Episode 112: Mike Beaudet and Lisa Thalhamer
What Works: The Future of Local News
Dan and Ellen talk with Mike Beaudet and Lisa Thalhamer. Mike is a colleague at Northeastern, where he is a journalism professor. He is also an investigative reporter at WCVB-TV, Boston’s ABC affiliate. He’s worked in local television news for more than 30 years. Before joining WCVB-TV he was an investigative reporter and anchor at WFXT-TV in Boston. Beaudet’s at Northeastern focuses on the future of local television news and finding new ways to grow the audience and engage younger viewers where they’re consuming content. Lisa is a journalist and researcher. She’s currently...
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Episode 111: Jennifer Peter
What Works: The Future of Local News
Dan and Ellen talk with who was named editor-in-chief of in September of 2025. The Marshall Project is a national nonprofit that covers issues related to criminal justice. She's only the third editor in 10 years, replacing Susan Chira, a former New York Times editor. Peter started her career as a reporter, working for 12 years at newspapers in Idaho, Connecticut and Virginia before joining The Associated Press in Boston. From the AP, she moved to The Globe, where she rose quickly through the ranks. She was regional editor, politics editor, and city editor. As metro editor, she...
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Episode 110: Chris Fitzsimon
What Works: The Future of Local News
Dan and Ellen talk with Chris Fitzsimon, publisher and CEO of , the nation's largest nonprofit news organization covering state government. Chris is also the host of a new podcast called . Recent topics on his pod include the impact of Medicaid cuts, ICE detention, and redistricting. Fitzsimon knows his way around state politics. From 2004 to 2017, he directed a team of seven journalists at the , which he founded. He also hosted a weekly radio show and wrote a syndicated column on North Carolina politics and government. From 1991 to 1994, he was the spokesperson, speechwriter and...
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Episode 109: Todd Landfried
What Works: The Future of Local News
Dan and Ellen talk with , co-founder and CEO of . As consumers cut the cord on cable TV, he hopes to develop a sustainable model for local news production. We know from our research here at What Works that local television news is still . His mission: to reinvent local news for the streaming era. Ellen is back and fully bionic after a short hiatus for knee replacement surgery. Dan has a Quick Take about a finding in a recent by that gets into how to think about raising money. LION, as most of our listeners know, stands for Local Independent Online News. Anyway, its latest...
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Episode 108: Krichko and Keller
What Works: The Future of Local News
Dan talks with , the founder of , a beautifully crafted premium print publication devoted to grassroots storytelling across the globe. Kade describes himself as a world wanderer with a knack for misadventure. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, ESPN, VICE, and Outside, among other publications. He admits to loving a good story, and writes, "If the tale has a pulse, I'm listening." Kade is a Northeastern University graduate, and a part-time lecturer in the School of Journalism. He created and taught a course in Sports, Media and Digital Storytelling. Dan also checks in with...
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Episode 107: Rick Goldsmith
What Works: The Future of Local News
Dan is flying solo this week because Ellen is recovering from knee-replacement surgery. But fear not — she’s behind the scenes making sure this episode gets recorded properly, and she edited what you are listening to. She’ll be back on the air soon. Our guest is , a veteran filmmaker who has taken a close look at the state of corporate journalism in America. His “Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink” tells the story of , the secretive hedge fund that has bought up many of our greatest newspapers and stripped them of their real estate and slashed their newsrooms. He...
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Episode 106: Tracy Baim
What Works: The Future of Local News
Dan and Ellen talk with , a Chicago-based journalist who directed the recently published LGBTQ+ , which tracks LGBTQ news outlets across the country. The LGBTQ+ Media Mapping Project was created in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, the Local Media Foundation, News Is Out and the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. The project surfaced 107 LGBTQ media outlets in total, 80 of which responded to the survey. According to the accompanying report: “While they may have few similarities, there are several common denominators: Most are in need of additional resources to...
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Episode 105: Bill Marx
What Works: The Future of Local News
Dan and Ellen are back from summer break and talk with , the editor-in-chief of the . For four decades, he has written about arts and culture for print, broadcast and online outlets. He has regularly reviewed theater for the public station WBUR and the Boston Globe. He is a founder of , a new organization that aims to foster thoughtful, well-crafted book criticism in community news media across the country. Bill created and edited WBUR Online Arts, a cultural webzine that in 2004 won an Online Journalism Award for Specialty Journalism. Until recently, he taught a class on writing arts...
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Episode 104: Katherine Rowlands
What Works: The Future of Local News
Dan and Ellen talk with , who runs Bay City News Foundation. The foundation is a nonprofit that publishes journalism for the Greater San Francisco Bay Area at and . And by the way, this is the last podcast until September. Bay City News Foundation acquired The Mendocino Voice and took it nonprofit a little more than a year ago. Dan reported on the Voice for our book, and was visiting in March of 2020 when ... well, you know what happened then. Rowlands also is owner and publisher of , a regional news wire supplying original journalism for the whole media ecosystem in her area, from TV...
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Episode 103: Stacy Feldman
What Works: The Future of Local News
Dan and Ellen talk with , founder and publisher of Boulder Reporting Lab. The Lab is a nonprofit newsroom covering Boulder, Colorado. She launched the Lab in late 2021 to fill critical gaps in news coverage in a state where newspapers have been gobbled up by Alden Global Capital, a secretive hedge fund. Alden is known for gutting papers, not growing them. Stacy was co-founder and executive editor of , a Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit newsroom focused on the climate crisis. She developed her plans for the Boulder Reporting Lab during a fellowship at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her...
info_outlineDan and Ellen talk with John Mooney, the founder of NJ Spotlight News, a digital nonprofit that's part of NJ PBS, the state's public broadcasting network. Mooney, who covered education for The Star-Ledger in Newark, took a buyout in 2008, put together a business plan, and launched their site in 2010 under the auspices of the nonprofit Community Foundation of New Jersey.
While Spotlight was making a mark journalistically, it wasn't breaking even, and its sponsor, the Community Foundation, was getting impatient. After extensive talks, Mooney affiliated with NJ PBS. The name changed to NJ Spotlight News, and the merger means true collaboration between the newsrooms. Both the broadcast and digital sides take part in news meetings. (In a previous podcast, Northeastern University professor and TV journalist Mike Beaudet discussed his initiative aimed at reinventing TV news for a vertical video age.)
As Dan wrote in "What Works in Community News," the story of NJ PBS and NJ Spotlight News suggests that public broadcasting can play a role in bolstering coverage of regional and statewide news. It's a question of bringing together two different newsroom cultures. There’s also a Yo-Yo Ma angle!
Ellen has a Quick Take about the death of John Thornton, a venture capitalist who helped launch The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit newsroom in Austin, in 2009. He also was a founder of the American Journalism Project, which supports local digital newsrooms around the country. Thornton, who had struggled with mental health issues, took his own life. He was 59.
Dan has a Quick Take about our webinar on “The Ethics of Nonprofit News,” which was held the evening of April 3. Panelists gave great advice about what board members and donors need to know, and the video can be found on the website, whatworks.news.