A View from the Field: Investing in Local News

We provide regular updates from the field as staffers work alongside our amazing allies and activists to create a just and equitable media system.

• Between June and August, Sarah Stone traveled 1,000 miles around Massachusetts to learn how the disappearance of local news is affecting local communities. In August, she and summer fellow Angela Chen led a listening tour in Boston and Quincy centered on AAPI-led newsrooms and community organizations. Sarah also organized a community-listening session in partnership with Fitchburg Access Television and met with a group of small publishers on the North Shore to learn how they inform their readers. Read Sarah’s blog post to learn more.
• On Aug. 6, Free Press organized a “Corruption Walk” outside the FCC building in Washington, D.C. The demonstration exposed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s role as Trump’s censorship czar. This shameful history, recounted in a series of 11 signs, details the chairman’s corrupt attempts to bully any media outlet that refuses to bow to Trump’s anti-democratic White House agenda. The signs were displayed prior to the FCC’s monthly open meeting, allowing attendees to read about the ways in which Carr has violated his oath of office as they entered the building. Read Timothy Karr’s blog post to learn more.
• Raelyn Roberson teamed up with the Kairos Fellowship to lead a hands-on workshop on how to write effective letters to the editor to oppose surveillance. This community salon — held as part of our broader Solidarity Over Surveillance campaign — explored everything from the rise of Flock cameras and data centers to how surveillance makes people less safe by accelerating discrimination and oppression.
• Jenna Ruddock helped organize and facilitate the webinar “You Passed a Data Center Moratorium; Now What?!” The discussion explored the policy tools and organizing strategies communities can use to rein in data-center construction. Free Press hosted this conversation alongside the Data Center Working Group, AI Now and other allies. Watch the webinar.
• Nora Benavidez took part in the panel discussion “Journalism Under Siege: Know Your Legal Rights” at the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Atlanta. The conversation explored escalating threats to dissent and press freedom.
• Nora also participated in a panel discussion about data centers in Augusta, Georgia. She and other experts discussed practical considerations communities should consider when contemplating whether to host data centers. Nora noted that municipal leaders must inform residents about all of the relevant details long before they sign any contracts with tech developers. “You have a right to know what your officials are doing,” she told audience members.
• Jessica J. González took part in the panel discussion “Lessons from the Fight to Stop Media Consolidation.” Panelists discussed why the Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery merger is so dangerous — and explored how groups like Free Press helped push 12 state attorneys general to sue to block this deal. The conversation also considered how people can apply lessons from this campaign to fight future mergers.