A place to strategize, build and recharge
An open letter to our 500+ charter signatories, as we launch the News Future community newsletter.
Darryl Holliday, Lead Steward
March 30, 2025
Friends and folk,
I’m always hesitant to call this work a “movement.” Even as people tell me it’s a movement—and that I’m in it… right now! But every day I watch people I know, admire and love doing the work of dreaming up new and better systems, creating a shared vision for the future and building real things in the world. Every day, it’s harder and harder to deny that the values and infrastructure so many people in this community have been advocating for and building for years has broken through the surface—that it’s already growing fruit.
This is a movement.
A movement for principles and for purpose—and a world where everyone knows where to go for reliable and accessible news and information that is actionable and relevant to their lives. Where all people are equipped to participate in civic life. Where local news ecosystems thrive based on the unique needs, assets and culture of their communities. And where community and civic media organizations are well-funded, sustainable and demanded by local communities.
News Futures is a movement for civic renewal, not just journalism reform.
I didn’t have a word for the work I was doing when I first got into the field—but I knew it was shared work by the end of News Futures’ first 2-day “camp” in Detroit in 2018. I was a beat reporter by training, but I cofounded City Bureau—and later the Public Newsroom and Documenters—to organize and equip people in Chicago in ways that helped them develop and own their solutions to the collective issues affecting us. We called it “civic media” at the time and I stand by it today. I believed then—and I believe now—that journalism skills are civic skills; that the most critical problems of our time are collective action issues; and we need as many people as we can get involved in local problem-solving.
Over the years, News Futures has, in many ways, become the true home for my work; in that it’s been about creating a more participatory way of doing journalism—not “saving” the industry—and it relies on all of you. If you’ve signed the News Futures charter, you are a part of this community. Maybe you’re a member of our Gardening Club, helping to refine our group’s strategic direction; or you might be a Working Group Steward, working to realize creative dreams, projects and programs spun up by this community; or you may be one of our three part-time staff members, operationalizing the systems, workflows and funding need to make those dreams come true. For now, you might be a Signatory of our charter interested in getting more involved. In any case, I invite you to lean into our “do”-ocracy—play different roles as you’re able—and step back as you need to. Use this community to—as Sarah Alvarez put it at that first News Futures convening—strategize, build and recharge.
We are a community-led “do-ocracy” with expanding infrastructure for action.
On February 26, we did something that had been discussed, debated and desired by founding members of this group: we opened News Futures to anyone who aligns with our mission. More than 500 people signed our charter in the first few weeks. At our launch event, where 70+ people stopped by to celebrate and fill our space, we learned more about you all. We asked “what excites you about News Futures” and—in a matter of moments—got 60 responses in real-time: In short, the words “building | collective | cross-sector | power and | opportunity” rose to the top—and I think that tells you everything you need to know about this community. We have a “bias toward action” and a shared ambition.
So we have lots to do together:
Last month, we added the #media-policy channel to the News Futures Slack in collaboration with the Media Power Collaborative at Free Press to help the News Futures community stay up-to-date on—and engaged in—public policy that supports our shared vision for the future of local media.
Starting this month, our 2025 Working Groups are up and running. A News Futures Working Group is any action-focused collaboration that advances the News Futures charter. Working Groups are peer-driven, shaped by the News Futures community and benefit from conceptual, financial and operational support from News Futures staff. Our “Civic Alliances” group—led by Gabe Lerner—will build stronger alliances with values-and mission-aligned people and organizations outside of the local news space. The “Leaders” group—led by Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Max Resnik—will explore how we might better support journalists in their transition to becoming newsroom leaders. Our “Cookbook” group—led by Jenn Brandel and Jihii Jolly—will help translate the News Futures Charter into an accessible, growing set of living examples (like a cookbook) for others to use and learn from. And that’s just 3 out of the 8 Working Groups underway this year.
Next month, we’ll cohost a multi-day event for journalists and democracy-focused allies as part of the University of Michigan’s Year of Democracy initiative. This intimate convening—led by Cassie Haynes—will explore how local news and civic engagement hubs can build a shared future.
In the coming months we’ll publish a “Civic Media Magazine” with our friends at The Objective featuring authors from the field like Antoine Haywood, Cierra Brown Hinton, Jesse Hardman, Jodi Rave Spotted Bear and Richard Young. You’ll be able to pre-order a copy in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, we’re celebrating our three new Gardening Club members—who, per our governance agreement, were unanimously elected by Stewards earlier this month. I’m amazed by our community (and our luck) yet again as Adrienne Johnson Martin, John Davidow and Mazin Sidahmed join me, Cassie Haynes, Courtney Lewis, Lizzy Hazeltine and Sonam Vashi on the Gardening Club for a two-year term. Last year’s primary job for the Gardening Club was to develop our charter—this year, the group will revise and reimagine our annual FLN Camp convening for this new era of News Futures.
We operate with a shared bias toward action and cross-sector collaboration.
I decided to go long on this community newsletter kickoff because there is so much thoughtful, intentional, incredible work going on across News Futures—led by a range of people across the country—and those actions are in service of the work that we do. Some will go unseen, some will be celebrated internally and others will be public statements—all are appreciated. As we build this cross-sector collective rooted in meeting community information needs, this newsletter will feature big ideas and deep dives, it’ll spotlight community members and opportunities to shape the field. Sometimes it’ll be short, sometimes it’ll go long and, for now, we’re aiming to send it at least once each month. We know there are lots of great newsletters out there, so we’ll try to make this one a value-add for your day while shouting out others writing so admirably—literally from around the world—about the local news revival.
News Futures might exist for another many years, or another day—but while we’re here we’ll be a home for people like you, and your ideas, because we believe in *your* lasting impact and your role bringing this emergent, cross-sector coalition to life.
That’s why we’re building a future for news that is service-oriented, participatory, and reparative—and building on the shoulders of journalists, organizers, educators and civic catalysts before us.
That’s why this is a movement.
Were you sent this link by a friend? Start with our charter to learn more about News Futures, and sign it to join us.
On and onward.
—Darryl