Some Pocantico participants decided to explore the acquisition of legacy media outlets that have continued to be profitable even though there have been year-over-year declines. They will initially focus on a local newspaper with deep roots in a community, but there could be other opportunities.
They will be assessing the viability of this approach and doing the necessary research to see what might be a legacy media outlet ripe for this, why previous proposals of this type succeeded or failed, and what information and potential funders or investors would be needed to come up with a plan.
The goal is to improve the quality of local news by changing the mission from just making money to enrich for-profit companies to supporting and sustaining journalism and community information, more in line with parts of the independent journalism ecosystem.
Taking the lead on this effort:
Martin Reynolds, Senior Editor – Community Engagement, Bay Area News Group
Michael Stoll, Executive Director and Editor, San Francisco Public Press
Others who pledged to help in the effort:
Kevin Davis, MakingNews.Biz, formerly of Investigative News Network (INN)
Craig Aaron, President and CEO, FreePress
Ricardo Sandoval-Palos, President, Board of Directors, Fund for Investigative Journalism
Michelle Garcia, freelance journalist and filmmaker
For more details, please refer to: