Brier Dudley

1 week ago | seattletimes.com | Brier Dudley

A new study helps explain why Americans continue to trust local news, even as their trust in national media, government and other institutions is falling. The authors assert that people use “a news outlet’s local orientation as a shortcut to assess its credibility.” If a news source appears local, people are inclined to trust it. That should be encouraging for those wanting to sustain and regrow local journalism, and to local news outlets trying to survive two decades of market disruption.

4 weeks ago | seattletimes.com | Brier Dudley

Tulips aren’t the only thing emerging in Skagit County right now. A local news startup, the La Conner Community News, started printing a physical newspaper and saw its subscriptions more than double over the last week. This is a remarkable turn of events for a community that rallied last year to save its century-old local newspaper, only to see it close in December. That happens all too often. A third of America’s local newspapers, more than 3,000 of them, closed over the last two decades.

1 month ago | seattletimes.com | Brier Dudley

Rufus Friday has a difficult but extremely important job. The longtime newspaper executive was recently hired to lead an organization that aims to restore trust in the news media. In today’s environment, that’s a bit like trying to clear a minefield while bombs are dropping and bullets are flying from the right and left. But Friday is undaunted and the Center for Integrity in News Reporting is, I think, taking a smart approach.

2 months ago | seattletimes.com | Brier Dudley

Washingtonians care deeply about the survival of their local news organizations, judging from a Tuesday legislative hearing in Olympia. More than 500 people signed in to testify on state Senate Bill 5400, which would increase a surcharge on large tech companies to fund a $20 million grant program for local journalism. That included 423 who signed up to testify in support of the bill and 81 against, according to state Sen. Rebecca SaldaƱa, chair of the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee.

Jan 24, 2025 | seattletimes.com | Brier Dudley

Seven months after Ileana Martinez and another employee acquired the Sunnyside Sun from its former publisher, the Yakima Valley newspaper is squeaking by. “We’re staying afloat,” she said Wednesday night, after an accounting class she’s taking to sharpen her business skills.