In a piece on the Poynter website Newspack founder Kinsey Wilson says it’s clear that there isn’t a single, simple business model that can be applied across the board.
“But we do believe that by hosting sites on a common platform we can begin to figure out what’s working and what’s not in various areas of economic and editorial endeavor — and then quickly make it available to other sites.
In effect, leveraging advantages of scale, while preserving the autonomy and independence that allows publishers to authentically address the local communities they serve.
In that way, we hope to accelerate the success of the growing number of independent local journalism sites by allowing them to easily tap into the wisdom of their colleagues without each having to find their way on their own.
The search for the Holy Grail of local news publishing may prove elusive. But it doesn’t mean the many and varied building blocks of a successful strategy can’t be found and rolled out widely across the industry.”