The news Nextdoor

The neighborhood platform Nextdoor is undertaking what CEO Nirav Tolia is calling a fundamental “refounding,” which includes partnerships with 3,500 local publishers in the United States, Canada and the UK that will feed news stories to its users.

The move, writes the AP’s David Bauder, is Nextdoor’s attempt to “shake off an uneven past and a nagging sense it is being underutilized.” 

“We thought in our early days that neighbors would take over, almost as citizen journalists or local reporters,” Tolia told Bauder. “I think we’ve come to the conclusion that neighbors can only do so much.”

The partnerships give local news organizations potentially greater reach and engagement, which is important for small publishers who often face distribution challenges, Jessica Giles, managing director at Code and Theory, told Adweek’s Mark Stenberg. 

“This update is a win-win that gives local news new reach and makes the platform more useful and trustworthy for neighbors who want to more meaningfully engage with the world around them,” she said.

Axios’ Kerry Flynn said Nextdoor is “betting on the value of hyperlocal information.”

Time will tell whether these arrangements will be beneficial for both Nextdoor and local publishers.

In the meantime, Josh Schneps, a publisher of local news in New York who was part of a “soft launch,” told the AP’s Bauder he’s happy to be the “guinea pig” in a media environment that offers “no playbook.”

“My goal is to get our content in front of as many people as possible,” he said.

News In Focus
Headlines, resources and events aligned with API’s four areas of focus.

Civic Discourse & Democracy

>> Rural America and kids will suffer if PBS is defunded, its chief says (The Washington Post) 

A bill before the Senate to eliminate funding for public media poses an “existential threat” to some local member PBS stations, Paula Kerger, the network’s chief, said in a Q & A with The Washington Post’s Scott Nover. If the bill passes, the small stations will be the hardest hit, she says. “If you lose a local newspaper in a small community, someone can come in at another point and start up another local newspaper. But once broadcast licenses are gone, they’re gone,” she said. 

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Culture & Inclusion

>> New from API: Marlene Harris-Taylor joins our team as director of community engagement 

We are excited to announce that Marlene Harris-Taylor will join our team as director of community engagement. Harris-Taylor joins API from Ideastream Public Media in Cleveland where she served as the director of engaged journalism. As director of community engagement, she will continue API’s efforts to drive organizational and cultural transformation while sharpening its commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging and deepen API’s partnerships with community organizations and non-news experts.

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Community Engagement & Trust

>> Immigrant Media: Serving communities at a critical moment (Nieman Reports)

Garry Pierre-Pierre, founder of The Haitian Times, describes the current, difficult moment for publications that serve immigrant communities. They are having to navigate increasing hostility and keep audiences informed about immigration decrees that affect them while also debunking mis- and disinformation in their communities. Moreover, he writes, their advertising base is pulling back out of fear of being targeted. Mainstream media organizations often have legal teams and financial backing to “push back against frivolous lawsuits, fight for access to information, and absorb public funding cuts,” but independent immigrant publications often do not, he writes.

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Revenue & Resilience

>> New from API: Tips for funding reporting beats from The Post and Courier (Better News) 

Here’s an idea to steal and adapt: Look to your community for “funded coverage” of specific beats. At The Post and Courier in South Carolina, funding from donations and philanthropy support 13 staff positions across several multiyear projects: an Education Lab, a Rising Waters Lab for climate stories, and investigations serving the public interest. It is now looking to build its arts and culture coverage as well as its health reporting. API’s Jan Ross P. Sakian gleans lessons from The Post and Courier’s experience and outlines tips for others who might want to tap into foundation and donor support for such projects.

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What else you need to know

🙌 Media Impact Funders names Abby Rapoport as executive director

🪧 A thousand days in, there may be an end in sight for the newsroom strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Nieman Lab)

🤝 Three publishers’ workforce diversity reports show DEI efforts remain sluggish (Digiday)

🥵 What makes heat so hard to cover? (CJR)