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Acknowledgments

Our thanks to everybody who made this report possible, in particular the 400-plus local journalists from across the United States who generously shared their thoughts and experiences with us. This study would not have been achievable without these insights, and we hope you find them as interesting as we do. Thank you also to the organizations that promoted and encouraged participation in this survey. You helped us to reach and engage with participants beyond our own networks, and this paper is all the richer as a result. Of course, this project would not have been possible without the support of a number of institutions, including the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, our transcribing team and citations editor, the University of Oregon, the University of Virginia, and Columbia University. At Tow, we want to extend our thanks to Emily Bell, Claire Wardle, Elizabeth Hansen, Kathy Zhang, and Nausicaa Renner. Throughout this process you’ve given us invaluable feedback, encouragement, and support. The Tow Center and Columbia University also made it possible for Rosalind Donald to work with us on this project.We are grateful for the help of the Scribe Collective and Kathy Talbert at D-J Word Processing for their transcribing prowess, and to Sheila Bodell for formatting all of our citations.The University of Oregon kindly hosted our survey, and also enabled Thomas Schmidt to work with us on the early stages of this survey. During the summer of 2016, when this project began, Damian’s involvement was made possible by a grant from the Agora Journalism Center, the gathering place for innovation in communication and civic engagement, at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication.Our thanks as well to the University of Virginia for its support and encouragement around Christopher’s research interests. Damian Radcliffe and Christopher Ali, with Rosalind Donald

May 2017