Comment by coffeefirst

This has been tried a lot with very little to show for it.

The problem is running a real newsroom that actually has the capabilities to do serious coverage is shockingly expensive.

So you need a revenue model. Being local, it can't pursue scale like WaPo or Dotdash-Meredith, so programmatic isn't going to work for you with. National advertisers want more scale and more specific demographics than you're able to offer, and besides, why should they deal with you when they can target the same people on Facebook?

So you're left with a few local advertisers, who may be willing to spend some money, but the metro papers have tried that for the last decade and it's not enough.

Which leaves subscriptions.

And here's the question: Newspapers were never actually in the political coverage business, they're in the Information Business, and local politics and news are loss-leaders inside that. In the old days, their offering included sports, real estate, classifieds, jobs, shopping, movie times and various other near monopolies that are now scattered to the winds of the internet.

So that leaves two questions:

1. What is a local information product that's good enough for a sizeable percentage of the community to pay for?

2. At what price point?

3. How big does that community need to be in order to make it work?

Can this be done? Actually, I think there's a shot if the right person tried it in the right place. I have some ideas, but odds are long, and I don't think anyone without a deep grasp of both the local community they plan to serve and the business they're going into has a chance.