The transition to digital alone will not save local news. Here’s what could

The Sacramento Bee wrote about the abolition of slavery and continues to cover segregation in local schools. It chronicled the debut of the Model T and keeps readers updated on Tesla, maker of the Model S. We’ve covered some ground over 163 years.

Five generations of the McClatchy family built parks, high schools, theaters and stopped a freeway cold in its tracks — with the help of then-President John F. Kennedy.

“Newspapers were a public service,” for the family, said Gregory Favre, former executive editor at The Bee, which is one of 30 McClatchy news organizations.

He made his comments in a story about McClatchy’s entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, which began last week.

Local newspaper ownership is a defining feature of American democracy and the McClatchy family has lived it in California, with its five newspapers from Sacramento to San Luis Obispo.

Some people aren’t sure if local, for-profit news organizations can make the turn to sustainability.

And they’ve got good data behind them. Print readership hit its peak in 1990. Roughly 2,000 newspapers have closed in the last 15 years. Facebook and Google now control 77 percent of the advertising revenue that once went to local news organizations.

But there’s also this: We reach more than 5 million unique visitors a month. That’s more than we ever could’ve hoped for during print’s heyday. The problem is most don’t pay for original, in-depth reporting because we gave it away for free for too long.

Newspapers are still profitable, this one included. Which is why we’re so attractive to the hedge funds like the one that will likely take control of McClatchy — our return on investment is far stronger than many of the venture capital-backed startups in Silicon Valley. But we’re often saddled with lingering debt. For our company, that means pension obligations and loans from previous acquisitions.

Still, I’m hopeful. Here’s why: Over the last year or so, a new generation of supporters across California have shown up and stood up for local news.

▪ They’re rallying in Fresno, where The Fresno Bee is hosting two reporting labs — one on education and one on land and water issues - that are fully funded by individuals and foundations that care about the future of their community. The Fresnoland Lab is training Civic Documenters to attend public meetings and share open-sourced notes with any news organization or member of the public that wants to view them, inspired by the work done by Chicago’s City Bureau. By June, The Fresno Bee will have 10 reporters supported by the community and private donors (which is a 40 percent increase in news staffers).

▪ They’ve shown up in Modesto, where the community foundation and county office of education along with Report For America are paying for our children’s health reporter, who is a pediatrician that specializes in infectious disease. She recently led a video Q&A for parents on the coronavirus. She returned to school to become a reporter because she wanted more people to have information that would improve their day-to-day lives.

▪ They’ve shown up in Sacramento, where The Bee is partnering with a nonprofit arts collective to elevate (and pay) minority writers because media inequity must be addressed both locally and nationally.

Journalism feels different in these places. We’re asking people what they want before we begin reporting. We’re listening in places where we haven’t in a very long time. We are rebuilding bonds.

The transition for local news is not a transition to digital. It is a transformation to deeper engagement with our communities.

The path to sustainability will be forged when we are in an authentic relationship with our communities, and when we together make a commitment to share critical news and information with those who need it.

That cannot be done without support from a host of people. Subscribers are critical. Advertising still accounts for significant revenue. We must learn how to build relationships with philanthropic sources, which have quadrupled their commitment to journalism in the last 10 years. We should partner with those who years ago constituted the competition.

Every day, when we walk in the door to our newsrooms, we have a shot at making a difference. We must double down on our commitment to solutions-oriented journalism and deep engagement with our local communities if we are to transform our news organizations.

I could not imagine doing work that is more purposeful. We’ve got to talk about the impact we’re making more often, and how more people can help.

I believe people want to have this conversation with us. I also believe they have to.

This story was originally published February 20, 2020 at 5:00 AM.