Sarabeth Berman: Saving Democracy with Nonprofit News

On this episode of The PlayFull Podcast, host Kristine Michie welcomes Sarabeth Berman, CEO of the American Journalism Project, for an energizing and timely conversation on the future of local news. From joy-filled convenings to real-world impact through nonprofit journalism, Sarabeth brings clarity, creativity, and hope to one of democracy’s most urgent challenges. This is a story about rebuilding trust, reimagining sustainability—and finding room for play along the way.

Key Takeaways:

• Funders and community leaders can drive the revitalization of civic engagement by supporting nonprofit local newsrooms that prioritize sustainability and local accountability.
• Prioritize building business and operational capacity—along with editorial excellence—when investing in media, to ensure long-term viability of local journalism.
• Community listening, surveys, and focus groups ensure that local news initiatives align content with community needs.
• Resilient news organizations combine multiple revenue streams—reader support, advertising, events, and philanthropy—to ensure their strength and independence.
• Nonprofit newsrooms can integrate stories of local joy, innovation, and creativity to deepen community connection and counter the dominance of negative headlines.
• Independent news outlets can encourage collaborative models—like content sharing and co-publishing—to maximize impact without duplicating efforts.
• Recognize and use local journalism as a tool to reduce polarization, strengthen middle-ring social ties, and elevate issue-based civic discourse beyond party lines.

"We need to be really not precious about the format... we need to be really creative about how we’re getting news and information into people’s hands." — Sarabeth Berman

"The decline of local news is making us less civically engaged... and communities without local news are far more polarized." — Sarabeth Berman

"People know that there’s really good things happening in their community, but they only read about the bad things." — Sarabeth Berman

Episode References: 

AJPalooza 2025: https://www.theajp.org/ajpalooza25/

Signal Ohio: https://signalohio.org/

Spotlight PA: https://www.spotlightpa.org/

The Marshall Project: https://www.themarshallproject.org/

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