Medill Local News Initiative

09/01/2026

Medill Dean Charles Whitaker and Medill Local News Initiative (LNI) Founding Director Tim Franklin rang the Nasdaq Bell in New York City today. 🔔

They celebrated LNI's win of a prestigious Chicago Innovation Award, which is the region's foremost recognition of the most innovative new products or services brought to market.

LNI is a research and development project aimed at helping transform the local news ecosystem in Chicago and across the country during a time of historic change in the media industry. 🗞️

07/07/2026

"AI is the next hill to climb."

Jim Friedlich, CEO of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, joins Tim Franklin to discuss AI, nonprofit news, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and building sustainable local journalism.

Watch/listen to the full episode:

In the sixth episode of the State of Local News Podcast, host Tim Franklin—Professor, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News, and founding director of the Medill Local News Initiative—speaks with Jim Friedlich, CEO of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.

06/16/2026

What if your reporting could move beyond documenting harm — to rigorously covering what’s working?

Join us for the Medill Solutions Journalism Summer Summit: one day to sharpen how you frame the stories that matter most.

🗓 Friday, June 26, 2026
⏰ 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
📌 Medill Graduate Campus, 303 E. Wacker, Chicago

This year’s theme: Using Data and Framing to Surface Responses to Systemic Harm.

06/11/2026

What happens when local news disappears? Left Uncovered: Inside North Carolina’s News Deserts explores the growing local news crisis and its impact on communities, featuring data and reporting from The State of Local News Report.
Watch the documentary from WRAL here:

As newsrooms shrink, media companies consolidate and communities lo...

06/04/2026

69% of surveyed Chicago-area local news consumers already support local journalism financially. 88% say they use local news to be better citizens.

New research from Press Forward Chicago and Medill's Local News Accelerator offers a detailed look at who local news reaches—and what audiences value most.

Read:

This text was adapted from our report on Chicago’s Local Media Consumers. Download a full PDF version of the report.

06/03/2026

NPR CEO Katherine Maher discusses NPR’s storytelling secrets and why local public media remains essential civic infrastructure. Listen/Watch⬇️

In the fourth episode of the State of Local News Podcast, host Tim Franklin—Professor, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News, and founding director of the Medill Local News Initiative—speaks with Katherine Maher, President and CEO of NPR.

05/21/2026

Showing up at the Capitol is one thing. Knowing how to write a bill is another. For 16 years, Latino Unity Day has trained Illinois residents to do both — pairing community members with policy experts who help translate their concerns into legislative language before they ever sit down with a lawmaker.
The proof is in the statehouse:
— Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus: from a handful of founders in 2002 to 18 legislators today
— Temp Worker Fairness and Safety Act: introduced to signed in about six months
But this year's attendance dropped from 900 to 600. Organizers say fear around ICE is keeping the residents who most need a seat at the table from showing up — a reminder that civic infrastructure only works when people feel safe using it.
Full story by McKenna Sweet at ILLatinoNews.com.
Part of the Healing Illinois 2026 Reporting Project: Democracy Lives Here, led by the Medill - Northwestern University Solutions Journalism Hub and made possible by a grant from Healing Illinois — a racial and community healing initiative from the Illinois Department of Human Services in partnership with The Field Foundation of Illinois.

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05/21/2026

State of Local News Project's director Zach Metzger spoke with CNN about the lack of access to local news in military communities, leaving millions with fewer reliable sources of information.

Watch here:

CNN’s Brianna Keilar speaks with Thomas Brennan from the nonprofit newsroom The War Horse and Zach Metzger from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism. They discuss the implications of their study showing many military communities are becoming ‘news deserts.’

05/15/2026

Local Businesses LOVE Sponsoring Youth Sports on Local News! Find the full episode here:

In the third episode of the State of Local News Podcast, host Tim Franklin—Professor, John M. Mutz Chair in Local News, and founding director of the Medill Local News Initiative—speaks with veteran journalist and podcaster Chuck Todd.

05/14/2026

The fight to save the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette raises a bigger question: what does it actually mean to save local news? New reporting from the Local News Initiative explores the future of legacy newspapers and civic information.

Stewart Bainum Jr. just committed $30 million over five years to prevent the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from shutting down.