Rebuilding Local Journalism
The “tell the truth locally” pathway of New Wine Media.
Democracy depends on people knowing what is happening where they live. But across rural America and overlooked communities, local newsrooms have disappeared, public meetings go uncovered, and residents are left without the information they need to hold power accountable.
Rebuilding Local Journalism is New Wine Media’s “tell the truth locally” pathway: a project focused on restoring trusted, public-interest reporting through county-level journalism pilots, field notes, interviews, local accountability coverage, and community storytelling.
What would it take to rebuild local journalism as civic infrastructure?
Local journalism is civic infrastructure
Local journalism is not just content. It is part of the democratic infrastructure of a community. When local reporting disappears, corruption becomes easier, public meetings become invisible, civic participation declines, and communities lose a shared source of facts.
This project asks how local journalism can be rebuilt at the county level — especially in rural places, small towns, and communities neglected by corporate media
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Cover local government, school boards, elections, budgets, infrastructure, public health, and community issues.
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Use interviews, field notes, explainers, and community partnerships to make journalism relational, not distant.
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Track decisions, follow money, attend meetings, explain systems, and make local power visible.
Featured work
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County-level news pilots
A model for rebuilding public-interest journalism at the county level, with a focus on accountability, explainers, civic trust, and local relevance.
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Media deserts mapping
Maps and research showing where local journalism has disappeared, weakened, or become inaccessible — especially in rural communities.
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Field notes and interviews
Conversations with residents, local officials, organizers, teachers, pastors, journalists, and civic leaders about what communities’ need from local news.
This pathway includes
Rural journalism project
Research and storytelling on the collapse and renewal of rural local news.
Local accountability reporting
Coverage of school boards, county government, public budgets, land use, elections, and infrastructure.
Community storytelling
Profiles, oral histories, essays, and place-based stories that help communities see themselves clearly.
The county newsroom model
1. Local accountability
Attend meetings, track budgets, explain decisions, and make local government visible.
3. Community reporting
Interview residents, workers, teachers, farmers, pastors, organizers, and small business owners.
2. Civic explainers
Help residents understand taxes, schools, elections, water, housing, development, and public services.
4. Public trust
Build relationships through transparency, local presence, listening sessions, and community partnerships.
What local journalism should cover
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Budgets, commissioners courts, public meetings, contracts, and local decision-making
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Curriculum debates, closures, funding, teacher conditions, student needs, and district governance.
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Hospitals, clinics, mental health, rural health access, emergency services, and public programs.
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Roads, utilities, broadband, drainage, water systems, and public works.
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Farm work, small businesses, wages, unions, land, and rural economies.
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Development, housing, zoning, displacement, conservation, and property politics.
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Who is on the ballot, what offices do, how decisions get made, and how residents can participate.
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Churches, mutual aid, civic groups, volunteer networks, and local traditions.