Helping news entrepreneurs and their communities flourish everywhere
By Amy L. Kovac-Ashley
As a national organization with members in 27 states, plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, we at TNC do a lot of our work virtually — hosting training sessions, coaching members, meeting with partners. Some days I can be on 7-10 video or phone calls, zooming from one meeting to the next where my experience of people is primarily two-dimensional. A recent visit to Wichita to see our TNC members (in all three dimensions!) was a refreshing change of scenery and a wonderful reminder of the value of proximity when doing challenging, rewarding work.
I was there to facilitate strategy and goal-setting sessions with Latasha Eley Kelly (TMBP Media), Claudia Yaujar-Amaro (Planeta Venus) and Emily Christensen and Teri Mott (The SHOUT), all funded through the Wichita Foundation and Press Forward Wichita. We met at the foundation’s downtown headquarters, Latasha’s bookstore Left on Read (see the feature photo above) and Claudia, Emily and Teri’s shared workspace nearby. We were quickly able to go deep in our discussions of what’s working, what isn’t and what they need. We made more progress in a few hours together than we could have in multiple video calls over weeks or months.
Beyond seeing their environment up close, I witnessed how this group of founders supports one another, through sharing ideas for revenue opportunities, referring readers and listeners to each other’s work or just having someone physically nearby to talk to. They show up for each other all the time, something that is especially needed during this time of political and economic uncertainty.
As we build our membership, with deeper roots in places across the country, we want to nurture IRL community alongside the virtual one we tend to. The richness of being together can be experienced in many ways, and it’s one reason why we wanted to support members to attend industry conferences through our Spark Fund, among other professional development opportunities. For example, some of our members met for the first time in person at the Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit in Philadelphia (see photo above), with our own Madison Karas presenting about our work on impact metrics.
Staff sometimes facilitate these gatherings, at the same time that we also want to equip and encourage members to self-organize. We see the latter happening in various ways: Members in the DMV (District-Maryland-Virginia) area — The 51st, Aging in America, Ethiopique and Intersection Magazine — are starting to plan an in-person summer meetup. Currently on our community Slack, there’s an ongoing conversation among founders about who is attending NAHJ, SRCCON and other conferences this summer and how they can connect in person. That’s the Collective at work, with mutual aid happening in real life and in real time.
For anyone interested in an IRL experience with our staff, I invite you to find me at INN Days next week in Minneapolis, where I’ll facilitate a lightning talks session on new impact metrics on the afternoon of June 4. Those attending the Media Impact Forum in Philadelphia on June 10 can say hello to Erica Perel, our operations director.
Finally, since this is the season of summer reading recommendations, I want to pass along a title that is on brand for this love letter to IRL experiences: Team Human by Douglas Rushkoff — a real book, not one hallucinated by AI. The book is a thoughtful look at what makes us human, how we can lean into our humanity in an age of warp speed technological advances and why we should love the messiness and quirkiness of what it means to be human.
For our latest “5 Questions with…” feature, we caught up with Cara Kuhlman, who founded Future Tides in 2021 to combine her love for journalism with the maritime world. Future Tides covers how people “work, play and live on the Pacific Northwest’s waterways” to help connect the maritime community. Cara talked about her interest in sailing and previously living on a boat, her walking tours around Seattle waterways, and the first Future Tides meetup at the recent Seattle Boat Show.
“I’m excited to be a 2025-26 RJI Fellow which will support my continued exploration and experimentation with these tours,” she said. “It will also allow me to help other publishers. After the upcoming tour season, I will produce a digital guidebook to help other newsrooms explore tours as a way to generate revenue, engage communities and share their reporting.”
Read the whole feature here.
Tiny News Collective is offering a new Immediate Needs Fund to support emergent, urgent or unexpected financial needs of our members. Grants are $5,000 each and are supported by funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. It’s the second grant opportunity for TNC members this year, after the Spark Fund for professional development.
This kind of funding is particularly necessary in today’s political and economic climate. Examples of how founders might use the funds include replacing lost revenues, operational needs such as staff safety and security, or new equipment or software. The opportunity is limited to one organization per year.
TNC will use outside reviewers to evaluate applications to the fund. If you are interested in supporting the TNC community by being a reviewer, please contact Erica Perel.
This month, Tiny News Collective began a partnership with the Institute for Nonprofit News to offer startup sessions to anyone interested in learning more about creating a news and information outlet. In the sessions, we discuss the audience and business factors to consider and the practical next steps along the journey of becoming a news founder. Attendees also learn more about TNC and INN.
Register here for the sessions, where you can see all our summer dates. Please share the link with anyone you know who might be interested in learning about creating an independent news organization. The more the merrier!
We love to see our members get the recognition they deserve for their good work. This month, there was a LOT to celebrate! 🎊
🏅Amethyst J. Davis of Harvey World Herald won the People’s Choice Award (in a tie!) at Public Narrative’s Community Media Awards (see image above, courtesy of Jason Tompkins).
💰Black Belt News Network, The Edge, Tucson Spotlight and Organ Mountain News received Civic Media Playbook grants from Listening Post Collective.
🐯Claudia Yaujar-Amaro of Planeta Venus and Cara Kuhlman of Future Tides were both named 2025-26 RJI Fellows at the University of Missouri. (Go Tigers!)
🌟Nancy Flores of Austin Vida was nominated by the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for the inaugural Latina Legacy Award. Nancy and her associate editor Isadora Day recently graduated from Leadership Austin’s Discover Central Texas cohort.
🏆Black Belt News Network’s Selma Sun won 11 awards from the Alabama Press Association for their work in 2024.
🥇The 51st contributed to a collaborative series about the opioid epidemic produced by the Baltimore Banner, New York Times and Big Local News that won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. The 51st and Ethiopique are SPJ-DC Dateline Awards Finalists for their collaboration on immigration coverage.
It’s wonderful to see our TNC founders out in the real world, giving talks, getting quoted and showing up in their communities. Here are some recent and upcoming highlights:
🗣️Jai Smith from Lehigh Daily will speak on a panel, “Beyond the Newsroom: Lessons in Trust & Engagement from the Creator Economy” at Media Impact Forum on June 10. (Please say hello and give some love to Jai in person if you will be at the event.)
💬Nora Hertel from Project Optimist will co-lead a session at SRCCON on July 10 called, “Community conversations at a crossroads: What works and doesn’t in events meant to bridge divides?” (Please say hello and give some love to Nora and her team if you will be at SRCCON.)
📷Wichita newsrooms The SHOUT, TMBP Media and Planeta Venus got some good ink (and a photo!) in a Press Forward story about Press Forward Wichita and its partnership with TNC.
Our founders are constantly expanding their work into new realms and making an impact in their communities in all kinds of creative ways. Here are some recent examples:
🛣️Ethiopique is now an Adopt a Road partner in Montgomery County, Maryland. The program promotes civic pride and a clean environment. Ethiopique will be responsible for helping to keep a stretch of road clear of trash and litter in an area of the county known as Little Ethiopia. On May 31, the publication will sponsor a community cleanup in the area.
💥The Edge reported on its impact and expansion, with views doubling in the past 30 days to more than 22,000, the hire of a new reporter and an announcement of new paid subscription tiers.
🚀The Latino Newsletter received its official 501(c)3 nonprofit status from the IRS and will celebrate its first anniversary in June.
💪Delonte Harrod of The Intersection Magazine and Martin Austermuhle of The 51st were trainers and mentors for the Community Journalism program from HumanitiesDC. (See pics and more here.)
Digital Security Fundamentals from RJI, June 3 at noon ET
The 90-minute virtual training will teach you: security risk assessment skills; locking down accounts, apps and work devices; how to conduct secure communications with colleagues and sources, and more. Participants will also receive a resource pack that provides materials covered along with links to further resources.
AI Training Sessions from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
For CZI’s final month of programming, it is partnering with Rose Afriyie for sessions on AI. This series will guide your organization in the fundamentals of AI usage in your work. CZI weekly training sessions are open to everyone and accessible for individuals at all skill levels. All sessions are led in English with simultaneous Spanish interpretation.
Radically Rural Summit in Keane, N.H., October 7–9
The annual conference for rural business includes sessions focused on local journalism.
News Product Alliance Summit in Chicago, October 23–24
The summit is a high-impact, hands-on event where participants actively engage in shaping the future of news. For the first time, the valued virtual gathering will take place with an immersive, face-to-face experience. You can apply for a free ticket here by May 31.
Great journalism conferences this summer and fall
Get out and network at these upcoming conferences: INN Days (June 3–5), National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) (July 9–12), Asian American Journalist Association (AAJA) (July 30–August 3), National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) (August 6–10), Indigenous Media Conference (August 13–15), The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists (NLGJA) (September 4–7).
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!
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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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