Today @rebuildlocalnews.bsky.social and @muckrack.com released a major new study on the number of local journalists per 100,000 people. The local news crisis is more severe and widespread than we thought.

BTW, congratulations to the Baltimore Banner and The New York Times local fellowship program (run by Dean Baquet) on winning the local reporting Pulitzer. Both the Banner and the fellowship program are just a few years old.

Of the 15 Pulitzers just announced, not one was won by a news outlet owned by a hedge fund, a private equity firm, or a publicly-traded American company. Almost all went to privately held companies -- family owned or controlled -- or nonprofits. (The 1 publicly-traded company, Reuters, is Canadian)

Yesterday we had a press conference in CA calling for hearings to strengthen the state's response to the local news collapse. Today: more layoffs at LA Times, presidential decree defunding public radio/TV (key source of local reporting). Time running out. www.rebuildlocalnews.org/california-p...

I'm not saying Big Tech is the only cause of the local news crisis -- or that they don't also provide many benefits -- but surely they can help repair the collateral damage they helped cause.

For those concerned that the big tech companies might not have enough money to help (save democracy), today Amazon reported $155 B in revenue and $17B in net income--in just Q1. Yesterday, Meta reported Q1 revenue of $42 B & $16 billion profit. Google: Q1 $90B & $35 B profit.

Addressing the Crisis in Community News in California Our plan is to build on California’s original local news deal with Google, increasing the fund to $125 million per year by requiring Meta and Amazon to also support community news.

.@rebuildlocal today released a plan to create a $125 million per year fund, financed in part by making Meta & Amazon help out (not just Google). Already endorsed by: California Broadcasters Association, CA Independent News Alliance and several others. www.rebuildlocalnews.org/addressing-t...

They propose that if Meta and Amazon dont contribute, the state should levy a fee. That would increase the size of the fund so it could include broadcasters (including public TV and radio) and actually help address the massive local news crisis hitting CA communities

Jeff Bezos Should Donate the Washington Post to a Charity His conflicts of interests are insurmountable. He can take a heroic path to strengthen journalism.

Jeff Bezos “could strengthen American journalism and democracy - and restore his reputation as one of the great newspaper owners - by becoming a nonowner.” This suggestion by @stevenwaldman.bsky.social of @rebuildlocalnews.bsky.social deserves fresh consideration. www.cjr.org/opinion/wald...

Who Provides the Nutrients in the New Local News Food Chain? On the most important metric there is: whether there are enough reporters.

Reporters are plankton.

I mean that as a compliment. (Explained here... www.cjr.org/local_news/m...