Salem’s large Hispanic community rely more and more on social media and personal networks, while Facebook groups increasingly act as community news sources. The upside is Oregonians turn to diverse sources to get their news — TV, radio, newsletters, blogs, subreddits and podcasts — potential good news for outlets that produce content on multiple platforms. Bass watched with alarm as his competitors in the newspaper industry struggled, and he waited for OPB’s donor revenue to drop. It never did. Though individual donation amounts declined slightly in the wake of the Great Recession, the number of new OPB donors more than made up for it. On his way to growing OPB’s donor base by around 50,000, Bass learned monthly donors were highly loyal, and many chose to give in small amounts. “I never really thought that OPB would become a primary source of news,” says Bass, 67. “I really felt like newspapers and TV stations were going to keep doing, what they were doing and there was always going to be a vibrant news ecosystem. That turned out to not be the case, and you have to adjust.” Compared to for-profit news outlets, nonprofits enjoy a few innate advantages, notably tax-exempt status and a revenue model less dependent on the whims of advertisers and even subscribers. In an era of shifting media fortunes, the nonprofit model is becoming more popular (see sidebar). The membership-funding model is thought to decrease reliance on ad revenue while keeping papers from imposing paywalls. It’s a model not unlike the one public media has used since at least the days when Smolkin watched PBS in her childhood living room. In times of uncertainty and shifting fortunes, this represents a distinct advantage. “Our model is free, independent journalism accessible to all,” Smolkin says. “That accessibility piece is really important. And it’s only possible because of the strong support we have from our member community.” DURING THE 2020 ALAMEDA FIRE, while government agencies in Southern Oregon struggled to communicate with each other, members of the public needed to know who should evacuate and how. Amid the chaos, residents of Phoenix and Central Point looked first to Facebook for official information, according to a 2022 University of Oregon study that found the Rogue River Valley to be one of the state’s worst news deserts. The Ashland Tidings had closed a year earlier, and Medford’s Mail Tribune, now shuttered, was vastly diminished from its days as a Pulitzer Prize-winning institution. At the time of the fire, Bert Etling, the laid-off former editor of the Tidings, was glued to his scanner. He tweeted updates based on what he heard — around 50 of them on the first day of the fire — and soon gained hundreds of new followers. This underscored to him a great hunger in his community for reliable information. “There’s a growing need for useful public information to inform civic dialogue,” Etling says. “Acute situations like that really expose it, but it’s an ongoing thing.” A year later, a group of concerned citizens tapped Etling to try again in Ashland with a new model for local news delivery. A few back-porch meetings sealed the creation of the nonprofit Ashland.news. Today the site — maintained by a three-and-a-half-person newsroom and a loyal band of contributors, volunteers and key funders — attracts 45,000 Oregon newspapers have been hard-hit in recent years. But a surge of startups — most run as nonprofits — are popping up to keep communities informed. monthly readers. Surveys by the UO journalism school find Ashland.news ranks high in reader trust. Local media outlets like the Tidings and the Mail Tribune have been hard-hit by industry currents of the last 15 years. In just the last year, Robert Pamplin Jr.’s chain of newspapers — which grew rapidly in the 2000s—was sold to Carpenter Media Group, which announced layoffs shortly after. EO Media Group, which publishes the Bend Bulletin, sold to Carpenter a few months later. And those high-profile shifts reflect a decline in revenue and staffing at local media outlets that began in the early 2000s with the rise of online news and the post-9/11 recession and accelerated by the end of that decade with the subprime housing crisis. But the decline in ad revenue and subscription dollars doesn’t reflect the public’s appetite for local news. In many communities, social media is replacing its printed and broadcast counterparts as a source for news. The Facebook group “What’s ‘REALLY’ Happening in La Pine” boasts 12,000 members, who log in to share information about missing pets, closed roads and more contentious local issues. Though the rise of local Facebook groups presents its own set of challenges — both human and technological in nature — some companies are filling local news vacuums with tech alone. Some companies are experimenting with “hyperlocal” content backed by artificial intelligence. A national network of websites called Hoodline, which includes a Portland vertical, acknowledges using AI “to support and enhance our editorial processes.” This includes the use of “AI personas,” which a site disclaimer says are pen names reflecting the work of multiple parties. More bizarrely, as OPB reported in December, the website for the Tidings has been slapping the bylines of real journalists who have never worked in Oregon onto fake, AI-generated stories. Since 2022, journalism professor Andrew DeVigal and his colleagues at the University of Oregon have conducted statewide newsneed surveys that reveal deep and yawning deficiencies in communities around the state. And they found that despite high engagement on Facebook groups, community members want more. La Piners who participated in the study said they’d like to see coverage of youth issues, real estate development and the future of the Wickiup Reservoir area. But there are reasons to be hopeful. Etling and Ashland.news aren’t the only fish swimming upstream in an increasingly challenging media climate. Over the past five years, membership in the Institute for Nonprofit News nearly doubled to 474 outlets, including eight in Oregon. The state’s nonprofit news boom includes the two-year-old Ashland.news serving the Rogue River Valley. The Central Coast now has YachatsNews.com; Oakridge, the Highway 58 “Our model is free, independent journalism accessible to all.” RACHEL SMOLKIN OPB Going Paperless 34
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