Why Making Money From Local News Is Hard: The Neal Ungerleider Newsletter

Or why readership doesn't necessarily equal profits.

Greetings from the Great Lakes, where the summer thunderstorms are rolling in with regularity.

(Via GIPHY)

Here’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately:

Local journalism is one of the most important things out there. People need to know what’s happening in their neighborhoods and their cities with more detail than the bulletin board at your coffee shop or a panicky local Facebook group.

However, generating advertising revenue as a local news site is a damned nightmare.

That’s one reason why Curbed shut down their remaining local sites the other day in favor of a unified national portal. And RIP! Their local verticals were doing amazing work.

I wrote a little something on Medium about Curbed in particular and why local news sites have a hard time making money in general. Check it out.