The state of local and public media

We’re getting meta on Public Media Giving Day and peeling back the curtain on the news landscape.

Whether we’re battling fake news, censorship, or just sloppy reporting, it can be extremely difficult for the average person to be engaged with what’s going on — especially in their city or region. Not to mention challenges with the funding model for some types of journalism. The news landscape can look bleak at times.

The first half of 2024 has brought mass layoffs — and even shutterings — for legacy publications that are both nonprofit and for profit. Multiple NPR member stations have seen layoffs — like Colorado Public Radio, WAMU (DC’s local), WBEZ (Chicago), and WBUR (Boston). It’s not just radio. The Los Angeles Times also laid off entire departments, and they faced sharp critique for eliminating some of their post-2020 diversity-focused programming. Pitchfork is restructuring to a point that no one is even sure if they really still exist.

With guest host Emily Siner, we’ll ask what conditions reporters are facing right now and unpack what it means to be audience-funded.

This episode was produced by Elizabeth Burton. 

Guests:

• Emily Siner (host), Nashvillager newsletter contributor and former WPLN News Director
• Rosetta Miller Perry, Publisher, Tennessee Tribune
• Eli Motycka, Reporter at the Nashville Scene
• Jesse Dukes, Freelancer and former producer on WBEZ’s Curious City
  
• Mack Linebaugh, Vice President of Audience Engagement, Nashville Public Radio
• Alicia Montgomery, Vice President of Audio, Slate

Further Reading and Listening

• If you need some background information on our media landscape, listen to our past episode on Middle Tennessee’s Shifting Media Landscape or Banner and Co’s overview of the Nashville Banner’s contentious history.
• The New York Times is asking big questions about our region in Can Nonprofit News Save the South From Itself?
• If print is more your speed, read Eli Motycka’s July 2023 Nashville Scene cover story 
• Trying to sort out what’s happening at bigger NPR stations like WBEZ, WAMU, or WBUR beyond station leadership’s official statements? Good luck. Check out Jesse Dukes Substack or the WAMU Union Twitter.
• If the Uri Berliner debacle was news to you, here is his piece in The Free Press, and a rebuttal from Slate’s Alicia Montgomery.

Want more This Is Nashville? Consider giving to WPLN for this year’s Public Media Giving Day.