Executive Summary and Report
The State of News Business in Central Appalachia
Models for Reinvestment
Executive Summary
This landscape analysis report marks the beginning of a journey to help the news industry and philanthropy, local and national, better understand and invest in rural markets for news businesses. The geography served by the Press Forward Central Appalachia Chapter (PFCA) and covered in this report spans across the 249 Appalachian counties of Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. 198 of these counties are rural.
This research comes at a time of unprecedented economic challenges for Central Appalachia. Government funding cuts across all economic development and social service sectors, including public media, disproportionately impact the rural communities and marginalized populations who Appalachian Funders Network (AFN) members support. AFN recently released The State of Funding in Appalachia, which shows 30 counties in the region have no active foundation, and 66 counties (26%) have less than $1 per person in philanthropic assets. It follows that 73% of all philanthropic investment in Central Appalachia originates from funders outside the region. Historically, this outside funding has not gone toward supporting journalism. In fact, from 2019 to 2024 only 1% of all philanthropic funding for news in the U.S. went to rural counties, according to Northwestern University’s Medill 2024 State of Local News report.
The funding report also shows our region is a great investment, with 67% of the grants awarded by foundations in Central Appalachia remaining in the area. AFN Executive Director and PFCA Co-Chair Ryan Eller attributes this to a resilient business community and strong regional economic development fund managers like Invest Appalachia and dozens of AFN member foundations and CDFI’s like Mountain Association, partnered with experienced nonprofit community project implementors in the Central Appalachian Network. “Our region is not a void,” Eller says, “it is a model of reinvestment when given the tools. What we lack isn’t willpower, amazing leaders, or scalable solutions—it’s equitable access to resources.”
The Press Forward initiative holds great promise for rural. AFN launched the largest, and only multi-state, Press Forward chapter with Rural News Fund manager Invest Appalachia, and news business consulting firm Media Growth Partners, to ensure rural has a seat at the national philanthropic funding table. Press Forward national stepped up with PFCA chapter funding, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has seeded the Rural News Fund with $750,000.
-
PFCA commissioned this research to inform decision-making for the Rural News Fund, and provide actionable recommendations and examples to three audiences:
Central Appalachian Funders – to fund news gaps and partner on bright spots
National Funders – to increase collaborative investment in rural models
Central Appalachian News Providers – to engage in networks and more effectively seek support for revenue diversification and sustainability strategy
We cannot claim to have yet achieved a forensic understanding of all the multi-platform news organizations, philanthropic funders of news, Journalism Support Organizations (JSOs) and diverse audiences in this region, but we believe we have uncovered representative, hopeful, and actionable insights for all stakeholders to use to strengthen our primarily rural news and information ecosystems in Central Appalachia.
As veteran journalists, news business executives, and an audience and revenue analytics expert, the authors of this report understand the discomfort and healthy skepticism journalists have about treating journalism and public service information delivery as products and services that must be collaboratively produced with and sold to individuals, businesses, organizations and even government institutions who they are also covering. Having said that, our small business development journey to support journalist entrepreneurs in rural markets begins with four key market economy premises:
Whether for-profit, nonprofit, or public, news organizations are businesses that must generate more revenue than they spend in order to sustainably serve their communities with professional journalism and verified information delivery.
News businesses must successfully pursue multiple revenue streams to be sustainable.
Rural news markets are different, in fundamental ways that are important to understand, from suburban and urban markets.
Narrative change, improving civic health and strengthening democracy through journalism and distribution of accurate community information are the goals, but none of these are attainable without establishing sustainable business models for news.
This report taps into a wealth of ongoing news industry research to analyze and compare region and rural-specific data, which demonstrate lopsided declines across most news industry metrics compared to national, including:
Warning signs from Medill of growing news deserts in rural Central Appalachia
Representative examples: few digital and nonprofit news outlets in rural Western North Carolina, and declining newspaper circulation in Eastern Kentucky
93 counties (37%) in rural Central Appalachia without the equivalent of even one full-time journalist, from Rebuild Local News’ new mapping tool
Significantly lower civic health scores than national in the Civic Information Index
Our own qualitative market feedback, however, shows many bright spots and opportunities. We explore six promising collaborative models currently networking regional news and information providers, and profile five Central Appalachian news funders leading the way. Within these models and funding initiatives, we highlight the work of local and national “Journalism Support Organizations,” preview upcoming news research and infrastructure project initiatives, and conclude with concrete recommendations for our three audiences.