'How do we ensure the sustainability of local news?' will be topic of online discussion at noon ET Friday, Sept. 16

The first of four virtual, national conversations among journalism academics and professionals about community news and its sustainability is scheduled for noon ET Friday, Sept. 16. Register here.

The series is sponsored by the Center for Community News at the University of Vermont and the Community Journalism Interest Group of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. The meta-question for Friday's session is "How do we ensure the sustainability of local news?" More specifically, "What are some of the innovative for-profit and public funding models? What do we mean by sustainability?" The group will "explore some private and public funding approaches," says Richard Watts, director of the center. 

Participants will include Mike Rispoli, senior director of journalism policy at the Free Press/Free Press Action Fund, which recently helped win $3 million in public funding for news outlets in New Jersey, and Michael Shapiro, founder of TAPinto, a for-profit franchise model for local news that has a network of 86 local news sites in New Jersey, plus sites in Pennsylvania, Florida and New York.

The discussion will be moderated by Erica Beshears Perel, director of the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media at the University of North Carolina Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Other sessions are scheduled for Oct. 21, Nov. 18 and Dec. 15.