Helping news entrepreneurs and their communities flourish everywhere
By Amy L. Kovac-Ashley
Ever since Tiny News Collective was founded in 2020, our mission has been to support early-stage news entrepreneurs in underserved communities as they create local and community-rooted news and information enterprises. With so many communities lacking trusted information sources, it has been always important for us to grow to meet the demand of serving many more founders. Thanks to transformative funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, Ford Foundation, Democracy Fund, the Andrew and Julie Klingenstein Family Fund and others, we have been able to grow our team at Tiny News and to serve nascent, small newsrooms in deep, authentic ways.
We are proud of our growth this year, but we are even more proud of the work done by our members, including how they engage communities and cover elections differently. In a challenging political environment, they have shown up for their communities and done the hard work of building trust and making a material difference in the lives of their communities.
Members have also contributed to the success of the Collective community, providing counsel, encouragement and advice to each other and weaving together a beautiful tapestry for which we are grateful and that we couldn’t have imagined back in 2020. As we reflect on the progress Tiny News has made in 2025, we celebrate alongside our members.
Here are a few key 2025 milestones, as we built our internal infrastructure to better serve our membership:
We at TNC have a lot to celebrate in 2025, with the momentum to expand on that progress in 2026 and beyond. None of this would be possible without our incredible members and their work in communities that helps motivate us to push forward together. Here’s to a happy holiday season to the wider journalism community and a healthy new year! 🎊
Fundraising events are becoming an important way for local newsrooms to bring together the community, discuss important issues and raise money for their work. But what if a group of newsrooms collaborated on a fundraising event to help amplify each other’s work and lift all their boats? That was the thinking behind “Small is Beautiful,” a collaborative fundraiser in Wichita by three Tiny News members: The SHOUT, TMBP Media and Planeta Venus.
Latasha Eley Kelly of TMBP Media had already worked with a venue, Chicken N Pickle, that offered to host the event. But as the time for the event grew closer, Latasha and Claudia Amaro of Planeta Venus were worried that they hadn’t had enough lead time to make it a success. Emily Christensen and Teri Mott of The SHOUT were used to doing things on the fly, and they convinced the group to move forward with the November 5 event. The result? They hit their goal of $6,000 raised, with $2,000 per newsroom, along with covering their costs — thanks to the headline sponsor, Knight Foundation. The evening included performances by local artists, a DJ and a silent auction.
Read the story to learn their tips on how other newsrooms might band together to produce a successful collaborative fundraiser.
For our latest “5 Questions with” feature, we caught up with Amy Bushatz (pictured above), founder and editor of Mat-Su Sentinel, a nonprofit online news outlet covering the Matanuska-Susitna Borough in Alaska. Bushatz launched the Sentinel in June 2024, after spending time as a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and executive editor of Military.com.
The Sentinel has focused on accountability reporting while boosting civic engagement with voter guides and an innovative “Flip the Script” event with local candidates. Amy talked about how much support organizations such as Tiny News Collective and other consultants have helped her succeed, and said that this year’s Giving Tuesday fundraising campaign, as part of NewsMatch, was a rousing success, with more than $4,500 raised on that day alone.
Read the whole profile here.
Tiny News Collective is delighted to announce the hiring of our first-ever Collective Fellow, Luisa Suarez, a milestone that reflects our commitment to strengthening the journalism support ecosystem and cultivating the next generation of media leaders. After an extensive search for an early-career professional who embodies curiosity, commitment and a community-driven mindset, TNC selected Luisa for the inaugural role. Her fellowship marks an important step forward as the Collective expands its mission- and member-driven work.
Luisa brings a strong foundation in community engagement and collaborative journalism. Before joining Tiny News, she worked at Resolve Philly, where she managed the Equally Informed Text Line and the Equally Informed Survivors Newsletter — two initiatives designed to connect residents with actionable information. In 2024, she launched an elections text line that helped Philadelphians stay informed and engaged throughout a busy election year.
Read the whole story on Luisa here.
Santa Fe-based collective 505omatic celebrated their first birthday with a party at Chomp Food Hall, including a silent auction, DJ and some yummy cake. Photos by Mark Glaser and Warren Langford (pictured, below, on their trademark orange mic).
🥂There’s so much to celebrate this holiday season among our members, including the following landmark moments:
🏆 The SHOUT won the Arts Organization Award from the Wichita Arts Council for amplifying arts and culture through independent journalism (see photo above).
We also had some launches to celebrate:
🌎Climate, Gendered ran its first news digest. It’s a news project “making it easier to stay present with the wide array of gendered impacts linked to issues like proliferating pollution and rising global temperatures.”
💗La Verne Daily News launched to help serve the community of La Verne, California. It aims to provide “community news you can trust … useful, civic-minded local reporting you won’t find anywhere else, plus a weekly list of curated events.”
📹The VP Chicago released its first informational video. It’s a “Black-led, community-rooted news organization focused on the stories and solutions that matter to residents of Chicago’s South and West sides.”
And some other important milestones:
🫶🏽The Latino Newsletter announced a partnership with El Planeta, Boston’s leading Spanish-language news outlet, designed to enhance access to civic information.
🐺COYOTE Media ran a progress report from its first few months, while making a pitch for new subscribers.
🎁Stumptown Savings launched its first Holiday Gift Guide with its biggest sponsorship yet.
🤝Aging in America News and Tayo partnered for the first time on a series of stories about Filipinos and caregiving: When family means care and The cycle of care. We love when TNC members find creative ways to work together!
👏🏽La Conner Community News has been doing incredible service journalism for its community as it has been inundated with flooding.
📹Estes es la Cosa produced a video about Univision and Telemundo potentially airing messaging from the Department of Homeland Security that fuels fear in Latino communities.
Newsberg created a coloring book (pictured above) as a visual guide to Newberg, Oregon. Last year’s coloring book brought in $3,500 in profits, according to founder Branden Andersen.
We love seeing our TNC founders out in the real world, giving talks, sharing knowledge and getting profiled. Here are some highlights:
💪🏽 Jillian Melero of Connect Puerto Rico joined a panel (pictured above) at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Center for Community Resilience Research Innovation and Advocacy conference. The topic was, “How do we learn from each other as storytellers and communicators to strengthen community resilience?”
👂🏽News Relay Network’s Tenderloin Voice publication was profiled in Editor & Publisher. “We realized it was about listening first — hearing what people actually need and want, and then shaping the newsroom around that,” said co-founder Laura Wenus.
🧠Annemarie Dooling of The Platia had her prediction published in Nieman Lab: “Local News Touches Grass,” writing that “the media will look to immersive experiences to create live information formats that reshape our brains for hope.”
🌊Cara Kuhlman of Future Tides wrote in RJI that journalism-focused tours have different audiences, content and outcomes than typical tourist-related tours. “Tours are a different medium to share news and information, while also listening to our communities,” she writes.
🌟Claudia Amaro of Planeta Venus writes in RJI about Al Otro Lado, a binational organization that defends migrant rights and builds resilience amid policy shifts and humanitarian challenges. “Al Otro Lado stands out for its ability to forge alliances, mobilize volunteers and maintain a vibrant binational support network,” she wrote.
🗳️Amy Bushatz of Mat-Su Sentinel was mentioned in a Democracy Day story about the impact of its grant program. “My audience is eager to encounter community connection events and opportunities for civic participation, and any coverage of these topics does much better than I expect,” she said.
🛡️Ethiopique shared a video showing the impact of their work (see still from video, above) in helping a resident take a cybersecurity class.
💖 El Pais ran a profile story on Julio Ricardo Varela of The Latino Newsletter. “There aren’t enough Latinos in [journalism],” he said. “And I reached a point in my career where I no longer want to convince companies that they should recruit more Latinos. We are the future of this country.”
☝🏽The 51st was mentioned in a story on RJI about decision-making in newsrooms. According to the story, The 51st takes a consensus-driven approach, “but their approach allows team members to respond with one of three options to a proposal: ‘I prefer,’ ‘I tolerate,’ or ‘I block.’”
Community Journalism Fellowship from Altavoz Lab
Altavoz Lab will open applications for its Community Journalist Fellowship on January 16. This seven-month long program launches in April 2026 and brings together a tight-knit cohort of reporters working at the heart of their communities. Fellows will receive up to $8,000 to produce an in-depth reporting project or series, and host newsrooms will receive up to $3,000 in additional funds to deepen and expand their audience engagement. Apply by February 16.
RJI Professional Innovation Fellowship
RJI offers non-residential fellowships with a $75,000 stipend, and the focus is to create a resource, tool or project that will help advance the journalism field and will be open-source. There’s also an emerging technology fellowship with a $100,000 stipend. Attend a webinar on January 8 to learn more. Apply by February 6.
News Media Help Desk from RJI and Local Media Consortium
The Help Desk is a one-stop shop for local media organizations to get digital help. It’s an online resource designed to empower journalists and other roles that support news operations to make meaningful and strategic decisions that lead to the sustainability of local media. You can sign up for their monthly newsletter here.
Future of Nonfiction Video conference by Video Consortium
At the inaugural Future of Nonfiction Video in February 2025, 400+ nonfiction storytellers shared ideas over two days. The next one will take place February 6–8, 2026, in New York City.
Thanks for reading the latest edition of the Big Blast from Tiny News. Be sure to follow us on social media to keep up with the latest from TNC and our amazing group of founders!
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tiny-news-collective/Follow us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/tinynewscollective.bsky.social
The Big Blast Credits
Written by Amy L. Kovac-Ashley, with Mark Glaser
Edited by Amy L. Kovac-Ashley and Erica Perel
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