Episode 116: Zuri Berry
What Works: The Future of Local News
Dan and Ellen talk with , the executive editor of in Montgomery County, Maryland. He's also a Boston Globe colleague of Ellen's from days of yore. Zuri is one of those journalists who's done a little bit of everything. We're talking reporter, columnist, video producer, digital editor, radio host, audio editor — over more than two decades in this business. And he's got an MBA from the McColl School of Business at Queens University of Charlotte on top of all that, which is a combination you don't always see in a newsroom leader. He was deputy managing editor at the , and managing editor...
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Episode 115: Barbara "Bob" Allen
What Works: The Future of Local News
On this episode, Ellen Clegg and Dan Kennedy talk with Barbara "Bob" Allen, an LA-based journalist, trainer and consultant who founded in 2025. The site provides resources and news for journalism educators and student media advisers across the country. Allen is also the editor of the , a brand-new national news desk covering the state of the college press. The debut piece — — lays out the financial and free-press challenges facing campus newsrooms. Allen also writes the weekly . Allen brings decades of experience mentoring student journalists. She was adviser to the student...
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Episode 114: Dale Anglin
What Works: The Future of Local News
Dan and Ellen talk with , the inaugural executive director of , a philanthropic effort that is dedicated to funding local news initiatives nationwide. Before she was named as the leader of Press Forward, Anglin served as a vice president for grantmaking at the . She also led the foundation's journalism strategy. Then and now, she focuses on as a way to restore a sense of community. Dan has a Quick Take on , one of the most prominent nonprofit digital startups. It looks like readers of The Washington Post who live in the DC area may not be deprived of local news and sports after all despite...
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Episode 113: Charlie Sennott and Alexis Algazy
What Works: The Future of Local News
Dan and Ellen talk with , a former foreign correspondent at The Boston Globe who left in 2008 to become a serial entrepreneur. He co-founded Global Post and The Ground Truth Project. Ground Truth, a nonprofit, was a partner to GBH News, FRONTLINE, PRX The World, and the PBS NewsHour. It focused on partnerships to amplify international and national news projects. Now, Charlie has turned his attention to local news. He teamed up with Steve Waldman to launch as an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Dan and Ellen talked with Waldman on an . Sennott's newest creation is GroundTruth Media...
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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...
info_outlineDan and Ellen talk with Rahul Bhargava, a colleague at Northeastern University. Rahul is a professor who crosses boundaries: the boundaries of storytelling and data, the boundaries of deep dives into collaborative research and interactive museum exhibits and plays.
He holds a master's degree in media arts and science from MIT, and a bachelor's degree in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. But he also minored in multimedia production. He brings the power of big data research to the masses, through newsroom workshops, interactive museum exhibits, and more. Rahul has collaborated with groups in Brazil, in Minnesota and at the World Food Program. He helps local communities use data to understand their world, and as a tool for change. There's more to data than just bar charts. Sometimes it involves forks! His book, "Community Data," unlocks all sorts of secrets.
Dan and Ellen also talk with Lisa Thalhamer, a longtime TV journalist who is now a graduate student at Northeastern. Lisa realized that like many fields, journalism suffers from a gap between academic research and its implementation in workplaces. She is finding ways to bridge that gap, and urges an Avenger's-style team to lift up the work of a free press.
Ellen has a Quick Take on a recent visit to Santa Barbara, California, and the efforts to revive a legacy paper, the Santa Barbara News-Press. Dan's Quick Take is about the latest development from the National Trust for Local News. It involves a chain of weekly papers in Colorado — their very first acquisition dating back to 2021. And it’s not good news at all for the journalists who work at those papers and the communities they serve.