🚀 The Big Blast from Tiny News, February 2025

Helping news entrepreneurs and their communities flourish everywhere

❤️‍🔥 Taking a lesson from Mr. Rogers, we look for the helpers

By Amy L. Kovac-Ashley

Fred Rogers, the gentle and iconic host of the children’s show that bears his name, famously said that in times of catastrophe, his mother advised him to “always look for the helpers … there will always be helpers.” What isn’t as well known is that in the same interview, he directly implores news professionals to “make a conscious effort of showing rescue teams, of showing medical people, anybody who is coming into a place where there is a tragedy. … Because if you look for the helpers, you’ll know that there’s hope.”

Fred Rogers remembers his mother's advice about looking for the helpers in this 1999 Television Academy Foundation interview.

We at Tiny News Collective are big fans of what Mr. Rogers offered to the world, and we want to follow his example by noticing and uplifting the work of the helpers. Since the inauguration, the country has been whiplashed by a flurry of federal actions that are having real and deleterious effects on people. Independent news outlets are doing what they can both to be the helpers, by providing clear, accurate information in a time of chaos, and to highlight their community’s helpers, those that are standing up and coming to the aid of others.

Tiny News Collective members are showing up for their communities in three key ways:

Explaining the impact of the new administration’s actions on communities and people. There’s a lot of rhetoric coming from the White House, but what’s really happening on the ground? Local news outlets are crucial to telling those stories. A good example is an interview by 2PuntosPlatform with Carlos Obrador, the Mexican consul in Philadelphia, that provided context about an ICE raid in the city and the people caught up in it. Another is a piece from The 51st looking at the impact on the local D.C. economy of the job cuts in the federal government, with an emphasis on hearing from workers. The 51st also published a deep-dive explainer on the potential loss of home rule for the District, providing a historical understanding of the issue.
Uplifting voices in the community doing positive work. Another way to show up is to feature who is doing the hard, positive work to protect and heal communities. Austin Vida ran a story about a community forum with 700 attendees who wanted to learn more information about ICE raids and the legal rights of immigrants. The story included a list of resources and immigrant support organizations in Austin. Planeta Venus profiled a Dreamer named Monica Gámez, who has become “a voice for marginalized communities, transforming her challenges into opportunities to create lasting change.”

Hillarie Gossett shares a story at the Palmer Depot during Mat-Su Untold on Feb. 7, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Brad Carper via Mat-Su Sentinel)

Convening people and engaging the community. Being in community during difficult times can help people heal, find solutions and build empathy. A great example is the first-ever “Mat-Su Untold” storytelling night produced by the Mat-Su Sentinel in early February. The event provided an opportunity for deep community engagement for the 200 people who attended the sold-out event and helped raise $8,000 for the Sentinel. “Storytelling is a really important part of news, and it’s an important part of community,” said Amy Bushatz, founder of the Sentinel.

These helpers show what can be done to serve community information needs in times of high stress. I hope to see more of this kind of coverage from local news outlets around the country, whether they are tiny, medium or large. This kind of work is how journalism can make a difference and meet the moment.

TNC News

For our latest “5 Questions with…” feature, we caught up with award-winning journalist Julio Ricardo Varela, the founder of The Latino Newsletter, an independent nonprofit journalism outlet that publishes stories and audio podcasts through a clear Latino lens. Julio talked about the mission of the publication, the growth in audience and how its stories provide “urgent, actionable information for directly affected communities.”

“Over the next few years, my goal is to grow our reach exponentially, creating a platform where stories about Latinos, by Latinos, are at the center of local and national conversations,” he said. “Financial sustainability will come through a combination of subscription growth, recurring donor support, new sustaining members (if we can get 120, why not 1,000?), strategic partnerships, and diversified revenue streams like podcast sponsorships, along with production and media services.”

Read the whole profile here.

5 insights about advertising for small publishers

Two independent publishers — the Buckeye Flame’s Ken Schneck and Mat-Su Sentinel’s Amy Bushatz — shared tips and ideas for growing revenue from ads and sponsorships at a Tiny News Collective workshop on Feb. 25.

The workshop — an outgrowth of the Homegrown Advertising report released by Tiny News Collective and Rebuild Local News in January — was focused on actionable ideas that small publishers could use to build their ad programs. Schneck and Bushatz joined Tiny News Collective’s Madison Karas, the report’s author, and Erica Perel, the organization’s operations director.

The five insights include: You don’t have to have a sales background, you can find resources online to help price ads and “don’t overcomplicate it.” Read all the insights here.

Tiny News signs on to “Local News for the People” blueprint

Tiny News Collective has signed on to the “Local News for the People” policy agenda created by the Media Power Collaborative and organized by Free Press Action. The agenda calls on lawmakers to prioritize independent newsrooms and non-commercial outlets that are closest to their communities, and most under-resourced compared to larger outlets.

The blueprint lays out five pillars that should guide local-news policy interventions:

Prioritize community-information needs
Invest in community-first models to democratize media power
Leverage public and popular education to support civic information and local news
Ensure a just transition for media workers and protect workers’ rights
Address and repair the historic harms of our media system

To learn more and sign on with your support, go to this web page.

Tiny News is on Bluesky!

📣 Tiny News recently joined Bluesky. Be sure to follow us, @ us, tag us and join the conversation there! 💙

Founder Shout-outs

Launches of the month

🚀 At Tiny News, we love to celebrate new launches. The latest ones are a new website from 2PuntosPlatform, a local media outlet covering the Latine community in Philadelphia, and a new email newsletter from Ethiopique, which informs and connects the Amharic-speaking community in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. 🎊

Awards and recognition

Mark Tyler of Atlantic City Focus giving remarks after receiving the Champion Award earlier this month (Photo courtesy of Joe Amditis/Center for Cooperative Media)

🏆 Atlantic City Focus won the Champion Award at the 2025 New Jersey Ethnic and Community Media Celebration & Awards on February 6 at the College of New Jersey. (Read founder Mark Tyler's moving letter of gratitude here.) Also, Bookshop.org featured Left on Read, the bookstore run by TNC member Dr. Latasha Eley Kelly, a.k.a. The Millennial Black Professor, as one of the 160 Black-owned bookstores to support during Black History Month. 🎉

Speaking up and speaking out

🗣️ There’s nothing better than seeing our TNC founders out in the real world, giving talks, getting quoted and showing up in their communities. Here are some highlights from the past month:

⛭ As seen above, Teri Mott and Emily Christensen from THE Shout gave a talk to the Rotary Club of Wichita on February 3.

👩🏽‍🦰 Nora Hertel from Project Optimist spoke to the League of Women Voters of Red River Valley on February 7.

🛥️ Cara Kuhlman of Future Tides pulled off four engagements at the Seattle Boat Show earlier this month, including appearing on three panels and hosting the first ever Future Tides meetup.

🎙️ Julio Ricardo Varela moderated an entertaining and informative “Late Night Snacks” panel at the Knight Media Forum, featuring FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya and FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez.

Resources

Tips for covering immigrant communities in 2025, from the National Press Club Journalism Institute
The executive director of Borderless Magazine in Chicago shares her advice for covering immigrants and immigration with empathy and accuracy during this time of political upheaval. She emphasizes that immigration stories are local stories and points to resources like the National Association of Hispanic Journalists' "Guidelines for Reporting on Immigration Raids."

Next Challenge for Media & Journalism
This is the largest startup competition open to nonprofit and for-profit media companies in the United States. The annual 16-week challenge promotes groundbreaking ideas and trailblazing startups that will reinvent journalism and media over the coming decade. Five winning startups will split $200,000 in prize money. Apply by March 18.

Journalism safety & legal resources list
Independent media adviser Sue Cross has curated and compiled this list of organizations and materials for journalists that focus on safety (including digital safety) and legal help. It will continue to be updated as people suggest other resources.

5 things every nonprofit should do right now, from INN
This tip sheet is aimed at nonprofit news organizations but includes solid advice for anyone running a news outlet that wants to be prepared in these very volatile times.

The GAIN 2025 Challenge
Generative AI in the Newsroom is looking for use cases for generative AI and how those use cases are evaluated. If you work with generative AI in news production, send along details about your organizational context and use case, evaluation approach, learnings and ongoing challenges. Those invited to write up their approach for the blog will be paid $500 for their time and effort in contributing upon acceptance of the final draft. Learn more and apply by the end of March.

Documented training program
Documented is embarking on a program that will support newsrooms across the country in innovating journalism for local immigrant communities in their languages. Documented will train these newsrooms to understand their local immigrant communities’ needs, support their editorial processes and the way they communicate and build engagement and support for this work. To inquire about the program, fill out this form.

Journalism Conferences List from journalism.wtf
A helpful list of media and journalism conferences happening this year, put together by former TNC’er Heather Bryant.

Featured image: Presenters line up to share information at the Santa Barbara Catholic Church in East Austin. (Photo courtesy of CAMINA ATX via Austin Vida)

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Thanks for reading the latest edition of the Big Blast from Tiny News. Be sure to follow us on social media to keep up with the latest from TNC and our amazing group of founders!

The Big Blast Credits

Written by Amy L. Kovac-Ashley, with Mark Glaser

Edited by Amy L. Kovac-Ashley and Erica Perel