Helping news entrepreneurs and their communities flourish everywhere
By Amy L. Kovac-Ashley
Election season is upon us, and although it might be an “off year” for national politics, it’s always an important time for locals who have elections for mayor, city council, board of education and much more. And who can you count on to demystify those races and give you insight into the candidates? Your friendly neighborhood local news outlet.
By their nature, Tiny News members are small and scrappy and like to get creative. It’s not your typical grandfather’s election coverage with sleepy town halls and shallow debates. Instead, TNC members have been focusing on conversations with candidates, and even quiz shows, to help connect communities to politicians, with a dash of civic humor.
Here are three examples of newsrooms doing things a little differently this election season:
Video from the Santa Fe Mayoral Quiz Show produced by 505omatic on August 21, 2025
These examples show how news startups can break the mold of traditional, staid election forums and create new events that showcase their personality while serving the public in deeper ways. The humor and community connection that can come with these events is a salve during a time that can feel heavy and overwhelming. We hope to see more creative election coverage, especially in the upcoming local and national elections next year, and we are so glad to see TNC members cultivating this kind of civic engagement and participation.
🗣️TNC around town: Erica Perel of TNC will be in Charleston, West Virginia, for a Narrative Change event on November 7, speaking on a panel with Crystal Good of Black by God | The West Virginian.
Tiny News is delighted to fund 13 newsrooms from the Spark Fund this fall, each receiving $750 to $1,000 for a total of $12,750:
These grants will help support training for members in areas such as podcasting, photography and accounting. The funding also helped members attend conferences put on by the Online News Association, LION Publishers and the News Product Alliance.
Congratulations to our grantee newsrooms! 💖
Read the whole story here.
With the devastating effects of corporate chains and hedge fund-owned local newspapers, there’s been a countervailing trend toward worker-led newsrooms, either as cooperatives, collectives or self-directed nonprofits. At Tiny News, there are now six worker-led newsrooms, including The 51st, COYOTE Media Collective, 505omatic, Southlander, Autonomy News and Kaheāwai Media — with more on the way.
As the field of worker-led newsrooms grows, often inspired by pioneers such as Defector Media, there’s still a lot of mystery about how these publishers operate, how they make decisions and how they become sustainable for the long term. We talked with Maddie Poore, one of the cofounders of The 51st (which serves Washington, D.C. and just celebrated its first birthday!), and Soleil Ho, a partner at COYOTE (which serves the San Francisco Bay Area), about their journeys launching their respective publications.
Here are four tips to starting a worker-led newsroom.
Understanding data is one thing. Knowing what to do with it is quite another. The first cohort of hyper-local news organizations in the Tiny Vitals coaching program bridged that gap, pairing data-driven insights with personalized guidance to experiment with audience development and integrate data into daily workflows to connect editorial efforts with revenue strategies.
As part of the Tiny Vitals Metric Lab, the program paired each newsroom with a coach who guided them through experiments, shared best practices and helped track measurable outcomes.
For many, the program started with modest goals but quickly expanded into deeper explorations of how data and structured experiments could inform decisions, strengthen workflows and connect audiences more intentionally to their reporting. After completing their coaching, the cohort came together to present Lightning Talks, where participants shared lessons, discussed emerging challenges and celebrated early wins.
Read about the lessons learned from Tiny Vitals.
Understanding what metrics matter — and how to leverage them — is essential for any news organization, but charting a smart course relies heavily on the stage of your publication’s lifecycle. That was the central message of a recent Tiny Vitals workshop led by journalist, newsroom consultant and Tiny Vitals coach Sarah Day Owen Wiskirchen.
Drawing on her experience founding Raleigh Convergence, a local news startup in North Carolina, Wiskirchen walked participants through lessons she learned as a solo publisher, along with strategies she now recommends for emerging outlets.
Learn more about metrics strategies for small newsrooms.
As we look to the fifth anniversary of the founding of Tiny News Collective, we enter a new season. We started our work slowly and deliberately, ensuring that we were testing and adapting to the evolving needs of early-stage startup founders. Since then, the Collective has grown in the number of staff and members and in impact through our services and support. Now in 2025, it is only fitting that we set out a course for our continued growth and development so that we can meet the moment of this time of substantial transition — with our values guiding our work.
We are excited to share what’s next for the Collective. This plan and our four priority areas will guide us through the end of 2027, and we invite you to become part of our journey.
Read the whole plan here.
🏆 Awards and grants
We love to see our members get the recognition and funding they deserve. 🎊
🌟Tayo is being honored with the American Public Health Association (APHA)’s Asian and Pacific Islander Caucus for Public Health (APIC) 2025 Community Leader Award.
💰The Latino Newsletter announced a $300,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to expand its San Juan bureau and produce “American Colony,” a bilingual podcast series about Puerto Rico's long and fractured relationship with the United States.
We love seeing our TNC founders out in the real world, giving talks, getting quoted and showing up in their communities. Here are some highlights:
💡Planeta Venus, TMBP Media and The SHOUT will showcase the work they are doing in Wichita at the “Small is Beautiful” community and fundraising event on November 5 (see graphic above).
💖Austin Vida was profiled by KVUE-TV during Hispanic Heritage Month. “I felt it was time to step up and tell the stories that were happening in our community,” said Austin Vida editor and publisher Nancy Flores.
🙌🏽Leezel Tanglao wrote in Nonprofit Quarterly about the story of how Tayo was launched to counter disinformation in the Filipino American diaspora community. Tayo also recently helped organize meetups in Philadelphia and Detroit.
⚖️Claudia Amaro of Planeta Venus wrote in RJI Online about the scourge of fake lawyers who take advantage of immigrants and give them bad advice on becoming citizens. “Responsible reporting means telling the stories of those who have been harmed and guiding communities toward safe and reliable legal assistance,” she wrote.
👏🏽Stumptown Savings was mentioned in a Nieman Lab story about local newsletters and how they differ from typical journalism.
🧪News Relay Network was mentioned in the News Alchemists newsletter, which lauded their community listening ahead of posting any stories, taking the audience into account.
The 51st in Washington, D.C., celebrated its first birthday in style with readers and community members. The evening included a DJ, a D.C. flag-decorating station, an opportunity to purchase some hot-off-the-presses merch and time for community connection and celebration. Here's to many more birthdays to come!
TNC members report on stories that make a difference in their communities. Here are some noteworthy stories:
💸Stumptown Savings had two impactful stories: a grocery store price tracker that shows what it costs to buy groceries in Portland (see graphic above); and a guide to navigating food assistance programs, shopping strategically and finding senior discounts.
📹The Southlander produced a mini-documentary about Narciso Barranco, a man detained by ICE for 24 days after being violently arrested. “Hope is the only thing that keeps you alive,” he said.
🔎Investigate L.A. reported on a clerk with the City of Industry who denied access to public records for reporters and members of the public on multiple occasions, possibly in violation of public records laws.
⭐Autonomy News teamed up with Mother Jones for a story about how anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers have been touting an abortion pill “reversal” that turns out to be a hoax. Autonomy News also ran a guide on which Planned Parenthood clinics were still seeing Medicaid patients.
🚨Esta es la Casa produced a video interview with GALEO Impact Fund executive director Jerry Gonzalez to discuss how ICE and immigration enforcement has sowed fear in Georgia Latino communities. “When the community is afraid, there is less participation in everything that has to do with society,” he said.
💉Tayo released a public service announcement video, “Mag Vax Tayo,” to provide vaccine confidence in the Filipino community through three interconnected stories.
🎶2PuntosPlatform covered Philadelphia’s Latine music scene, with a focus on drummer and organizer Simon Martinez, who believes “a world where everyone can belong and be ourselves is possible.”
News Startup Sessions
Join the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) and Tiny News Collective for News Startup Sessions. The small group sessions will take place with INN’s Courtney Lewis and TNC’s membership director Elaine Díaz Rodríguez. Cost is $15; upcoming sessions on November 11 and December 9. Sign up here!
Virtual Vendor Fair from LION Publishers
LION Publishers is producing its first Virtual Vendor Fair on Nov. 19 from 1-3 p.m. ET, open to members of LION and Tiny News Collective. This event will feature short live demos from vendors specializing in audience engagement and analytics, content management systems, revenue and fundraising tools, and more. It’s free to attend but registration is required.
RJI Professional Innovation Fellowship Q&A
RJI will host a Q&A about their annual fellowship opportunity on Dec. 3. The application will open on Dec. 1 for the 2026-27 fellowships. They offer both residential and non-residential options, and the focus is creating a resource, tool or project that will help advance the journalism field and will be open-source. Learn more about the fellowship here.
Leading the Way: Building Safer Newsrooms for Journalists from PEN America
Join a conversation about how news organizations can better protect and support journalists facing online harassment and other safety challenges. Whatever the size of your newsroom, you’ll leave this session equipped with practical, actionable steps for how to protect your people. November 13 at noon ET. Register here.
First Amendment Academy from NEWSWELL, Freedom Forum and ASU Learning
The Academy is a series of free, nonpartisan, quick courses and interactive quizzes designed to raise awareness and understanding of our First Amendment rights. Newsrooms can simply embed the quizzes directly into stories or newsletters at no cost.
Featured image: Ward 5 candidate Selina Barajas, right, talks with attendees at a July candidate meet and greet hosted by Tucson Spotlight and Arizona Luminaria. (Photo by Topacio "Topaz" Servellon)
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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