Guest Essay

Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit: The marketplace model for local news

Rethinking sustainability beyond lifeboat logic

July 16, 2026

Ruby Jones at the 2026 Summit. Photo: Rachel Wisniewski

This essay is part of a series of reflections from the 2026 Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit sharing insights, lessons learned, and key takeaways from the conference, which was hosted in partnership with Press Forward. Access additional Summit resources here.

I arrived at the Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit searching for clarity about a question at the center of local journalism’s future: How do we build durable local news models in a moment when funding is tighter, advertising has shifted, and the old rules no longer apply?

That question stayed with me as I wandered through Philadelphia, a city shaped by reinvention, endurance, and the weight of American history. In the crowded aisles of Reading Terminal Market, the answer began to take shape.

The market was loud, kinetic and generous. I was struck by the variety of vendors, but even more by the structure itself. Many businesses, distinct in flavor, history, and clientele, were thriving under one roof. None had to become identical in order to belong.

*2026 Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit attendees at Reading Terminal Market. Photo: Hannah Yoon*

Their strength came from density, abundance, and the tendency for people to gather where many forms of value coexist. Journalism should aspire to the same.

After two decades of technological and consumer change, journalism too often behaves according to a lifeboat logic. To borrow Garrett Hardin’s infamous metaphor, protect what is yours, ration access, and assume there is not enough room for everyone.

The Summit presented a different possibility. Over three days, speakers returned to the same conclusion: sustainable local news depends on trust, collaboration, diversification, and shared infrastructure, not isolation and panic.

From crisis narrative to community benefit

The most useful lesson I took from the Summit was that the local news case must be reframed.

One Press Forward presentation found that 96 percent of respondents believe local news helps build a stronger community. More than 80 percent said they can easily find trustworthy local news, and audiences responded better to language about community benefit than to narratives about “saving” journalism.

The guidance was explicit. Lead with strengths and opportunities, not deficits. Talk about local news as a connector, an accountability tool, and a source of practical information people need in daily life.

For years, journalism has relied on institutional pleading, asking the public to recognize that it is essential, endangered, and worthy of rescue. Yet people do not need to be persuaded that something matters when they are given the opportunity to experience its value firsthand.

When communities are invited into storytelling, listening sessions, and public-facing engagement, local news becomes less extractive and more relational. Instead of being convinced of its value, people encounter it directly. Participatory journalism may be one of the strongest sustainability strategies available to local news.

Several sessions reinforced that message. One workshop mapped the fundraising process from research and cultivation to solicitation and stewardship, emphasizing that durable support is built through alignment and relationships, not one-time appeals. Another session on funder relationships pushed the idea further, arguing that “idea, pitch, grant” is less effective than “alignment, relationship, trust, then grant.”

The agenda itself became a quiet rebuke to the scarcity mindset that still shapes too much of the field.

Closing the innovation gap

One keynote, “What Funders Want, What Newsrooms Need,” sharpened the central tension of the Summit. Local journalism says it wants dynamic new models, broader representation, and stronger community ties. Still, the organizations most likely to test those ideas are often the least likely to receive early and flexible support.

Too often, emerging leaders are told to pay their dues, prove scale, and return once they have already accomplished what funding could have made possible. That logic fails to meet the moment.

The Summit’s revenue conversations reinforced the urgency of innovation, with one presentation arguing that only 36 cents of every programmatic dollar reaches a real consumer impression. Rather than waiting for programmatic advertising to recover, newsrooms must build trust infrastructure, direct relationships, and multiple revenue streams. Philanthropy should not serve as a business model, but as the runway to build one.

Collaboration, toolkits, coalition-building, and community-rooted innovation form the framework for the future.

The future is participatory

Some of the most important work in local journalism is happening inside collaborative, community-rooted efforts that build support systems across outlets rather than for a single institution.

The Colorado Ethnic Media Exchange (CEME) offers a compelling example of how shared resources can strengthen a local news ecosystem. Executive Director Brittany Winkfield attended the summit to learn how others are building sustainable support systems while sharing what that work looks like in Colorado.

“The biggest takeaway for me was that trusted community media can’t thrive on passion alone,” she said. “It needs investment, partnership, and infrastructure that recognizes the real work happening behind the scenes.”

Building resilient infrastructure

If sustainability continues to fail at the organizational level, it suggests the funding system itself remains underdeveloped. Investment in collaborative infrastructure can help build a system designed for shared growth and long-term resilience.

The Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit offered a sobering reminder of what happens when those systems do not exist. The Media Resilience Network reported that 4 in 5 respondents experienced burnout or chronic stress in the past year, arguing that journalism’s mental health crisis is systemic.

The future of local news extends beyond fundraising. The real question is whether journalism will continue to organize itself like a collection of lifeboats, each defending its own shrinking space; or whether it will build something closer to a marketplace of public value, where different models, communities and leaders strengthen one another through proximity, participation, and shared purpose.

I came to Philadelphia searching for answers. I left with the conviction that innovation cannot wait for permission, and that local news will become easier to sustain when more people are invited to see themselves inside it.

Ruby Jones is the President & CEO of Empower Media Exchange, a Colorado-based nonprofit strengthening local journalism through community storytelling, media literacy, and innovative engagement strategies. She is the 2026 Local Media Association Rising Star Innovator of the Year and the author of “Collective Action through Collaborative Storytelling.”