Rural Blog will go into low gear as free National Summit on Journalism in Rural America nears; register by tomorrow!

It's a vacation week for many Americans, and The Rural Blog will be in low gear for the rest of the week, but not because we're on vacation. The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues will be busy preparing for our third National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, to be held in Lexington, Ky., and online this Friday. It's FREE, but registration is required, and tomorrow is the deadline; to register, click here.

The summit will pose the question we asked at the second summit last year: How can rural communities sustain local journalism that supports democracy? Top researchers will present their latest findings about rural jouralism, and Joey Young, the Kansas weekly publisher involved in a rare piece of interventional research about alternative revenue, will recount his ongoing experiences. Jeremy Gulban of CherryRoad Media, the buyer of many ghost newspapers from Gannett Co. will discuss his efforts to revive them, and we will hear from four women with digital startups competing against Ganett and other major chains.

Philanthropic support is becoming a key element in newspapers' revenue mix, and Knight Foundation journalism officer Duc Luu will moderate a panel on philanthropy for local news. Editors of The Daily Yonder and the Rural News Network will discuss their national news sites, and journalists in the Solutions Journalism Network will discuss how to do projects that help solve local problems. Anna Brugmann of the Rebuild Local News Coalition will discuss its efforts to change state policies to help local journalism, and three college professors will discuss how they and their students are filling local news gaps.

And that's not all! The rest of the program, and speakier biographies, are here. Join us!