Helping news entrepreneurs and their communities flourish everywhere

🤝 How six small newsrooms are building trust through listening

By Amy L. Kovac-Ashley

What does it really mean to build a newsroom by listening first, instead of showing up with a plan already in hand? It's a question that sits at the center of an ongoing collaboration between Tiny News Collective and Listening Post Collective (LPC), two organizations that share a belief that resilient local news doesn't come from a template — it comes from the ground up, shaped by what a community actually says it needs.

That belief is what brought Tiny News and LPC together in the first place. Since formalizing our partnership, the two organizations have coordinated support for early-stage news and information leaders, helping them build not just the operational backbone of a newsroom but the muscle of listening itself. Newsrooms treat listening as an ongoing practice rather than a box to check before the "real" reporting begins. 

Together, we’ve written about the goal of creating pathways, not pipelines — which allows communities and grassroots media entrepreneurs to make decisions on the ground about what works best for serving community needs — and that there are many possible ways to build resilient local news providers.

Partners who work with both organizations have said that Tiny News and LPC do a good job building community among peers working in grassroots media, with LPC pairing learning with funding and TNC excelling at operations-building and founder support. Rather than treat that as a footnote, TNC and LPC have leaned into it, comparing notes, sharing what we’re hearing and looking for ways to serve these grassroots organizations better when their support is coordinated instead of siloed.

Giving newsrooms the mic 🎙️

Both organizations are also committed to uplifting the work of the newsrooms we support and shining a light on the news founders as experts — not just talking about listening in the abstract. It means treating listening not as a one-time survey or a single community meeting, but as an evolving practice that looks different in every place it takes root: a rural county in Alabama, a diaspora community in the D.C. area, a bilingual newsroom near the U.S.-Mexico border.

That's exactly the spirit behind an upcoming event: Instead of Tiny News and LPC talking about listening, it's time to hand the microphone to the newsrooms actually doing it. On July 30 at 3 p.m. ET, TNC and LPC will bring together six community news outlets for a special 75-minute webinar exploring what it looks like to make listening a core part of a newsroom's practice. The conversation will feature six tiny newsrooms:

• Black Belt News Network, serving five rural counties in Alabama
• Connect Puerto Rico, covering renewable energy development in Puerto Rico
• Ethiopique, serving an Ethiopian diaspora community
• The 51st, covering the Washington, D.C., area
• The Edge, located in Berea and Madison County, Kentucky
• Tucson Spotlight, bilingual coverage of Southern Arizona

We invite you to register here for the July 30 webinar and to share it with friends and colleagues.

TNC IRL

Summer is a time of many conferences and convenings, and we’ve had a chance to see some of our members out and about. We can’t help but take photos of their smiling faces, and we wanted to share a small collage with you all. 

TNC News

How small newsrooms are using AI — and their tips on effective use

Lost amid the contentious conversations about the use of artificial intelligence tools in news are the experiences of tiny startup newsrooms — those led by a solopreneur or small team. This group faces extreme time and capacity limitations during the fragile startup phase, as they wear all the hats for their small news businesses. That’s where AI can offer tangible benefits: automating tasks, doing structured copy-editing, helping with research, creating systems such as lightweight fundraising pitches or advertising CRMs and creating data-based products and tools. 

In some cases, it can even serve an important role as a “thought partner” for startup founders.

“Some colleagues and I were discussing how AI is, in a way, filling in for the loss of newsroom conversations that one would have had with coworkers,” said Jillian Melero of Connect Puerto Rico. “So many of us work remotely, either as independent journalists or as solo founders. For better or worse, a lot of us are using AI to replace the conversations we're missing by not having colleagues and coworkers to collaborate with.”

We connected with a half-dozen TNC members to learn about how they use AI, and asked them for tips on how other newsrooms like them might approach the technology. Many were wary about AI misuse or overuse that could lead to errors, along with the intense energy and water use required to power AI systems.

Read the whole story here.

🏆 9 Tiny News members are 2026 LION Awards finalists

As Tiny News Collective expands with more member newsrooms, so does the recognition they are receiving in the wider local news world. Last year, four TNC members were finalists for LION Sustainability Awards, and this year that number is up to nine members! It’s inspiring to see so many of our members making a difference in their communities, strengthening their businesses and being recognized as leaders in the field.

Here is the full list of TNC finalists:

• Oxford Free Press: LION Business of the Year, Micro/Small Revenue Tier
• COYOTE Media Collective: New LION Business of the Year
• La Conner Community News: New LION Business of the Year
• Crosswinds News: Operational Resilience Award and the Community Engagement Award, Micro/Small Revenue Tier
• Mat-Su Sentinel: Financial Health Award, Micro/Small Revenue Tier
• Caribbean Television Network: Community Engagement Award, Micro/Small Revenue Tier
• Tucson Spotlight: Collaboration of the Year, Micro/Small Revenue Tier
• Ethiopique: Product of the Year, Micro/Small Revenue Tier
• Claudia Amaro (Planeta Venus): Community Member of the Year

Congratulations to all of this year's finalists! Read more about them here.

Sign up for an AMA to learn about Tiny News

Want to learn more about Tiny News Collective? You’ll have a chance in two weeks when our executive director Amy Kovac-Ashley will run an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session on August 4 at 3 p.m. ET. She’ll walk through what membership actually looks like, who it’s for and how founders are using TNC to build community-rooted newsrooms. Whether you’re pre-launch, early stage or just exploring your options, this is a chance to hear directly from our team and get honest answers. Register here!

Founder Shoutouts

Launches, birthdays and awards 🌟

Birthdays are a big deal at Tiny News. They show the staying power of our startup newsrooms. This month we are celebrating:

• The second birthday of Southpoint Access, covering South Durham, N.C., and also running a special birthday fundraiser with a goal of raising $5,000 from 100 neighbors. 
• The ninth birthday of eShe, covering South Asian women’s stories, and now expanding into local coverage of Seattle and Washington, D.C.
• The second birthday of the award-winning Oxford Free Press, which was profiled in Columbia Journalism Review earlier this year.

💰Marissa Evans of Chisholm Free Press received a $10,000 grant from IRE through the Koch Continuum Grant program, and will investigate the existence and impact of pain policies in U.S. hospitals.

🏅 Black Belt News Network and the Selma Sun won 16 awards, including nine first-place honors, at the Alabama Press Association Media Awards. The award-winning work spans investigative reporting, breaking news, business reporting, multimedia, podcasting, video and social media.

🎥Tenay Mathis of Sahnte Jean Weekly screened a preview of the Battle for the Bids docuseries in Harlem, New York, on July 12, about the Boston University men’s basketball team and their recovery from the COVID-19 season.

Landmark moments ✨

📰 Newsberg published its first full newsprint edition (see cover above) as a tabloid paper with 16 pages (8 color), with 2,000 copies distributed at a local festival. The edition was paid for with a grant, and advertisers helped make it a profitable endeavor. 

📈 Harvey World Herald hired its first full-time reporter, Catherine Adams, and is also planning to hire its first development manager. Adams will also focus on community engagement efforts.

🔥 Neustro Estado published its first story in three languages — Portuguese, English and Spanish — about a local Latino resident who risked his life to rescue two teenagers from a burning truck. The story led to more than $20,000 being raised on a GoFundMe page for the hero.

🐺 COYOTE Media passed 5,000 paid and free subscribers in early July. Co-founder Soleil Ho ate “an extra fancy pluot today” (specifically a Flavor Queen Pluot!) in celebration.

Speaking up and speaking out 🗣️

💡 At SRCCON, Annemarie Dooling of The Platia (pictured at top) and Nora Hertel of Project Optimist (pictured below at right) facilitated two sessions about their work: Civic journalism, community organizing and how we build movement against the tide (Annemarie) and News startup as laboratory: Transformative thinking and programming (Nora). Our on-the-spot photographer (Amy L. Kovac-Ashley) says they were fantastic. Amy also co-facilitated a session: Let’s talk about values.

🎙️ Laura Amico of Scene in Boston, who was a 2013 Nieman Fellow, wrote a first-person account for Nieman Reports about the origins and success of her new podcast. “Journalism is full of small things that become second nature only through practice,” she concludes.

✨ The Tenderloin Voice got a shout-out in the News Alchemists newsletter: “It's been really special to follow the team in their quest to find their role in the community, driven by a commitment to ‘serve the people who live and work in the neighborhood’ by ‘empowering community members to tell their stories themselves.’” The Voice also gets kudos for being open and honest about a one-month break they are taking this summer. 🌴

💖 Staci Baird of La Verne Daily News (pictured in the collage above) wrote a heartfelt piece about how starting the news outlet after moving back to town was as important for her as it was for the community. “Every story introduced me to someone I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise. Looking back, I realize journalism became my way of finding community,” she wrote.

⁉️ The 51st was cited in a Nieman Lab story focused on INN Days lightning talks about producing live events. The 51st has produced five trivia events, “Ask a D.C. Native, Live!” over the past 15 months, with three more planned this year, connecting with a more diverse audience and driving newsletter signups.

Stories with impact 💥

🏠 Elise Cox of Mendo Local wrote about an 81-year-old woman who faces eviction as part of a series about the hidden housing crisis facing the oldest residents of Mendocino County (Calif.).

🏷️ Bryan M. Vance of Stumptown Savings wanted to find out about pricing at the 13 WinCo grocery stores around Portland. So he checked pricing and found quite a lot of variation though no proof of price gouging.

🛶 Cara Kuhlman of Future Tides wrote about the long-awaited return of Native canoe culture back to Seattle, with a new Northwest Native Canoe Center (with a canoe-launching beach) opening in the fall.

Resources

Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice Grants from IMWF
The International Women’s Media Foundation is providing grants to support reporting by women and non-binary journalists focused on reproductive rights in Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States. These grants support reporting of untold stories surrounding issues that impact people’s daily lives in the region. Apply by August 2.

California Civic Media Program
Grants of up to $250,000 for California-based newsrooms, determined by a pro-rata formula based on journalist headcount and a needs-based set-aside to adjust awards for organizations whose impact exceeds what headcount alone reflects. Organizations with less than one full-time employee can still apply for the program and are eligible for up to $40,000 in funding through the needs-based adjustment. Apply by August 21.

Reporting on Families Impacted by Incarceration from Poynter
August 4 to October 6
Learn how to report on the hidden impact of incarceration on children, parents, guardians and communities. Attend three free webinars and become eligible to apply for reporting grants worth up to $10,000. Hear from formerly incarcerated people and expert journalists, and learn trauma-informed interviewing and ethical reporting techniques.

Emergency Mode for News from OpenNews, Newspack and NC Local
The resource equips local journalists and their newsrooms with the tools they need to respond to climate disasters. With a disaster reporting action pack, software and a learning community, Emergency Mode is designed to help journalists act nimbly and creatively to serve their communities when the unexpected happens.

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. 
Follow us on Bluesky. 

The Big Blast Credits

Written by Amy L. Kovac-Ashley, with Mark Glaser
Edited by Amy L. Kovac-Ashley