While most people were on the back patio enjoying a drink after a day of business meetings, Scott Linesburgh was sitting alone at a table in front of a restaurant in Palo Alto, California, crouched over his phone.
Deputies had just executed a search warrant on a school board official back in his hometown of Stockton, and Scott, editor of the local news site Stocktonia, needed to edit and post the story.
Scott and a handful of other veteran journalists launched Stocktonia in 2022 to provide accurate, nonpartisan news to a city divided by special interests. I had heard about this team of serious journalists in the heart of California’s Central Valley and about their struggle to stay afloat.
The event that day at Stanford University was designed to connect journalism funders and newsrooms. But Scott was working, missing the mixer to serve his readers.
That tells you much about Scott, as well as so many other local news leaders today.
Once the story was posted, I sat down and introduced myself. We were starting a new local news initiative called NEWSWELL at Arizona State University.
Stocktonia needed support. Perhaps we could help.
I had just left my job as editor in chief of USA TODAY, where I’d led the national newsroom for the past five years. I’d seen firsthand the polarization of our country and the chaos spawned by misinformation. Now my focus was on strengthening the one thing that can help solve both issues: local news.
Local news decreases political divisiveness and knits together disparate communities. That’s not just what journalists think – extensive research proves it. Local news readers are more aware of shared problems, interests and opportunities. Those who follow local news are more likely to know their neighbors. They’re more active in their communities. They’re more likely to vote.
For months, as executive director of the ASU local news initiative, I had been studying what small nonprofit and for-profit sites needed to be successful. Like Stocktonia, many were digital start-ups in cities with declining legacy publications. (In Stockton, the Gannett-owned Stockton Record was down to about three local journalists.)
The old ways of doing local news had turned Stockton, a city of 320,000, the seat of a county of 800,000, into practically a news desert. But the new ways offered hope.
The team at Stocktonia had the talent and trust of the community. What they didn’t have is what many of the largest newspaper chains or billionaire-owned sites enjoy: robust back-end operations, business and product strategists, advertising networks and marketing services.
I’ve met with dozens of publishers, editors and nonprofit leaders, and the refrain is the same: We’ve got passion. We need support.
That was the solution and the question. Who could provide the scale, strategy and services of a national chain, or the research and tech expertise of a billionaire’s newsroom? And who would do that while reinvesting savings or profits back into local news?
The answer: Arizona State University, the nation’s largest university, recognized as the most innovative for the past 10 years in a row under the visionary leadership of President Michael Crow. ASU’s charter says, in part, that it will be “measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed; advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves.”
The challenge of transforming local news was a perfect fit.
On March 29, 2024, we incorporated NEWSWELL as a nonprofit in Arizona to help transform local news. NEWSWELL is an affiliate of Arizona State University, the ASU Foundation is our fiscal sponsor, and our business and operational services are provided by ASU Enterprise Partners. We work with esteemed colleagues as part of ASU Media Enterprise.
Our model is as simple as it is innovative. Local news sites or papers donate themselves to NEWSWELL, and we provide all the things a solid news operation needs: Finance, HR and legal services. Audience and membership expertise. Business operations and strategy.
Hometown editors and reporters provide the news, guided by local advisory boards.
NEWSWELL provides the support.
Supporting local news does not just mean keeping the lights on or maintaining the status quo. Our goal is transformation.
That starts with real-world educational experiences for our students and research opportunities for our faculty.
We partner with ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, repeatedly ranked among the nation’s best, known for its teaching hospital model. While no student funds go to these news sites, NEWSWELL editors act as master teachers to Cronkite interns, giving our students a jumpstart on their careers and our newsrooms an unmatched talent pipeline.
Cronkite students do more than just news reporting. Last semester, students in the school’s online digital audiences capstone experience analyzed news site engagement and presented editors with smart suggestions for audience growth. Students in the New Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab researched ways local news could lead to lifelong learning.
This spring, students in the Cronkite News Sports Bureau will cover the San Diego Padres spring training in Phoenix for our San Diego news site, producing written, video and multimedia content tailored to the site’s needs
We are tapping into talent and resources across ASU, one of the fastest-growing research enterprises in the United States.
We’re working with the Global Security Initiative, Center on Narrative, Disinformation and Strategic Influence to explore disinformation in local news. Students in the ASU Artificial Intelligence Cloud Innovation Center are developing AI solutions to speed newspaper production. Experts in ASU’s Learning Enterprise, the recognized leaders in online education, are creating news-related classes we will embed in our content.
ASU’s brightest thinkers are aiming their talent and support at journalism’s biggest problems.
That first conversation with Scott at a restaurant table led to Stocktonia’s board donating the site to NEWSWELL. Times of San Diego, a digital news site in the nation’s eighth-largest city, is also part of our start-up portfolio.
Most recently, donors gave NEWSWELL the name and digital archive of the historic Santa Barbara News-Press so that we may rebuild it and save the iconic brand from potential exploitation as an AI-driven zombie site. We will work with the Santa Barbara community to understand its local news needs and shape the next iteration of the News-Press, one of California’s oldest newspapers.
We consider these three news outlets our prototype sites, so we can learn and then scale. There is no cookie-cutter approach. Each exists to serve the needs of its unique community. Thanks to generous local and national supporters, led by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, so far:
The problem we’re facing is one of the most important of our times. How can we transform local news?
Today is the official launch of NEWSWELL – the debut of a bold solution.
One that has been more than a year in the making.
One that is incubated by the nation’s most innovative university and bolstered by its renowned journalism school.
And one that remains fueled by dogged local journalists like Scott.
They continue to write, report, ask, push, question – every single day, against incredible odds.
They’ve got the passion. Now they’ve got the support.
We invite you to join us on this journey. Please sign up for our newsletter for updates or donate to our growth at asunewswell.org.
Nicole Carroll is the executive director of NEWSWELL and professor of practice at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. She is the past top editor at The Arizona Republic, leading the newsroom to a Pulitzer Prize, and editor in chief at USA TODAY. In 2018, she was named the Benjamin C. Bradlee Editor of the Year Award by the National Press Foundation. She is a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board.
Sign up for our newsletter to get updates on our research, innovations, new partners and great journalism as we work to transform local news.
