August 9, 2023

Nonprofit newsrooms covering distinct geographic areas — either local, state/regional or national/global — share commonalities in revenue models, staff size and type of journalism, as shown in a set of INN Index Fact Sheets published today. 

Analysis of 2022 data from the annual INN Index survey shows that local nonprofit news is in the midst of a sustained multiyear expansion into more communities, and the number of organizations has more than doubled in six years. Local outlets tend to cover a broad array of topics for local communities, including government and politics and local education. Local, nonprofit outlets have launched at an average rate of more than one per month, a total of 81 outlets, since rapid growth began in 2017. Within this group:

• Half operate on budgets of $250K or less
• Earned revenue efforts are more successful for locals, with signs of rebounding earned income after the COVID crisis
• Paid staff counts range from 0 to 35, median of 4 

Read the Fact Sheet on Local News

State and regional nonprofit news outlets have grown steadily in number for more than a decade. Taken together, they now provide coverage of at least 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. They are spread evenly across four of the five major regions of the United States, but there are significantly fewer in the South. Nearly half of state and regional outlets primarily focus on in-depth, investigative reporting, with explanatory journalism emerging as another common and growing focus. Among these outlets:

• Nearly half operate on budgets of $500K or less
• Individual giving dollars support many state and regional outlets, who also enjoyed a surge in funding from foundations in 2022
• Paid staff counts range from 0 to 92, median of 6

Read the Fact Sheet on State and Regional News

National and global news organizations are the oldest and most established group of nonprofit news outlets. More than half (55%) of the national and global outlets in this study have been operating for a decade or more. Additional organizations have launched at an average rate of about four per year since 2012. The bases of operations for this group are heavily concentrated in the Northeast and in Washington, D.C. Within this group: 

• More than half operate on budgets of $1 million or more
• Foundation funding largely fuels these outlets, many of which require this type of support to produce investigative journalism 
• Paid staff counts range from 0 to 144, median of 10

Read the Fact Sheet on National and Global News

INN Index Fact Sheets are designed to break down industry data so that the sector’s partners, reporters and funders can more accurately understand these distinct models for nonprofit news, and for members and other publishers to benchmark their own operations.

For questions about Index Fact Sheets, please reach out to index@inn.org.