What is the future of local news?
Short answer
Smaller, cheaper and more human. I think local news moves to creator-led, fully digital brands run by someone who lives in the town, with in-person events at the center. As AI makes online content harder to trust, people will trust what they know locally. Realtors and creators are already out-reaching legacy outlets on social.
By 2027, I don't think people will trust the internet. That belief is why in-person events sit on my roadmap as a real line item, not a nice-to-have.
Is there still demand for local news?
Yes. The old business model was the problem, not that people stopped caring. It can be reinvented digitally and with AI, and that's exactly what I'm building. See why local newspapers failed.
Who will run local news?
People with a stake in the town. Legacy outlets, if they have writers at all, pay them a salary to do the minimum. An owner-operator who truly cares goes to chamber events, meets business owners and films short-form content locally. Nobody at a legacy outlet is invested enough to do that.
Non-journalists are already moving in. A lot of realtors are starting to do local news in an engaging format, and they're getting way more traction than the outlets doing the reporting. Local content is getting bigger, and real estate agents are figuring it out first.
Why will in-person matter more?
The value of in-person events, even from a pure business perspective, is sky high. We've had 20-plus years of social media and disconnection, COVID made it extreme, and AI is going to make it even worse. If nothing online can be verified, being in the same room is how people know something is real.
"Everybody doing local media needs to be thinking about how to bring people together in person."
Local media owners are well positioned to host those gatherings. People already want it now, and I think they'll want it much more by 2027.
Will legacy local media survive?
Some of it, for longer than people expect. Local media has moral capital: people with money fund it because they believe in it, independent of ROI. And the slowest operators will be the last to feel tech disruption, which buys them years.
The industry around them is old and fragmented. At a local media conference I found software vendors with legacy products and old WordPress builds still claiming hundreds of clients at $200 to $1,000 a month. That tells me there's plenty of room for better tools.
What should a local operator do about it?
- Be human and in the community, giving people what they want in a way nobody who isn't there can.
- Build a full brand around the newsletter, not just a newsletter.
- Put in-person events on the roadmap as a real line item.
- Think long term. Know-like-trust takes time, and if you have it, you're golden.
Answered by TJ Larkin. From Local Media HQ podcast conversations and strategy calls in 2025 and 2026. Last updated .