Listen "How Cityside built a sustainable model for local news"
Episode Synopsis
My newsletter: https://simonowens.substack.com/ It's no secret that local journalism has struggled since the Great Recessions, with hundreds of newspapers shuttering and thousands of reporters losing their jobs. Over the past few years, entrepreneurs have launched dozens of local news startups to help fill in the gap, but there's still an ongoing debate as to whether local news should be a for-profit or nonprofit industry. Berkeleyside is one of the few organizations that has tried both models. For the first several years of its existence, it was a for-profit entity, but then in 2019 its founders switched it over to a nonprofit model, and it's since expanded into three separate verticals that cover the bay area, with a fourth launch planned for 2024. In an interview, co-founder Lance Knobel walked me through how Berkeleyside came to be, why it switched to a nonprofit model, and how it generates revenue through a combination of grants, memberships, sponsorships, and large donations.
More episodes of the podcast The Business of Content with Simon Owens
Why this business news outlet ditched advertising to focus entirely on paid subscriptions
19/11/2025
This local newsletter covering a Dallas suburb has the highest paid conversion rate on Substack
06/10/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.