Local news

taking hits, but some upstarts are fighting back

to prevent their communities from becoming news deserts.

Welcome to the Reliable Sources Podcast. News Deserts.

Welcome to the Reliable Sources podcast. I'm your host Brian Stelter.

And this weekly pod in between our Sunday television programs

is a chance to go more in- depth with media leaders and newsmakers.

This week we wanted to look at local news and what we all feel and see happening to local print newspapers.

Years and years of cuts and closures and layoffs.

They've led to this sense that local news is in a real crisis.

But at the same time we're seeing some inspirational stories about startups, about new websites, some of them nonprofits, some of them for profits, all of them

trying to fill in some of what's been lost and create a new sense of community.

So we've decided to bring together three of these leaders in various locations

who are starting these ventures, three editors, three founders who are

trying to make a difference and create new versions of news organizations.

Eric Barnes joins me from Memphis.

He's the president and executive editor of the Daily Memphian,

a brand new site there.

Stephanie Lulay is joining me from Chicago.

She's the co-founder of Block Club Chicago, a site that's just a few months old.

And Larry Rickman is in Denver. He's the editor of the Colorado's son, also a brand new site that's been born from some people who recently left the Denver Post.

Thank you all for coming on the program.

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