuanced and almost paradoxical place,” he said, pointing to how “emission standards led the nation and there’s a very climate-sensitive culture,” while at the same time, “it’s a state that produces a lot of oil.”

For Burton, these contradictions are part of what makes California so fascinating—and worth covering in a distinct, unified way. “It isn’t a one-size-fits-all state. It isn’t a one-size-fits-all community,” he said. “It’s very complex and nuanced.” The goal is to treat the state not as a caricature but as a living, evolving place that deserves journalism capable of matching its scale and identity.

Redefining the newsroom’s center of gravity

Burton’s personal and professional ties to the West are central to his perspective. “I have deep roots in the West and family ties to California and have worked in that state for a long time,” he said. His belief is that California is not just another large market — it’s a cultural and political engine that needs journalism “told locally and then powerfully about what’s happening to the people there in that state.”

That local-to-national storytelling arc, already practiced in moments like the Thomas and Camp fires, becomes the blueprint for Today Californian. “We wrote enterprise projects about how we could prevent so many deaths in the future and wildfires in the West,” Burton recalled. But this time, instead of reactive storytelling, the approach is proactive: “We’re being strategic, we’re being sensible about how we can be sustainable in growing our footprint in California.”

News as a daily conversation

The format — a daily newsletter supported by the broader USA Today digital network — is designed to meet people where they are. “We’re delivering news in a newsletter. But we’ll also have a landing page at USAToday.com,” Burton said. He emphasizes a digital-first, platform-agnostic approach: “We want to be in the daily conversation with Californians, whether they’re consuming news on TikTok… YouTube… or whether they’re searching for information and they find us at USA Today.”

This strategy flows from what Burton calls a “startup mentality,” blending the agility of a new product with the infrastructure of a legacy network. “We’ll leverage the power of USA Today’s network, its search authority, but we’ll be delivering and writing for a digital audience,” he explained. The aim isn’t just presence, but resonance — being relevant “to people’s day versus just simply local.”

Metrics that matter

While audience metrics are crucial, Burton says the goal isn’t just raw numbers. “We’re going to look at volume and engagement right away,” he said, with an initial focus on “return visits and subscribers to the newsletter.” But the long game is loyalty, not just clicks. “Subscribers and loyalty are not going to be the first equation that we’re looking at,” he clarified, “but it is going to be volume on the stories that we write.”

Still, performance must eventually lead to sustainability. “Eventually that will turn into subscribers and more loyal readers,” Burton said, especially across the state’s mix of local and regional properties. “Whether that’s The Desert Sun or the Record Searchlight in Redding, we believe both of those strategies can be achieved in the coming year.”

A model for others — or a California one-off?

Asked whether TODAY Californian could be a prototype for similar efforts in other states, Burton hesitated — but only slightly. “Maybe above my pay grade,” he said, but added that the company has long sought ways “to marry our national footprint with our local brands and flagships.” In that sense, the new venture fits a broader trend of unifying “big projects” like Athlete of the Week and commemorative journalism around the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence.

Still, California’s unique profile makes it an ideal place to test this model. “It has beauty, it has industry, it has culture, it has wide spaces,” Burton said. “There are six biomes in California, right? So it’s very unique in many particular ways.” He rattles off its contradictory charms: “You can surf there, you can ski there… go to a rodeo… watch a country music concert in Indio… or go to a place like Bakersfield where the Bakersfield Sound came to be.” That blend of breadth and contradiction gives California the narrative weight of a small country. And, in Burton’s eyes, it deserves to be treated that way.

What comes next

With the launch in motion and goals set, Burton is optimistic but clear-eyed. “We want a lot of people to read this news because we want to be relevant to them,” he said. “If we are relevant to them, they’ll read us, and they’ll come back to us again and again.” The project may still be in its early days, but it’s backed by a philosophy of high-impact storytelling and a belief in journalism's power to bridge geography, culture and identity.

Whether this approach spreads across other states remains to be seen. But for now, Burton said the commitment is to serve California deeply and consistently. “We believe [its communities] deserve news that is essential to their daily lives,” he said, “and that we can deliver in the model of local to national and then regional back down to local.”