Local journalism needs people who show up, know their neighbors and keep listening after a story publishes. It also needs people who understand digital audiences, use tools efficiently and can help build a business capable of paying for the work.
David Stuckey, audience growth manager at the Local Media Association, makes a valuable argument in his recent article proposing a “Community Connector” role. He describes someone whose responsibilities include reporting, distributing stories, engaging with readers and spending time building relationships throughout the community. His central point deserves attention: Publishing a story should begin a conversation that continues beyond publication.
I agree. And as a local and regional news publisher, I would push the idea further.
Community connection, audience development, production efficiency and revenue development have to work together. A newsroom can have excellent intentions and meaningful relationships and still fail if it cannot reach people consistently or pay its bills.
Much of what the industry describes as a new role is already familiar to independent local publishers and content creators. We report, publish, answer questions, read comments, receive tips, sell advertising and figure out how to make tomorrow’s work possible.
Established newsrooms should study what those creators do well.
Pew Research Center’s October 2026 findings show that 40% of U.S. adults regularly get news on Facebook. Among Facebook users, 57% regularly get news there. Overall, 59% of adults get news from social media at least sometimes.
Those numbers describe a substantial part of the audience local journalism says it wants to serve.
Yet I encounter publications that barely participate there, post inconsistently or treat Facebook as a place to deposit links. Having a Facebook page and understanding how to serve an audience on Facebook are different levels of competence.
A publication that wants readers to develop a relationship with its reporters has to give those readers opportunities to interact.
I source stories from comments. Someone asks a question, challenges an explanation, mentions a business opening or describes an experience that deserves further reporting. A published article can generate the next assignment.
Comments are leads to investigate. Their value comes from paying attention and following up.
I also find stories by publishing information that people in power would prefer I leave alone. Readers notice who will pursue an uncomfortable subject. Sometimes they respond with another document, another experience or another question.
Community relationships include the people who feel excluded from the official version of events.
An outlet can be well connected to officeholders and community leaders while remaining poorly connected to residents who have problems with those institutions. Being welcome at every official gathering is an incomplete measure of public service.
That is also why financial independence matters.
Government advertising, legal notices and political advertising can represent meaningful revenue. Losing an official advertising relationship or a “paper of record” designation can create financial pressure. Publishers should understand what that dependence can mean for their decisions.
Those considerations do not determine what I cover. I do not make editorial decisions around preserving government advertising, political advertising or official recognition.
A publication’s duty to readers has to survive an uncomfortable conversation with a paying institution.
Education is another essential part of this discussion. Understanding digital audiences is a professional competency. Newsrooms need training in distribution, search, analytics, newsletters, social platforms, advertising and the ways people actually encounter information.
I earned a master’s degree in digital audience strategy at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication because this work deserves serious study.
A degree is one route. Ongoing practical training is another. Either way, publishers need to invest in the knowledge.
Tools are necessary. Efficiency is necessary. Small newsrooms cannot afford to spend hours repeating tasks that technology can help them complete in minutes.
That includes artificial intelligence.
I use ChatGPT to help produce content. I upload public documents, identify potential stories, compare figures, organize information and develop drafts. I also use it to turn my spoken observations and reporting ideas into usable copy, including this commentary.
The publisher remains responsible for what reaches readers.
One recent instruction I gave while working with Jeff Davis County audit documents was straightforward: “turn this into as many AP style headline and article stories as you can.”
The budget and audit work generated dozens of separate story drafts and reporting leads. That is a useful demonstration of what these tools can do for a small publication.
An expanded example of the approach would be:
Review these county budget and audit documents and identify every distinct story supported by the records. Examine spending increases and decreases, departmental allocations, legal expenses, audit findings and changes that affect residents. Develop a separate AP-style headline and article for each substantive topic. Cite the relevant pages, distinguish budgeted amounts from actual spending, identify questions requiring follow-up and do not invent quotations or explanations.
That expanded prompt illustrates the workflow; it is not a verbatim reproduction of my earlier instruction.
The opportunity is significant. One newspaper I compete with combines city council and commissioners court coverage into long articles. Budget coverage can follow the same pattern: many separate decisions compressed into one account.
A reader interested in a particular road project, departmental increase or public service may never discover the relevant information buried several paragraphs down.
A meeting is an event. The decisions made during it can be numerous individual stories.
Ten substantive agenda items may support 10 stories, sometimes more. Budget line items can support their own reporting when they reveal a meaningful change or raise a question residents deserve to have answered.
An agenda also provides advance notice of issues worth examining before officials vote.
AI can help surface those opportunities. A reporter still has to check the records, distinguish a proposal from an adopted decision, verify calculations, seek explanations and determine what matters.
But we should use the tools aggressively. A shortage of staff makes efficiency more valuable.
Readers should not have to excavate a lengthy article headed “Commissioners Court met Tuesday” to learn what happened to their money.
Timeliness matters, too.
A new business opening is news. Publish useful, verified information when it becomes available, then follow up as the story develops.
I recently reported on a new bar opening in Marfa. The established newspaper published a more developed story about two weeks later.
There is room for both. The later article may contain more interviews and richer detail. The earlier article still served people who wanted to know what was opening in their community.
Local creators often understand this instinctively. They recognize something people will care about, share what they can verify and keep the audience updated.
Publishers should learn from that responsiveness.
They should also recognize how much ordinary local life contributes to a publication’s identity.
A beautiful landscape, a familiar gas station, a neighborhood pharmacy, a beloved business or an interesting building can make a worthwhile post. Sometimes a photograph and a short caption are enough to invite memories, questions and conversation.
People enjoy recognizing their community. They also enjoy seeing something familiar through someone else’s eyes.
That gives publishers a way to remain present when there is little breaking news.
Some television affiliates fill their feeds with disturbing stories sourced from other stations across the country. When the location disappears from the social presentation, readers may have to click simply to discover whether a frightening event happened nearby.
I think of that practice as tragedy porn: using somebody else’s worst day to generate engagement, sometimes with little relevance to the community receiving it.
There are legitimate reasons to share news from elsewhere. But a steady stream of geographically ambiguous horror is a poor substitute for knowing your own community.
Local beauty, local businesses and local flavor offer plenty to publish.
The revenue side needs equally serious attention.
Community relationships and good journalism require a business model that works again. Publishers need products local businesses understand, can use and have reasons to renew.
There is much to borrow from television affiliates’ advertising operations. TEGNA, for example, markets digital products that include audience targeting, geofencing, retargeting, video, display and native advertising. Its offerings extend beyond buying a spot during a newscast.
Local publishers can build a broader service business around their knowledge of local audiences.
That could include search engine optimization, paid search management, email marketing, website and landing-page services, newsletter sponsorships, social advertising and digital advertising units designed around a clear objective.
Platforms such as GroundTruth offer targeting and measurement tools that publishers can evaluate as part of that service mix. The company markets products intended to help advertisers reach audiences and measure visits and sales. Those capabilities require informed implementation and scrutiny of the results.
A publisher should be able to explain what a campaign is supposed to accomplish, what it costs and how success will be assessed.
Local advertisers also need education.
A small-business owner may know the business thoroughly while having little experience with search advertising, conversion tracking or effective landing pages. A publication can provide value by teaching those concepts and helping the owner make better decisions.
That includes explaining why direct clicks tell only part of an advertising story.
Someone may see an advertisement, remember the business and search for it later. A useful business profile or directory page may continue helping people discover information through search long after its initial publication.
Publishers should explain the differences among immediate response, brand recognition, discoverability and organic search visibility.
They should also be precise about SEO claims. A paid placement is not a guaranteed ranking benefit. Google requires paid advertising links to be appropriately qualified, such as with “sponsored” or “nofollow” attributes. Selling links intended to manipulate rankings violates its spam policies.
The commercial opportunity is to provide useful marketing services and explain their value honestly.
Editorial coverage must remain independent. A business opening can deserve a news story whether the owner buys advertising or not.
Stuckey’s community connector proposal gives newsrooms a useful starting point. I agree that relationships, accessibility and personal accountability deserve time and resources.
I would be more cautious about assuming that better engagement must come with fewer stories. That may be the right trade-off in some newsrooms. In others, better tools, stronger audience knowledge and a more efficient workflow can support deeper engagement and more useful reporting.
The goal should be to give people information they want and need, in forms they can find, understand and discuss.
That means showing up in person, showing up in the comments, publishing promptly, explaining public records clearly and helping local businesses succeed.
It also means being willing to report something that makes a powerful neighbor unhappy.
A community connector needs all of those connections — including the one that allows the publication to keep operating tomorrow.
