Helping news entrepreneurs and their communities flourish everywhere

🧙🏼The special sauce of tiny news

By Amy L. Kovac-Ashley

I am freshly back from San Francisco, where Tiny News Collective hosted our first in-person gathering on our "From the Ground Up" events tour and am delighted to share highlights of that event.

Our aim with these events is to provide a counter-narrative to the doom-and-gloom discourse about the state of local and community news — to help people learn more about the tiny news movement and why we think these small outlets are critical to the future of thriving communities. In San Francisco, we featured two TNC founders: Daphne Magnawa of News Relay Network and Soleil Ho of COYOTE Media Collective. We also heard from Darryl Holliday of News Futures, who shared how these organizations fit into the broader, growing field of civic media.

As one of our attendees said, in-person media meetups are officially back! Here are some takeaways from the evening's discussion:

• Show up, show up, show up. And keep showing up: Tiny news is distinctive because the people founding these outlets know they must demonstrate a commitment to their communities in order to build trust. They know that communities have been harmed by journalists who come around only when bad things have happened. As Daphne said, when she and her co-founders decided to launch an outlet in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, they knew the community would be skeptical of them in the beginning. So their strategy was to show up at community events, introduce themselves and start to build relationships on a human scale. And they didn't just do it once or twice. It's part of their DNA.
• Listen deeply and follow through: Beyond attending as many community events as possible, the News Relay team also hosted their own listening sessions in venues where community members routinely gather. In these sessions, they heard again and again about the need for a community calendar and about the community's desire not just for an information and news outlet but one they could touch and feel. That's when they decided that they needed to have a print strategy and not just a digital product. Their zine, which they distribute to community centers and libraries, prominently includes a community calendar. That follow-through demonstrated that what the community said to them mattered. Soleil Ho, co-founder of COYOTE Media Collective, shared that a community calendar was a key feature they also launched with. Instead of an exhaustive list, they curate events with their community in mind — and they let their audience know which gatherings they will attend, inviting people to meet them in person.

• Put your community in the driver's seat: Sharing power is a key tenet of News Relay Network's approach. One way that shows up is through co-creation. Community members are not just consumers of information but also craft the content themselves. The co-founders work directly with people who want to cover a story, and they pay those community contributors for their work.
• Bring the joy: So much news today starts from a negative, deficit framing that people are turning away from it and avoiding it altogether. Tiny news takes a different approach: Soleil talked about how COYOTE makes space for what they call "grassroots fun." And you can tell in their tagline: "Independent journalism with a bite!" Their work is not just there to inform people but also to delight them. To help them feel part of a place. That is a salve to communities who know they are so much more than the worst thing that has happened to them.
• Experiment! People want products that make them feel seen and reflect how they actually live. For COYOTE, that meant creating "The Rainbow Bay Bridge," a pet obituaries feature where people can write tributes to pets that have died (gone across the "rainbow bridge"). Soleil coded the feature themselves in a MySpace, early Internet style. Readers can submit their memorials and are asked to provide a $5 contribution.

Soleil, Daphne and Darryl all shared how fulfilling this work is — and the tangible impact it has on communities — but they didn't shy away from the challenges of building community-rooted outlets: The founders who create these organizations do so with a lot of sweat equity and personal and familial sacrifice. They are building products and audiences at the same time they must build the revenue to support the work. Burnout and exhaustion are risks to the outcomes they are working toward. All of that underscores the reason why we exist at Tiny News Collective and why it's so important that grassroots media get the support that it deserves, especially in the fragile first years. The movement of tiny news needs support to thrive, and we want to spread that message far and wide.

You can read more about the event here.

TNC News

Join Tiny News at our community events in New York and Washington, D.C.

If you missed our event in San Francisco, don’t fret. We have two more events coming up in New York and Washington, D.C. We’ll bring people together to talk about tiny newsrooms: what makes them different and why we think they're critical to the future of journalism and democracy. We'll also share insights from our new research on what it takes for a tiny newsroom to launch and last and what we're learning from this grassroots movement. 

Here’s where we will be next month:

• New York, Tuesday, November 10, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice (320 E. 43rd St.): Garry Pierre-Pierre, a TNC board member and founder of The Haitian Times, will be joined by Ambreen Ali of Central Desi, Annemarie Dooling of The Platia and Michael Schulson of The Lighthouse Washington Heights at this one-of-a-kind venue. Register to join us here no later than November 7.
• Washington, D.C., Tuesday, November 17, True Reformer Building (1200 U St. NW): Eric Falquero of The 51st and Henok Mengistu of Ethiopique will join Tom Rosenstiel, author of “The Next Journalism,” to talk about the future of journalism and how tiny news is helping to craft that future. Register to join us here.

Whether you're a journalist, a founder, a funder or just someone who cares about your community and its information, we'd love to see you there. Please pass the invitation along to anyone who'd enjoy the conversation.

5 Questions with Bryan M. Vance of Stumptown Savings

For our latest “5 Questions with” feature, we checked in with Bryan M. Vance of Stumptown Savings. Working diligently to cover the local food economy, Bryan founded the newsletter and website in 2025. The only newsroom dedicated to this coverage in the Portland, Oregon, area, Stumptown Savings has grown to include curated grocery store deals, a grocery store price tracker and a taste test series of products across stores.

Bryan has been selected for the National Press Foundation Local Business Journalism Fellowship, has been profiled about his work and continues to create innovative data projects that keep his community informed. Recently, the newsletter reached 8,000 subscribers, and we spoke with Bryan about his growth. 

“I'm always on the lookout for grants,” he said. “I do think the work I'm doing crosses a few important parts of public service. Convincing funders that this is the case — that has been a bit challenging. Stumptown Savings provides information and news to people, and it also helps people deal with food insecurity, in an indirect way. So I keep an eye out for funders who might be able to support this work through a charitable contribution. 

Read the whole profile here.

Join an AMA to learn about Tiny News

Want to learn more about Tiny News Collective? You’ll have a chance soon when our executive director Amy Kovac-Ashley runs an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session on November 3 at 3 p.m. ET. She’ll walk through what membership 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. Register here!

Founder Shoutouts

Birthdays and funding 🎉

🏢 COYOTE Media celebrated its first birthday by moving into a new physical space in Warfield Commons in San Francisco (see ribbon-cutting photo above). 

🧁 The Parlor Magazine also hit its first birthday and is celebrating by thanking its members and running a donation campaign.

5️⃣ Harvey World Herald celebrated its fifth birthday from its soft launch on October 18, 2021.

💰 Atlantic City Focus received a grant of $35,000 and In the Wake TV received a grant of $25,000 from Press Forward New Jersey in their latest round of funding. Atlantic City Focus will use the grant for election and health coverage, and In the Wake TV will launch the Willingboro Hyperlocal Stream.

Landmark moments 🌟

🗳️ Mat-Su Sentinel produced two candidate forums (one pictured above) using the “Flip the Script” model, with candidates answering questions on key topics decided via live polling from the audience. The two events brought more than 300 residents out to hear from the candidates. The Sentinel also produced three voting guides for the election season.

⚡ Connect Puerto Rico produced its first short-form video, co-published with The Latino Newsletter, about energy issues on the island. Founder Jillian Melero produced the video after participating in Pulitzer Center’s Digital Storytelling Accelerator. Melero was also elected as an at-large director for the Society of Professional Journalists’ Board of Directors. 

⚖️ The Los Angeles Center for Investigative Journalism won its lawsuit to access secondary employment records of El Monte police officers after courts ruled that those documents are not exempt from the California Public Records Act.

🔎 Mendo Local produced an in-person proposition workshop in partnership with CalMatters to help unpack the fine print on California’s ballot, from the billionaire tax to the FAIR Plan. Mendo Local also wrote an important story about how, out of 77 total local elections in Mendocino County, only four are truly contested.

🤲🏽 eShe will produce the South Asia Union Summit on November 13 to 15 online, bringing together leaders, practitioners and young changemakers from around the world for vibrant conversations on democracy, gender, identity, climate, culture, technology and more.

🎭 Scene in Boston is in its second podcast season in partnership with Boston Arts Academy. Founder Laura Amico says “we are running a (almost) well-oiled machine with teams responsible for audio, photos, show notes and even hospitality [who are] making guests feel welcome.” The crew is pictured above. Laura was also featured in ArtSake from the Mass Cultural Council.

🏋🏽‍♀️ Newsberg produced its first short video story, covering a fitness center’s “Women’s Strength Showcase,” celebrating local women and their strength gains.

☝🏽The Southlander is part of a new collaborative, The Forbidden Stories Lab at U.C. Berkeley, that will mobilize newsrooms across the United States and internationally to pursue and amplify public-interest investigations facing threats or attempts to silence them.

🎉 The Roseville Reader just passed 2,000 total subscribers to its newsletter. 

Speaking up and speaking out 🗣️

🌳 Whitney McKnight of The Edge will speak at the Rural Renaissance Roadshow: At the Data Center Crossroads in Decatur, Ala., a convening that will discuss AI data centers and how thoughtful land use policy is essential to quality of life.

💖 John Summers of WBR Independent wrote a heart-felt letter to his readers about the challenge of being sued by the local government and fire department over access to local records. The lawsuit was settled, and Summers says, “The only agenda I have is the pursuit of truth, and making sure our government keeps its end of the bargain by doing things right.”

🎤 Cara Kuhlman of Future Tides and TNC board member Ben Werdmuller were featured speakers at the News Product Alliance Summit in Chicago earlier this month.

🎙️ Staci Baird of La Verne Daily News wrote a poignant and humorous first-person account of covering a press conference with her “tiny microphone” compared to local TV stations (pictured above). “Their equipment made me feel small… But then I remembered something important: I will still be here after the television crews and reporters from other outlets have left.”

🥬 Amy Bushatz of Mat-Su Sentinel was quoted in a New York Times story about journalism collaborations in Alaska during election coverage. Read to the end to get to an unforgettable quote about the Alaska State Fair Cabbage Weigh-Off: “Don’t knock the cabbage.”

📈 Richard Campbell of Oxford Free Press shared with readers the progress the publication has made since launch in 2024, including hiring a new editor and raising more than $290,000 in donations and $90,000 in ad sales.

🌶️ Courtney Smith of Ravenous was a guest on NPR’s “It’s Been a Minute,” discussing the rise of private equity in the food business. Ravenous also recently ran a great story on how Tabasco “accidentally on purpose” became the world’s hot sauce.

Stories with impact 💥

🏢 The SHOUT Wichita ran an in-depth profile on pioneering Black architect and activist Charles McAfee (pictured above), including an incredible array of present-day and archival photos and architectural drawings.

🚨 Harvey World Herald reported that the Harvey Police Department produced several years worth of crime incident totals and citywide arrest information as part of a lawsuit the Herald filed in 2023. The request asked for body camera metadata, crime figures and arrest data.

🔍 Garnet Henderson of Autonomy News reported that nearly $13 million in family planning grants from the federal government will go to anti-abortion doctors. Garnet will be a featured panelist at a QED event in Astoria, N.Y., “The Body is Political” on November 2.

💬 Philly-Afghan Info Hub published a story about how Afghan families in Philadelphia are suffering from federal changes to SNAP and Medicaid eligibility for certain noncitizens. “The change is financially and emotionally very difficult,” said an Afghan mother of four. Hub founder Tehera Rahmani wrote a wonderful story for Al-Bustan about how she started the Hub and is helping Afghans rebuild their lives.

🎰 Hola Cultural reported that East Boston had rejected a casino at the ballot box but that a new gambling bill could become law without consulting the community. There’s also a brief video explainer thanks to funding from TNC’s Immediate Needs Fund.

💲 Bryan M. Vance of Stumptown Savings reported that Portland wants to ban surveillance pricing before it reaches local grocery stores. Also, Stumptown Savings was featured in a recent story by Oregon Public Broadcasting, noting how the publication was saving Portlanders money.

📚 Health Nation Media interviewed actor and author Taye Diggs about the importance of access to children’s books in the doctor’s office. Diggs was recently honored at a Reach Out & Read benefit event in New York.

Resources

Building Sustainable Newsrooms through Evidence-Based Reporting from LMA
November 12 at 2 p.m. ET
Local newsrooms are uniquely positioned to equip their audiences with evidence-based reporting that informs their daily decisions. Reporting that brings evidence to bear on everyday issues such as housing, transportation, and weather stands to build community trust. Join The Open Notebook for a free training on how to evaluate scientific claims, find and interview expert sources, and confidently incorporate evidence into stories.

Emotional Management and Stress Regulation After the Midterms
November 17 at 1 p.m. ET
The intensity and uncertainty of covering a high-stakes election can take a toll on journalists’ emotional and physical well-being. In this facilitated session, organized by the U.S. Journalist Assistance Network in partnership with the Media Resilience Network, participants will explore practical strategies for managing stress and difficult emotions, recognizing signs of burnout, setting healthy boundaries, supporting colleagues and tending to their own well-being as they move beyond the demands of the midterm election period.

How to Launch a Library-Local News Collaboration and Civically Engage Your Community from the Library Newsroom Project
November 19 at 1 p.m. ET
Attendees will learn how to practically implement a collaboration in their community, walking through the process from conception to assessment with engagement journalist Terry Parris Jr. and journalist and current Library Futures intern Jazmyn Gray.

Springboard Project from Type Investigations
Apply by January 8, 2027
The Project provides an infusion of resources to help a cohort of local newsrooms and publications serving historically marginalized communities build investigative capacity. The program provides comprehensive support, including capacity assessment and goal setting, mentorship and training, and collaborative fundraising and development. Each newsroom receives a $10,000 stipend.

Fund for Indigenous Journalists from International Women’s Media Foundation
The Fund’s Indigenous Journalists & Allies: Reporting on Missing & Murdered People/Women, Girls, Two-Spirit, Transgender People (MMIP/WG2T) initiative directly supports Indigenous journalists’ and allies’ reporting on the violence that targets members of Indigenous nations, both on sovereign ground and in urban settings in the United States. Indigenous and non-Indigenous journalists of all genders affiliated with media outlets, as well as freelancers, are invited to apply. Applications accepted on a rolling basis.

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, Doug Keller