Moderator: Melissa Davis, Press Forward
The Last News Frontier: How Public Media Staves Off News Deserts
Claire Powell (University of Missouri); Stan Jastrzebski (University of Missouri); Nick Mathews (University of Missouri)
Beyond Philanthropy: Rethinking Policy Rationales, Public Service Media, and the Limits of Donor-Funded Local Journalism
Susan Abbott (Cross Pollinate Consulting)
Public Media Under Pressure: Measuring Real-Time Policy Impacts on Local Journalism and Programming Output
Alex Curley (Semipublic)
"You Have to be a Swiss Army Knife”: Local Newsroom Integration of Vertical Video Journalism
Betsy Broaddus (University of Washington)
Moderator: Andrea Lorenz (Kent State University)
Funding Civic Information Capabilities, Not Newsrooms: A JTBD Framework with Comparative Cases
Madison Karas (Gazzetta); Patrick Boehler (Gazzetta)
Bridging the Gap: Aligning Funder Goals and Newsroom Realities in Philanthropic Support for Local Journalism
Damian Radcliffe (University of Oregon)
Unlocking Government Advertising as Civic Infrastructure: A Scalable Policy Lever for Local Journalism Resilience
Maya Chupkov (Common Cause)
(Finally!) an Anti-Trust Lever Against Private Equity in Local News: Why Texas v. BlackRock May Be the Most Important Case You’ve Never Heard Of
Margot Susca (American University)
Moderator: Chuck Corra (LION Publishers)
Lower Level Atrium
A New Methodology for Mapping Local News Landscapes: Broadening the Scope of “Who Counts” and Leveraging AI to Better Understand Local News Provision
Sarah Stonbely (Tow Center); Michael Krisch (Brown Institute); Dhrumil Mehta or C.J. Robinson (Tow Center)
Reforming Public Subsidy: Evidence on Corporate Ownership and Newsroom Proximity's Impact on Local News
Simona Bisiani (University of Surrey); Heravi Bahareh (University of Surrey); Sarah Stonbely (Tow Center)
A Community-Centered Approach to Ecosystem Mapping
Letrell Crittenden (Temple University); Andrea Wenzel (Temple University); Nina Kelly (Temple University); Sydney
Boeger (Temple University); Derrick Cain, Temple University
Voicing Critical Information Insufficiency: Development and Validation of Survey Instruments for Critical Information Needs
Andrea Lorenz (Kent State University)
Measuring what Matters: Developing Shared Approaches to Assessing Local Journalism Employment and Infrastructure
Jennifer Henrichsen (Washington State University)
Moderator: Sean Ewing (Florida Gulf Coast University)
Is Local News Always Good? The Impact of Local News Provision on Residential Equilibria
Jaeyong (Danny) Han (Arizona State University)
Judges and the Decline of the Watchdog
Asa Royal (Harvard University), Patton Chen (Harvard University)
Political Fragmentation, Public Opinion, and News Supply: A Place-Based Approach to Understanding Affect, Polarization, and Declines in Local Journalism
Nik Usher (University of San Diego)
Segmenting U.S. Local and National News Audiences
Kirsten Eddy (Pew Research Center); Elisa Shearer (Pew Research Center)
Nonprofit News and Pennsylvania’s Local Journalism Ecosystem Under Strain: Promises and Limits
Aaron Hyzen (University of Pennsylvania); David Elliot Berman (Seton Hall University); Victor Pickard (University of
Pennsylvania)
Moderator: Heesoo Jang (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
Duke in DC Rooftop
Terrace
Lower Level Atrium
Lower Level Room 1
The Agentic AI Journalist-Community Facilitator: An Interdisciplinary Framework for Equitable Political Reporting in Local News involving Diasporic Communities
Pallavi Guha (Towson University)
Money Can’t Buy a Media Ecosystem: What Liechtenstein’s Media Crisis Teaches the U.S. about Local News Sustainability
Patrick Boehler (Gazzetta); Gerald Hosp (Zukunft.li)
The Black Press and Advocacy Journalism as Reaction to the Failures of Local Mainstream Journalism
Christoph Mergerson (University of Maryland)
Moderator: Terry Parris, Jr. (Stanford University)
Jerry Zremski (University of Maryland)
Betsy Edwards (Virginia Press Association/Virginia Local News Project)
Rebecca Snyder (Maryland | Delaware | DC Press Association)
Matt Pearce (Rebuild Local News)
Lower Level Atrium
Designing Public Policy that Reaches Independent Local Newsrooms
Chuck Corra (LION Publishers)
Saving the Market, Not the News: A Political Economic Critique of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act
Sydney Forde (University of Pennsylvania); Duru Su Kadıoğlu (University of Pennsylvania)
Saving Local News: Evidence from State Policy Interventions
Sean Ewing (Florida Gulf Coast University)
The Case for Intervention: The influence of Government Funding and Support on Editorial Resilience and News Quality
Joy Jenkins (University of Missouri)
Preventing News Deserts Through Improved Monitoring: Tracking the Health of Local News Ecosystems and Using Diagnostic Surveys of Local Publishers
Benjamin Toff (University of Minnesota)
Moderator: Damian Radcliffe (University of Oregon)
Conference Room
Libraries as Civic Information Infrastructure
Terry Parris, Jr. (Stanford University)
Case Studies in Library-Journalism Partnerships
Andrea Lorenz (Kent State University)
Student Journalists as Government-Supported News Workers: A Conceptual Reframing
Jocelyn McKinnon-Crowley (Syracuse University)
A Public Health Approach to Rethinking Policy's Role in Journalism
Stephanie Devitt (SDK Strategic Services)
Colleges and Universities as a Key a Role in Local Media Public Policy
Corey Hutchins (Colorado College)
Moderator: Asa Royal (Harvard University)
Lower Level Atrium
Rescuing the Watchdog Without Leashing It: First Amendment Constraints on Government Support for Local Journalism in an AI Era
Israel Balderas (Elon University)
Lessons from the Platform Era for AI Governance: The Infrastructural Dependency Trap in Local Journalism
Heesoo Jang (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
The Zero-Click Model's War on Journalism: How AI Overviews are Squashing Publisher Revenues
Anastasia Micich (Check My Ads Institute)
AI, Local Journalism, and Civic Reciprocity: An Analysis of US State-Level Bargaining Frameworks and Policy Recommendations for North Carolina
Angela Chen (Duke University)
Moderator: Betsy Broaddus (University of Washington)
Sima Bhowmik (University of Vermont)
Anna Brugmann (NPR)
Benjamin Cooley (University of Vermont)
Lower Level Atrium
Lower Level Room 1