Journalism actually shows up

Steve Jobs used to say that a brand is like a bank account. When you build trust through quality work, you’re making deposits in the value of your brand, while negative experiences with your creations are withdrawals. If your balance gets too low, you’re done for.

In so much of our industry, we’ve spent years extracting trust from so many of our communities. For a lot of people, we only show up on the worst day of their lives, to share their trauma with those less afflicted. We then disappear without providing any help or support. Journalism’s balance is deep in the red.

In 2026, local journalism will make substantial deposits in the trust of their communities by actually showing up, and creating value in ways that AI never can. This is the year we turn things around.

Journalism is meaningless unless we’re tangibly changing people’s lives for the better. That’s why local publications will apply the core principles of journalism in new and varied ways, while collaborating more than ever with a diversity of trusted partners. Doing this will help us provide what Jennifer Brandel calls a “catalytic force for communities to solve problems.”

To succeed in this, we’ll get creative. Our most familiar tools aren’t enough — we can’t rely solely on snappy headlines, strong images, and 800-2,000 word stories written to a 12th grade level or above. In the age of chatbots and short videos, that’s simply not how most people receive and process information.

That’s why, while we’ll keep adapting our language and formats online, we’ll also look beyond the screens for more answers.

In 2025, we already saw so much in-person experimentation, pushing the boundaries of journalism by showing up in new ways:

• The Kansas City Defender’s Mutual Aid program provided free food boxes to families in need (including a copy of their latest print edition); they also helped keep a beloved Black-owned bookstore open.
• The Library Newsroom Project co-created publications with their patrons, while the Ann Arbor District Library is planning to acquire a popular local news magazine, leading to new opportunities to provide information-led services.
• The Midcoast Villager in Maine runs a coffee shop where their journalists chat and hang out alongside cancer support groups and reading clubs.
• Planeta Venus runs free online computer classes in Spanish.
• At CalMatters, we coupled our latest online voter guide with PDFs in English and Spanish for libraries and community groups to print and share.

Many of these experiments will be hard to do cheaply at scale, and maybe that’s the point. Putting in real time and effort, community by community, is one way to show people that you care about them.

Over the next year, as the midterms approach, we’ll find more ways to reach people where they are, with information they can trust, in ways that actually engage them. We will partner with and learn from influencers, community groups, and others such as librarians, museum curators, doctors — people who also care about facts and public service, about connection not partisan positioning, who share what they know with empathy and care. We have a lot to offer, and a lot to learn as well.

There’s an oft-used phrase in public health: “People don’t care what you know until they know that you care.”

In 2026, many local journalism outlets will regain people’s trust by showing up in their communities, providing valuable information in ways that truly reflect their needs. This is the year we prove that we care.