Episode 117: Rachel White

Speaker A: We are now just about one year officially into what it first felt like an experiment and now feels like a very good and lasting solution to how you ensure that nonpartisan, fact based journalism gets into the hands of as many news organizations as possible during times when we're all quite strapped for reporting capacity.

Speaker B: Welcome to what Works, a podcast about the future of local news coming to you from Northeastern University's School of Journalism and the center for Transformative Media. I'm Ellen Clegg.

Speaker C: And I'm Dan Kennedy. Today's guest is Rachel White, CEO of the Associated Press Fund for Journalism. Rachel joined the nonprofit AP foundation in 2024 after a 10 year run with the Guardian, the one time print newspaper in the UK that has become a global digital powerhouse.

Speaker B: In 2016, White became president of the guardian.org a nonprofit organization she founded. It raises tax deductible funds to support the Guardian's journalism. The AP foundation has a similar mission, but is laser focused on state and local news outlets all over the US

Speaker C: the AP fund is expanding. 50 news organizations have just joined for a total of 100 newsrooms. They hope to have 150 by the end of this year. Participating newsrooms receive access to nonpartisan, factual public service journalism, including elections coverage from the Associated Press. They also get help with reach and with strategy to achieve financial stability.

Speaker B: The latest cohort includes Spanish language newsrooms, university news organizations and a regional group of newsrooms based in the southwestern U.S. aP's vast distribution network will also start sharing some of the local content on the wire. Massachusetts newsrooms participating include the Lexington observer and the New Bedford Light.

Speaker C: Ellen, do you know what April 9th is?

Speaker B: Thursday. Right. It's also the date I know that the first tax supported public library opened in the U.S. that was in 1833 in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

Speaker C: Ooh, that's good. It's almost as if you were prepared. Anyway, April 9th is local news Day, which is billed as, quote, a national day of action. Connected communities with trusted local news. End of quote. I'll have a quick take about it later on in the podcast.

Speaker B: My quick take is on an opinion column Apocalypse in Fargo, North Dakota. The Fargo Forum, a locally owned news outlet, has forced out three long running columnists. Why? Take a wild guess. Here's one headline on a recent column by journalist Jim Shaw. Quote, our local leaders oppose free and fair elections. End quote. He's now an ex columnist. In case the Forum needs a definition of the role of the press, here's another quote. This one is from George Orwell, author of animal farm in 1984, Orwell wrote, Freedom of the press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose. But now let's hear from Rachel White.

Speaker C: You're the inaugural CEO of the AP Fund for Local Journalism, which recently announced that it's expanding from 50 to 100 state and local newsrooms. You're also hoping to have 150 by the end of this year and 300 by the end of 2028. Now, as we understand it, the fund is a philanthropic effort separate from the AP, to bring the Associated Press's trusted journalism to independent news outlets. Anyway, that's the overview. Please tell us why the fund was started, how you define its mission, and what some of your major accomplishments have been so far.

Speaker A: Thanks for having me today, Dan, and I'm looking forward to talking about all of these things. It's my favorite topic. Let's see. The AP Fund for Journalism was conceived by the Associated Press probably a couple of years ago. It precedes me, but really out of a recognition that the AP has always sat at the center of the sort of state and local news ecosystem in the US and that looking ahead, the AP felt a responsibility to be supporting that ecosystem in ways that it hadn't already and at the same time finding ways to ensure the future of AP's own independent public service journalism in the US and so those things together gave rise to the idea of exploring the possibility of setting up a tax exempt organization that would be able to serve these purposes. And so that gave rise to the idea in 2024, the AP incorporated the AP Fund for Journalism and hired me a little bit later than that. And then, uh, and shortly thereafter, In April of 2025, we launched with our first 50 pilot news organizations. I should mention that this came off the back of a very successful election project that the AP had undertaken with funding from the Knight foundation and from Google, to bring AP election content and services to swing state newsrooms, nonprofit swing state newsrooms. And so, given the success of that and the momentum that we saw off of it, we decided to really roll right from that into the creation of this pilot group of news organizations. We're now just about one year officially into what it first felt like an experiment and now feels like a very good and lasting solution to how you ensure that nonpartisan fact based journalism gets into the hands of, uh, as many news organizations as possible during times when we're all quite strapped for reporting capacity.

Speaker C: Now, in this new group of 50, you're emphasizing Spanish language outlets and university news operations. So what led you to choose those categories? How did their needs differ from a typical English language startup?

Speaker A: I'll go a little bit back and tell you just a tiny bit about what we learned in that pilot phase and how that helped inform the decision making around what this next cohort of 50 should look like. As I mentioned, the AP did undertake this election project. And so as we were thinking about newsrooms that would be really participatory at the beginning, who were open to some experimentation, who we knew were good communicators in that project. Many of the news organizations that we selected in that first pilot came from that election. Group of news organizations. Not entirely, but a lot of them. In those months from when we launched that pilot to when we brought on these new news organizations, which as I say is just about a year, we've learned a lot. And there's no hard and fast rule about what makes for a news organization that's more likely or less likely to take full advantage or the most advantage of the AP content and services that are made available to them. But there are some commonalities that we started to look at. These organizations that had a staff of five or more tended to do a little bit better. We found that organizations that were, uh, not necessarily focused entirely on things like investigations were able to consume the content a little bit more. News organizations that had some appetite for breaking news also did a little bit better just in terms of like the content they were receiving and later on the content that they were sharing back to the ap. Those are not exclusive categories and um, we certainly have looked beyond those. But it did help inform this next tranche of newsrooms. What we did find in that first year though was that it's not just a matter of us making all of this content available to these local news organizations. We are very regularly serving the news organizations with ideas for content that they might consider. So for instance, we might say you might have missed it, Vermont, but here's a story from your state today. You could do this and that with it, um, in the instance of real breaking news moments, um, like we've seen so many of in Minnesota over the past year, we really kind of surround those newsrooms and offer them a lot in those moments of reporting crisis and sort of statewide crisis. And that includes everything from real time flagging that the governor is speaking and on television. We could get the feed up on their site. Things like manhunts where the AP is uniquely qualified and poised to be, you know, really undertaking a serious manhunt that wouldn't, that would be beyond reach with just a couple of reporters in a newsroom. And so those kinds of reflections and also some other experiments we had which were asking our news organizations if they would be interested in Olympic year content and then really customizing it in a local way where the athletes were from, connections to communities and that sort of thing. All of this gave rise to a recognition on our part that we can do one to one service for these news organizations. But there will be instances where there are one to many. And we wanted to find some ways to actively explore and experiment with that. So the Spanish language cohort was a real no brainer. Conecta Arizona was in the first cohort and was really a terrific partner for us. But it also made us realize the particularities of some of these news organizations where, um, there might be undocumented people reporting for them, or it might simply might not feel like a safe environment to report. And just really kind of gathering up that insight as we could, we felt like there was a real case to work with a bunch of, you know, sort of a set of Spanish language news organizations on the college cohort. I don't want to call myself new anymore, but I am newer to local news. I came from a global news background. One of the things that strikes me is there's sort of, there's, there's some, I don't want to call them blind spots, but there are sections of local news that are not as involved in the local news movement as others. And some of those are college and university news organizations that are, you know, hopefully, you know, maybe a little bit better resourced. Um, there's news organizations that are really focused on, I guess what I would call town and Gown, you know, sort of, um, what's happening on campus. But the broader community, some of them are actually the paper of record for their community. And so we wanted to see what would happen if we worked with them and thought about things that we thought cut across the kinds of themes that we think colleges and universities would be more likely to report on. And there's actually a third sub cohort which are border states. So in the southwest United States, we were seeing a lot of commonality in the kinds of content that was being picked up by the news organizations. We were working with topics around immigration, reproductive rights, environment, particularly water. And our thought was that we could again serve more news organizations with a similar approach and similar content suggestions in an area like that. There are other news organizations that fill out the portfolio. Um, beyond those three, Rachel, there's a

Speaker B: training component to this as well. Right. And um, again referring to your announcement, you're providing tools, services and training that will help news organizations grow and move toward financial sustainability. So can you provide more detail on how that would work, maybe in a specific outlet or geography?

Speaker A: So overall we do want to the best extent possible to be an easier, there'll never be one stop shop, but um, to be closer to a one stop shop, to get more of the kinds of things that local news organizations need. And we have a particular advantage in this regard because we are partnering with the ap and the AP has the leading world class platform built to distribute content services, trainings, what have you, to news organizations. And they've done so for the last 180 years. And so when we think about trainings, we've been really attuned to what we've been hearing from the newsrooms that we work with. Every newsroom has to get trained up on AP Newsroom, which is the platform through which they access the content. That one is non negotiable because you can't use it unless you know how to use it. But we try to keep it as efficient as possible. We're really careful in trying our best not to bombard these news organizations with a lot. So we tend to go to them with one question a week. Some of the earliest feedback was that they, they feel like they've had a lot of training and that training is being offered from a lot of sources. And so we've been trying to think very carefully about distinct trainings that they might not be able to get somewhere else or which are attached to a product or another service so that it fits together a little more naturally. So for instance, the AP has just created a whole module on safety and security for news organizations and journalists. We will offer that to the 100 news organizations and sort of the growing cohort as it, as it continues to expand. And that would come with a training module for the election, um, where we're offering election content to these newsrooms, there may be some trainings associated with that. Very candidly, we're trying to be so selective at this stage that we don't overwhelm the newsrooms and just wanting to make sure that what we put up is something that we would training that we would want to have sit on the site and be available for a long period of time or which is a necessity in the circumstance for what they need in that moment. But there are areas where journalists need more training and where we'll be able to provide it. And we've got a platform to do that.

Speaker B: You mentioned Minneapolis, and I'm from Minneapolis. Um, were there specific trainings that you provided to Minnesota news outlets or guidelines?

Speaker A: Those collaborations with MinPost and with the Sahan Journal were entirely organic and born in moments of necessity. I think that was on the job, learning for all of us about really what it would take to support local news organizations trying to cover state stories of national and global interest for an audience that was their own and then some. Um, I don't know if there would be a specific training on something like that. I think it's interesting these breaking news moments tend to provide the best opportunity for the organizations we work with to use the content. It's simply beyond what they would otherwise have access to. And I tend to think there probably isn't the same playbook for every single one. It was a very different circumstance when we were helping news organizations, particularly in the Southwest, coverage the assassination of Charlie Kirk. So I don't think I would draw direct comparisons between that moment of breaking news and everything that followed with the steady drumbeat of breaking news that was coming out of Minnesota and Minneapolis this year.

Speaker C: Rachel, here at what Works, we look at all kinds of independent news outlets, statewide, local, and hyperlocal. But it's safe to say that our major interest is hyperlocal, and most of those projects would not be interested in the kind of news that the AP provides. So we're wondering if you could tell us where the sweet spot is. What type of news outlet is most interested in what you're able to do for them in terms of size and focus?

Speaker A: I mean, the ideal news organizations that we've been working with who are most receptive to the content that we're offering are news organizations that, like all of them, have a very particular interest in serving their audience and the locality in which they're based, but which also seek to widen the aperture of the offering to their audience and. But in a very localized way that still is congruent with the kinds of content that their readers, their consumers of content, would ordinarily anticipate. So, you know, I wouldn't want to rule out the hyperlocal. We do have some hyperlocals. Um, I think it really depends on the ambition and what any given news organization feels would serve their audience the best. Localizing the content makes a big difference. So, for instance, you could be a hyperlocal news organization and think you didn't want any kind of national content, and yet you could find that an Olympian was born in your town and think this would be Great for my hyperlocal news organization. And then at that moment, you would like to be a little bit more national and global. So we don't want to draw too many conclusions to begin with about what a news organization might or not, not like. And, you know, I think a lot of what we've been combing through and looking at as we, as we sort of forge ahead is topics that we think will cut across all news organizations. You know, the implications of channels, changes in policy around health and environment and well being that are likely to touch every American's life. Regardless of whether you're in a very, very tiny local place or you're in a great big city, thinking about the ways that different themes are going to trickle down into different communities in different ways that we can localize for them.

Speaker B: As that happens, the AP has had its own challenges in recent years as some news organizations have canceled the service in order to save money. Probably the biggest blow came in 2024 when Gannett and McClatchy pulled out. So, interestingly, the AP Fund for Local Journalism was launched later that same year. Is there anything that the Fund is working on that could help the AP come up with a new business model on its own?

Speaker A: So we don't have any firm plans right now. We do collaborate closely with the team responsible for the customers and members of the ap, and I think together feel very much aware that there is a set of state and local news organizations in the US that have been customers of the AP that are struggling with their own budgets and their own futures and, um, trying to figure out how to continue to have this kind of content without necessarily paying for it or paying as much for it. And so I can't say with any certainty or in a defined way what that might look like going forward. But we certainly are having very active conversations about what it looks like for some of those news organizations in the future and some models that we'll take under consideration, uh, as we go ahead.

Speaker C: Rachel, before coming to the Associated Press, you were involved in philanthropic efforts at the Guardian, New America, and the World Wildlife Fund. What have you learned at the AP that your previous experience didn't prepare you for? In other words, how is this different from other philanthropic efforts?

Speaker A: It's a good question. I'd say that the experiences with the Guardian and with the AP are distinct from the other experiences insofar as, I mean, the other two don't really fit together very well either. But, um, those are straightforward philanthropic institutions that receive all their funding through philanthropic sources, and they were only ever set up to receive that kind of funding. They do very different things, but that's the way they receive their funding for these organizations that are attached to news organizations, and in particular big legacy news organizations. And because these really are still the only two, there aren't a lot of, um, organizations to compare against, um, to sort of determine best practices. The difference with the AP and what the AP created in the AP Fund for Journalism is that, uh, in a really tidy and efficient way, it serves dual purposes. One which is ensuring the future of the AP to continue to provide public service journalism across all 50 states in the United States, being news organizations that are not immune from the pressures of the, uh, current climate in similar ways, the ways local news organizations are. So ensuring the AP's ability to continue to do that and at the same time recognizing that whole state and local news ecosystem is necessary to support the kind of content that the AP is producing in all 50 states. And so how do you support local news at the same time you're supporting legacy news and do good for both of them? And that's what we arrived at. The difference between this and what we did at the Guardian is that there was not as close a connection for the Guardian in terms of philanthropy and how it related to the business model of the AP as a really critical piece of the blend of revenue sources.

Speaker B: Finally, a question we ask all our guests. What do you read, watch, and listen to in order to stay up on trends in local news across the US

Speaker A: this won't resonate for you. I'm not really a podcast listener. I have a really busy life, and for some reason, listening to a podcast just takes me to a different place. And I cannot concentrate on anything else while I do it. And I tend to do a lot at the same time. I read a lot, all the time. I spend a lot of time working my way across different sites. And that includes everything from, you know, from the New York Times to the Guardian to the Banner, also known as the Baltimore Banner here, other local outlets. I spend a lot of time in Maine, so I, you know, I spend a lot of time looking at the news organizations and the news outlets that I'm fond of there. LinkedIn is a terrific source for me. I find that we're all there, all of us in local news are present in LinkedIn, and it's a great place to be, gathering insights about what's working, what's not working, who's doing what, who published a thing that's been a surprise to me because I wasn't particularly big user of LinkedIn before that. But that part probably is the biggest way that I stay on top of what's happening. I also have a terrific staff who constantly are bringing things to my attention, which I recommend to everyone. Have, uh, wonderful people who are smart also reading things that they send to you.

Speaker B: Well, thank you for coming onto our podcast. We've been talking with Rachel White, CEO of the AP Fund for Journalism.

Speaker C: Thank you so much, Rachel.

Speaker A: Thank you for having me. I enjoyed it.

Speaker C: You know, Ellen, in our work we've looked at a lot of one, two person newsrooms, and their interest in a partnership with the Associated Press might be fairly minimal. Although I have to say Rachel pointed out that there, uh, may be some intersections there as well. But one of the aspects of this program that really strikes me is that increasingly, as some of the big legacy dailies are becoming more and more irrelevant, we're starting to see almost replacement projects among the digital startups, I would say the Banner in Baltimore, the Colorado Sun, Texas Tribune, the Daily Memphian. And they're going to want access to national and international news so that they can be a full service news provider to their audience. And so for them, the AP Fund for Local Journalism could really prove to be a godsend.

Speaker B: Right? And for a big news event like in Minneapolis, that's your chance to go national, to go viral. And that equals reach and that equals metrics that you can talk to advertisers and donors about. It's very important.

Speaker C: I should add that when I was reporting on the Colorado Sun a few years ago, they were already paying for the AP newswire and they would run some AP stories, and it was something that they were very proud of because you have to meet certain standards in order to be approved by the ap. So this is another step of the AP partnering with local news. And so now it's time for our quick takes on developments in local news. I want to take Note that Thursday, April 9th is local news Day, which is billed as a nationwide initiative celebrating the essential role of trusted local news. This is the inaugural event. Press Forward, a major funder of local news, is among the sponsors. The organization's executive director, Dale Anglin, who was a recent guest on this podcast, says reaching 1,000 participating newsrooms shows how much momentum is building around the idea, uh, that communities benefit from people. Start local. Across the country, communities are stepping forward to celebrate the role local reporting plays in helping people understand what's actually happening around them. And that's the end of that quote. The leader of this effort is the Montana Free Press, which is nonprofit and digital. A lot of state press organizations are involved. In our backyard, the New England Newspaper and Press association is signing up local news outlets to make sure that they'll be included in the Local News Finder, which is part of the effort. When I checked it out, I saw that Brookline News is listed. And of course, Ellen, that's the local news startup that you helped found a few years ago. What are you hoping Local Newsday will accomplish?

Speaker B: Well, I'm hoping it will encourage readers to check us out and to check out the hyperlocal news outlet in their community. If they're not in Brookline, most likely your hyperlocal news outlet is staffed by a few hard working journalists and scores of volunteers who live in your town. Readership is the lifeblood of these outlets.

Speaker C: Since this is the first local news day, it's hard to know exactly how it will play out and what the impact will be. There's an impressive list of sponsors and partners including Press Forward, the New York Times, the American Journalism Project, and many others. If this can serve to highlight the importance of local news for building community and and serving democracy at the grassroots level, that will be a real contribution. I wish them success not just this year, but in years to come.

Speaker B: Dan My quick take is on an opinion bloodbath at the Fargo Forum in North Dakota. It's North Dakota's biggest newspaper and a big hat tip here to Alex Ipp, a Gen Z publisher and editor at the Xylem.com which explores how communities are influenced and shaped by science. Alex broke this news on social media and another journalist forwarded to me. Three columnists have been forced out. Jim Shaw, who has been writing for 12 years, was sacked after writing columns about local leaders ignoring the Constitution and opposing free and fair elections. Jack Zaleski, who was the former editorial page editor, also lost his column. In a farewell piece, he writes, it would be dishonest of me to agree with the direction editors appear to be taking the opinion, commentary, obligation of a great newspaper. I guess that's the dinosaur in me talking, end quote. Joan Brickner's column has also been ended and we can guess why. Republican Senator Kevin Cramer recently blasted Brickner for writing a column criticizing his statement that the U.S. has a, quote, biblical responsibility, end quote to Israel. He accuses the Forum of turning tabloid. Indeed, the headline on Brickner's column pulled no punches. It said, quote, cramer says Christians should control the country, end quote.

Speaker C: The Forum is a family owned newspaper and the largest paper in North Dakota. We often assume that family ownership is better than corporate ownership, but this certainly shows that's not always true.

Speaker B: That's right. The Forum has been owned by the extended family of Norman Black since 1917. The family also owns some TV stations, and that might indicate some pressure points that make them sensitive to anti Trump content.

Speaker C: And that's it for this week's show. Thanks for tuning into this discussion of the state of media, past, present and future. You can leave a news tip, comment or suggestion on our website at, uh, WhatWorks News. That's where you can also learn more about our book, what Works in Community News? And please rate us at. Apple Podcasts.

Speaker B: Our graphics are by Alison Booth. Our music is by Promiser, courtesy of Lucas Wilson. You can find Promiser on Apple Music, and you can find us on Apple Podcasts and other platforms.