Across the country, nonprofit local news is expanding in reach, in vision, and in what it makes possible for communities. This spring in Fort Worth, Texas, that momentum came into focus as leaders from across our portfolio gathered for AJPalooza 2026, the American Journalism Project’s annual convening of newsroom leaders, funders, partners, and supporters. Three key ideas ran through this year’s gathering: the impact of this work, the ambition driving it forward, and the opportunity to shape what comes next.
Advancing growth and impact in local news
Since the American Journalism Project’s launch, growth of local newsrooms and nonprofit local news organizations has been the core focus of our work. At AJPalooza 2026, the conversation explored how that growth is maturing — from geographic expansion to a deeper focus on scale, sustainability, impact and long-term resilience.
In our annual State of the Portfolio presentation, Sarabeth Berman, American Journalism Project CEO, and Michael Ouimette, AJP chief investment officer, shared data on our portfolio’s 2025 growth, alongside a candid view of the challenges that remain. Portfolio leaders from WyoFile, Sahan Journal, Spotlight PA and Spotlight Delaware also spoke, highlighting how they were able to grow across key areas of revenue and audience in the last year.
Overall, the data reflects real momentum. The portfolio now serves 99 communities across the country. Total revenue has reached $160 million, with 81% of organizations growing revenue year over year. More than 1,100 people work across the portfolio today, including over 800 journalists. And notably, while web traffic declined across much of the journalism industry in 2025, our portfolio saw audience growth: Monthly average unique visitors grew 16%, with a median growth rate of 26%. This growth indicates that, while AI and information fragmentation reshape how people find news, trusted, local and differentiated journalism is proving to be something audiences actively seek out.
As an example, Sahan Journal Executive Director Vanan Murugesan shared how the organization grew its monthly average unique visitors by 59% last year, reflecting years of investment in building an audience and gaining trust. As a result, when immigration enforcement surged in Minnesota, people across the region knew where to turn.
Audience growth also creates the conditions for other revenue to follow. Allison Taylor Levine, publisher and CEO of Spotlight Delaware, walked through how the organization grew its earned revenue by 82% in a single year, in part by leaning into local events as a way to deepen community ties and build new revenue at the same time. These numbers point to a field that is continuing to find pathways to grow, reach more people and increase its impact. Take Outlier Media in Detroit; When the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that Wayne County had unconstitutionally kept profits from tax-foreclosed homes, but didn’t require the county to notify the people it owed, Outlier launched a 16-week campaign to close that gap. It built an outreach system using print and its TXT OUTLIER messaging system, hosted public events reaching 2,700 residents, and created step-by-step guides to help people file claims. Thanks to Outlier’s work, of the $5.9 million owed to Detroit residents, approximately $3.8 million has already been returned.
Learning from one another: Breakout sessions and peer conversations
Throughout AJPalooza, attendees moved between panel conversations, workshops and science fair-style sessions designed to get into the weeds of building strong nonprofit local news organizations. The breadth of sessions covered a lot of ground, including revenue strategy, audience growth, leadership, impact measurement and AI.
A series of conversations addressed the challenge of making the case for local news to new supporters. Among these, a session on pitch architecture pushed participants to rebuild their messaging around what donors actually care about: if their city is governed well, how their community is evolving, or how people can access opportunity.
Another theme was around growing audiences in an ever-changing media environment. A workshop titled “The 10x audience bet” pushed newsrooms to think about bold, focused growth experiments and the organizational conditions that let those experiments succeed. And a separate session on AI tools offered first-hand looks at how organizations leveraged emerging technologies to grow audiences and revenue.
A third thread ran through the leadership and resilience sessions: the work of building organizations that don’t depend on any one person, funding source, or moment of public attention. Participants explored answers to questions that will help them build long-term resiliency, like assembling a strong board, planning for succession, and long-term financial planning.
Local first: The Fort Worth Report and Tarrant County
Each year, AJPalooza is held in a community served by one of our portfolio organizations. Fort Worth was a fitting choice: one of the fastest-growing large cities in the United States, and increasingly diverse both demographically and ideologically. The Forth Worth Report is building trust across these lines of difference, and is a strong example of what it looks like for a community to come together to build and sustain its own local newsroom.
Vision 2030, the newsroom’s growth plan, outlines how it intends to expand alongside one of the fastest-changing regions in the country, serving all of Tarrant County as Fort Worth is projected to become one of the 10 largest U.S. cities by 2030. The plan calls for deeper civic engagement, more accessible reporting, and a sustainable model built for the long term. As the newsroom puts it, the Fort Worth Report is not merely chronicling the region’s evolution — it is an integral part of its trajectory.
That ambition was on display throughout the gathering. An evening program at Cowtown Coliseum brought AJPalooza participants together with Fort Worth residents, civic leaders and supporters of the Fort Worth Report. The event highlighted the Coalition of the Concerned, a group of local leaders who came together to launch the newsroom in 2021 and who continue to invest in its growth, and featured a conversation with Ross Perot Jr., chairman of the Perot Companies and Hillwood, who spoke about his investments in North Texas and the role local news plays in fostering an informed, engaged community.
What has taken shape in Fort Worth mirrors what is happening across the country. Local champions, funders and civic leaders are stepping forward to build the news organizations their communities need, forming coalitions that make independent, community-centered journalism possible.
Experiencing Fort Worth
Participants also spent time across Fort Worth and Tarrant County, with community trips guided by Fort Worth Report staff and readers. Some visited Kinfolk House, a century-old home in the Polytechnic neighborhood where art and community intersect. Others walked through the Amon Carter Museum’s sweeping exhibition on Black photojournalism, named for the Fort Worth newspaperman who founded the Star-Telegram. Some saw the ongoing transformation of a former Ku Klux Klan auditorium into a new community space. In the Stockyards, participants experienced a longstanding piece of Fort Worth’s identity, including the iconic daily cattle drive along East Exchange Avenue.
These experiences, led by staff of Fort Worth Report, highlighted both how the publication’s local journalism is deeply rooted in its community and how the community is core to their work.
Looking ahead
The progress across the portfolio is real, and so is the ambition. Across the 48 organizations in our portfolio, newsrooms are producing reporting that forces regulators to respond, draws communities to public hearings, and shapes the decisions that affect people’s lives. The path forward will require continued adaptation as technology evolves, audience needs shift, and the information landscape changes — but the direction is clear.
Our 2026 Impact Report, which will include full portfolio data, will be available in June. Our State of the Portfolio presentation is available here, and Sarabeth Berman’s opening remarks are available here. More information about AJP’s portfolio and approach is available on our website.
