Dan and Ellen talk with Catherine Tumber , who was a former colleague of Dan's at The Boston Phoenix, a longtime friend, and a source for his 2013 book, "The Wired City." These days she’s an independent scholar and journalist who’s affiliated with the Penn Institute for Urban Research . She’s also a fellow at the MassINC Gateway Cities Innovation Institute and a contributing editor for The Baffler . She is the author of "Small, Gritty, and Green: The Promise of America's Smaller Industrial Citie...
Sep 29, 2023•48 min•Ep 66•Transcript available on Metacast Ellen and Dan talk with Paul Bass , the founder and former editor of the New Haven Independent . Bass is originally from White Plains, New York, but he arrived in New Haven in the late 1970s to attend Yale, and he has been reporting on all the quirks and glory of his adopted home town ever since. Bass was the main subject of Dan's 2013 book, "The Wired City," and is one of the news entrepreneurs featured in our forthcoming book, "What Works in Community News." Bass launched the New Haven Indepen...
Sep 14, 2023•43 min•Ep 65•Transcript available on Metacast Ellen and Dan talk with Nicci Kadilak , an educator, author, mom, and founder of the Burlington Buz z. The Buzz is a hyperlocal online news site serving Burlington, Massachusetts, a town of 26,000 people north and west of Boston. Kadilak created the Buzz in early 2022, when a town election was on the horizon and the local Gannett weekly, the Burlington Union, switched to regional coverage. In the 1980s, Burlington was covered by two weekly papers and The Daily Times Chronicle of Woburn, where Da...
Aug 10, 2023•38 min•Ep 64•Transcript available on Metacast Ellen and Dan talk with Walter Robinson , a longtime investigative journalist and editor of The Boston Globe's Spotlight Team. Robby, as he is known, was instrumental in uncovering the clergy sex abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church in Boston and beyond. The series won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003. The team's work was captured onscreen in the movie "Spotlight," where Robby was played by the actor Michael Keaton . Robby is a former colleague – he was a distinguished prof...
Jul 12, 2023•31 min•Ep 63•Transcript available on Metacast Ellen and Dan talk with Sue Cross, the veteran journalist who will step down as executive director and CEO of the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) by the end of 2023. Sue has led INN since 2015, and has overseen a period of tremendous growth. There were 117 nonprofit newsroom members listed in the INN's 2015 annual report. This year, INN has 425 member newsrooms. She has also been a driving force in the NewsMatch program, a collaborative fund-raising project that has helped raise more than $27...
Jun 26, 2023•57 min•Ep 62•Transcript available on Metacast Ellen and Dan talk with Andy Thibault , editor and publisher of the Winsted Citizen in Connecticut. The Citizen is a monthly print newspaper serving Litchfield County and the surrounding area. The only digital presence is the Winsted Citizen Blog . But that's about to change, Thibault says. He's going digital. Starting a news organization is never easy, but the Citizen hit a brief speed bump. A speed bump named Ralph Nader. But according to Andy, everything is moving ahead just fine. Jack Walsh ...
Jun 16, 2023•38 min•Ep 61•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk with Brant Houston , who is hard to describe in one sentence: he's an author, an educator, an investigative journalist, an expert in data-based reporting, and a co-founder of the Global Investigative Journalism Network and the Institute for Nonprofit News. His new book, "Changing Models for Journalism," chronicles the history of change, disruption, and reinvention in our industry over the past two decades. These are themes we explore on this podcast, and in our own forthcoming...
Jun 02, 2023•46 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk with Howard Owens , the publisher of The Batavian , a digital news organization in Genesee County, New York, way out near Buffalo. When Dan first met Howard, he was the director of digital publishing for GateHouse Media, which later morphed into Gannett. Howard launched The Batavian for GateHouse in 2008. In 2009, GateHouse eliminated Howard’s job, but they let him take The Batavian with him, and he’s been at it ever since. The Batavian’s website is loaded with well over 100 a...
May 18, 2023•52 min•Ep 59•Transcript available on Metacast Dan talks with Lara Salahi , a professor of journalism at Endicott College, where she teaches a range of courses, from feature writing to digital journalism. She has also been a digital producer for NBC Universal, and a field producer for ABC News. Salahi has also done some consulting and writing on science and health projects. She was executive producer on a podcast called Track the Vax , which ran during the height of the pandemic. And she collaborated with Pardis Sabeti , a systems biologist ...
May 03, 2023•41 min•Ep 58•Transcript available on Metacast Linda Shapley , the publisher of Colorado Community Media , describes herself as a longtime denizen of the state's media ecosystem. Indeed, she was at Colorado Politics and worked for 21 years for The Denver Post. “I’ve been a lieutenant for a lot of really great generals," she once said. "This is my opportunity to be a general.” CCM is a group of about two dozen weekly and monthly newspapers in the Denver suburbs. They were saved from chain ownership two years ago when they were purchased throu...
Apr 19, 2023•54 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk with Mark Histed , a researcher at the Democracy Policy Network . DPN is a network of policy organizers who have a simple mission: Sustaining democracy. That work takes place largely at the local level. Mark and others at DPN do research and provide deep-dive policy kits that help local citizens and legislators champion big ideas. Mark leads the Local News Dollars effort and recently wrote a report on how states can establish a system where residents are issued vouchers they c...
Mar 19, 2023•36 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast Ellen and Dan talk with Greg Moore , former managing editor at The Boston Globe and longtime editor of The Denver Post . During his 14 years at the Post, the paper won four consecutive Pulitzer Prizes. He's led coverage of major stories, including the Aurora movie theater shooting in Colorado and the case of Charles Stuart in Boston. Greg is now editor-in-chief of the Expert Press, which helps connect specialists with media. He's still in Denver. As one of the most senior Black journalists in th...
Feb 26, 2023•41 min•Ep 55•Transcript available on Metacast Ellen and Dan talk with Victor Pickard , a professor of media policy and political economy at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Before he was at Penn, he taught media studies at NYU. He is the author of "Democracy Without Journalism," among other books. Pickard has contributed to the debate about the local news crisis in many different settings. He worked on media policy in Washington at the New America Foundation, and he served as a policy fellow for form...
Feb 12, 2023•36 min•Ep 54•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk with Anne Larner , a civic leader in Newton, Massachusetts, a city of nearly 90,000 people on the border of Boston. Anne is on the Board of Directors of The Newton Beacon , an independent nonprofit news outlet covering Newton. Anne has a long track record of civic engagement in Newton and in Massachusetts. She moved to Newton in 1973, and has served on the School Committee, the Newton League of Women Voters, and has been a PTO president, among many roles. She also served 15 ye...
Jan 31, 2023•50 min•Ep 53•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk with Adam Gaffin, founder of the Universal Hub and inventor of the French Toast Alert System ). Dan wrote a profile of Adam for CommonWealth Magazine in 2008. Adam has been a local connector since the earliest days of digital self-publishing — well before blogging, putting he put together a directory of websites called New England Online in the early ’90s and then morphing that into Boston Online. Ellen has a Quick Take on a young journalist who lost her job at West Virginia P...
Jan 21, 2023•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk to Mike Blinder , the publisher of Editor & Publisher , the once and future bible of the publishing industry. Mike also hosts E&P's weekly vodcast series, "E&P Reports." Blinder has interviewed everyone from Richard Tofel , founding GM of ProPublica , to Jennifer Kho , the new executive editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, to professor and media critic Jeff Jarvis . Blinder probes important issues like government support for community journalism, the role of platforms, and the imp...
Jan 12, 2023•57 min•Ep 51•Transcript available on Metacast Ellen and Dan talk with Margaret Low , the CEO of WBUR , one of Boston's two public radio stations. Margaret started as CEO in January 2020. She has had a 40-plus-year career with NPR, and started as an overnight production assistant at Morning Edition. At NPR, Low rose through the ranks and ended up in the top editorial job, where she oversaw 400 journalists worldwide, covering events like the Arab Spring, the re-election of Barack Obama, and the Boston Marathon bombing. She led a digital trans...
Dec 02, 2022•39 min•Ep 50•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk with Crystal Good , the founder of Black by God, the West Virginian. She's a sixth-generation West Virginian, and she's a storyteller and poet. She has also been a model and an advocate. She describes Black by God as an "emerging news and storytelling organization centering Black voices from the Mountain State." She wants to provide a more nuanced portrayal of Black residents in the Appalachian region. Dan and Northeastern graduate student Dakotah Kennedy first heard Crystal G...
Nov 19, 2022•49 min•Ep 49•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk with Mary Margaret White , the CEO of Mississippi Today , a nonprofit digital news outlet that has been covering the state for more than six years. The staff has a robust presence at the statehouse in Jackson, and provides cultural and sports coverage, as well. Mary Margaret is a Mississippi native. She has a bachelor’s in English and journalism and a master’s in Southern Studies from the University of Mississippi. She also spent almost 10 years working for the state, with job...
Nov 12, 2022•29 min•Ep 48•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk with Nancy West , executive editor of InDepthNH.org. Nancy was an investigative reporter during her 30-year career at the New Hampshire Union Leader . Nancy founded the nonprofit New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism in 2015. She has also taught investigative reporting at a summer program for students at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting . Ellen has a Quick Take on a recent article by Dan Froomkin in Washington Monthly. Froomkin, who is now edito...
Nov 03, 2022•42 min•Ep 47•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk with Jeff Jacoby , longtime columnist for The Boston Globe Opinion Pages . Jeff also writes the weekly "Arguable" newsletter. Jeff holds degrees from George Washington University and from Boston University Law School, and before entering journalism, he briefly practiced law. He was also an assistant to Dr. John Silber , the prickly president of Boston University. Prompted by a column Jeff wrote in June, and spurred on by the impending midterm elections, the podcast features a ...
Oct 27, 2022•52 min•Ep 46•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk with David Cicilline , who represents the First District of Rhode Island in Congress. Cicilline, who is a Democrat, is part of a bipartisan group of US representatives and senators sponsoring the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act. Co-sponsors include Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota; Republican Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana; Republican congressman Ken Buck from Colorado; and Senate and House Judiciary Committee Chairs Dick Durbin , an Illinois De...
Oct 21, 2022•26 min•Ep 45•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk with David Dahl , editor of The Maine Monitor. David was most recently a deputy managing editor at The Boston Globe. Among his jobs at The Globe: directing hyperlocal Your Town coverage. The pull of Maine was strong, however. He and his wife, Kathy, have a home in Friendship, Maine. When he decided that he was ready to turn the page, he looked Down East. Dan has a Quick Take on Bulletin, a feature developed by Facebook to compete with Substack. Sarah Scire has the scoop : Bull...
Oct 13, 2022•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk with Anne Galloway , the founder and editor-at-large of VTDigger in Vermont. Like many journalists, she was laid off in 2009 from her job as Sunday editor of the Rutland Herald and Times Argus . VTDigger, which is a nonprofit, started with a $16,000 budget with no employees. As she put it in a recent letter to readers , it has grown beyond her wildest dreams. It's the largest newsroom in Vermont. It has dozens of employees and more than 550,000 monthly readers. Galloway not on...
Oct 06, 2022•46 min•Ep 43•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk with David Greising , the president and chief executive of the Better Government Association, a century-old civic nonprofit organization that is also home to a Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom as part of a new collaboration with the Illinois Solution Partnership . The new partnership is funded by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. The BGA separates its investigations team and policy team, in order to wall off its journalism from its advocacy work. In May of 2022, Madison Hopki...
Sep 29, 2022•42 min•Ep 42•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk with Hermione Malone , vice president of strategy and startups for the American Journalism Project . The AJP describes itself as a nonprofit venture philanthropy organization that focuses on supporting the future of local news. The AJP makes grants to nonprofit news organizations, partners with communities to launch new organizations, and coaches leaders as they grow and sustain their newsrooms. Hermione oversees local philanthropy partnerships. In that role, she helps nonprof...
Sep 22, 2022•36 min•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk with Ethan Zuckerman , associate professor of public policy, communication and information at UMass-Amherst. He's also founder of the Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure , which is studying how to build alternatives to the commercial internet. And Ethan co-founded a local news initiative with global reach, a blogging community called Global Voices. An alum of the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard and the MIT Media Lab , he is the author of two books. The latest is title...
Sep 15, 2022•50 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk with Terrence Williams , president and COO of The Keene Sentine l in Keene, New Hampshire, one of the oldest newspapers in the country. Terry and The Keene Sentinel are the creators of the Radically Rural conference, now in its fifth year, which will be held later in September. The conference looks at issues such as housing, farming, the environment and — most important to us — community journalism. Dan has a Quick Take on The Salt Lake Tribune's new venture, called Mormon Lan...
Sep 09, 2022•35 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen dive into their reporter's notebooks, catching up with NJ Spotlight News , the Lexington Observer , the transition at The Texas Tribune , and the turmoil at the Iowa Graphic-Advocate (both of them). Dan recaps Gannett's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, and Ellen has a rave for Emily Rooney's Beat The Press podcast and her interview with legendary WCVB-TV news anchor Natalie Jacobson ....
Aug 10, 2022•36 min•Ep 38•Transcript available on Metacast Dan and Ellen talk with Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, CEO and co-founder of the National Trust for Local News . She is also a senior research fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School in New York. At the Tow Center, Dr. Hansen Shapiro’s work focuses on the future of local journalism and the policies needed to assure that future. Her research involves audience engagement and revenue strategies, as well as the relationship between news and social platforms. She hold...
Aug 04, 2022•46 min•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast 
