Tiny News Collective initiative aims to help the smallest newsrooms build and grow sustainably, for $100 a month

"As more local news organizations close their doors and news deserts pop up throughout the country, Local Independent Online News [LION] Publishers and News Catalysts want to create a solution. Together, they have launched the Tiny News Collective, an initiative that will provide the tools and resources to help people build sustainable news organizations," Evelyn Mateos reports for Editor and Publisher. "To do that, the collective will provide industry-standard technology, like a complete publishing system based on Google Docs and Google Workspace; a full accounting and fundraising suite from MonkeyPod; and a local advertising marketplace from Letterhead and WhereBy.Us. Additionally, it will provide training curriculum led by LION, payroll services, legal assistance and more." The resources will cost about $100 a month.

The idea grew from conversations among news-media professionals on the board of News Catalyst and its advisors, Director Aron Pilhofer said. They spoke to the smallest news organizations and discovered that newsrooms with only one or two people generally don't have access to support resources.

"Although formal applications have not yet open, the collective has been accepting interest forms and nominations," Mateos reports. "The plan is to launch 500 news outlets—10 by this spring and 490 over the next three years. Pilhofer also explained that initially, one or two founders would be the limit for an accepted news outlet, but that does not mean they cannot hire more staff if they wish."

The collective invites applications from non-traditional journalists and is especially interested in founders from backgrounds that have been "historically and systematically shut out of media ownership," such as Black, indigenous and other people of color.