We’ll celebrate the journalists who weave communities together

Our industry tends to center on a single archetype of journalistic heroism. We lionize the reporter who exposes corruption, topples the powerful, and publishes the story against all odds. That work remains essential. But there’s another kind of heroism that we rarely spotlight: the local journalist who shows up day after day to report on what’s happening in our neighborhoods, schools, and city halls. The journalist who is helping stitch their community back together.

I predict that in 2026, we will start to genuinely celebrate and valorize the reporters who are out in communities — the ones listening, reflecting and building trust. These are the journalists whose stories help restore a sense of connection in the places where it has been frayed.

At the American Journalism Project, an organization that has invested in more than 50 nonprofit local news organizations, we see this happening in newsrooms across the country. This past year, Fort Worth Report, a nonprofit newsroom supported by the American Journalism Project, ran a series called 52 Faces of Community. The newsroom invited residents to nominate unsung heroes whose contributions often go unrecognized. The series highlighted people like a motorcycle club founder who has devoted his life to raising millions of dollars for children’s charities, the former police officer who found renewed purpose managing a branch of the public library, and the veteran working to restore a once-neglected public park.

Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom we helped launch in 2023, has been doing extensive culture and arts reporting in addition to investigative and accountability journalism. Coverage that highlights the creative life of the city helps residents discover what is happening around them and strengthens the local economy. In Mirror Indy’s case, a recent audience survey showed that the publication’s arts and culture coverage is driving people to attend local events and support local businesses.

Since its launch in October, the Tulsa Flyer, a new nonprofit news organization we’ve backed, has been in the community talking to thousands of residents. Through those conversations, they discovered that a beloved barbecue restaurant had lost most of its business due to a city road project. The coverage, which ran in The Oklahoma Eagle, now published by the Tulsa Flyer, led to a resurgence of customers in this neighborhood staple.

Wisconsin Watch, another nonprofit news outlet in our portfolio, reported on the potential loss of Medicaid funding for Yahara House, a community mental health program described by one advocate as an “antidote for loneliness.” After reading the story, a reader was moved to donate $5,000 to support its mission.

I believe this is the year we recognize that community-rooted journalism is the foundation for any hope of rebuilding trust in news. In a time of loneliness, disconnection, and eroding civic trust, this dimension of journalistic impact matters more than ever. We will celebrate the journalists who bring neighbors into conversation, strengthen the ties between them, and demonstrate that strong local journalism is one of the ways a community holds itself together.