How we got here: Beginning in 2022, a steering committee of local journalism, community, philanthropy and business leaders worked with the American Journalism Project to conduct a comprehensive research study about local news needs in Los Angeles. Working with 27 community listening ambassadors who represented a wide range of experiences and backgrounds, and through surveys, interviews and focus groups conducted in six languages, researchers heard from about 900 residents across 244 zip codes who said they needed more unbiased, fact-based information about their communities.

Out of those findings, a coalition of Los Angeles organizations and philanthropists raised nearly $15 million to launch the L.A. Local News Initiative, dedicated to making quality, independent local news and information freely accessible to all Angelenos.

Where we’re going: At the neighborhood level, we will launch new publications modeled from the community-centered, hyperlocal journalism programs developed by Boyle Heights Beat, a trusted newsroom serving Boyle Heights and East LA, so that more communities in L.A. can get quality, independent news relevant to their neighborhoods. We will launch a local affiliate of the Documenters Network by City Bureau, which trains and pays residents to cover public meetings. The newsrooms will report on issues communities care most about, with the highest standards of editorial integrity and independence. This will lead to dozens of new local journalism jobs, with the goal of producing more and better journalism at both the community and region wide levels.

Additionally, the initiative will address information gaps by investing in region wide reporting teams at LAist, part of member-supported multi-platform public media organization Southern California Public Radio, and CalMatters, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom committed to explaining California politics and policy. LAist and CalMatters will report on L.A. region wide issues and California issues from a local perspective, respectively, and make their reporting available free for republishing so that more L.A. residents can access the news and information from their preferred sources.
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An early collaboration: The initiative has formed collaborative partnerships with nearly 20 media outlets and universities throughout L.A. that have already started working together to leverage the strengths of each outlet, bringing more journalism to more people. For example, an early collaboration include election coverage and engagement, in which LAist, CalMatters, Boyle Heights Beat, and others are working together to make their voter resources accessible to more people through content sharing, joint events, and cross promotion of voter surveys. Such collaborations ensure residents at the local level are able to easily access voter resources at the regional and state levels, and that regional and state level publications are in closer touch with voters from more communities.

All information produced by the L.A. Local News Initiative will be free to access and available for republishing.