They're being called "local news ecosystems," and one is building in Northeast Ohio.

It's what philanthropies, civic activists and entrepreneurial journalists across the country see as the sprouting of mostly young and fragile organizations that are trying to bring news and information, usually online, to overlooked neighborhoods and communities. Many share content to spread their stories further, with a focus on bolstering, if not directly competing, with the work of struggling traditional print and broadcast media.

Northeast Ohio has already spawned several news operations, including the Observer group of community newspapers serving Lakewood and several other Cuyahoga County communities, and The Devil Strip in Akron.

One of the latest, and maybe the most ambitious, is The Land, which just launched its website. As planned, The Land would "deliver in-depth stories that foster accountability, inform the community and inspire people to take action," according to the crowdfunding proposal prepared by founder and editor Lee Chilcote and publisher Tammie Wise, both formerly associated with Freshwater Cleveland, a for-profit digital magazine owned by Detroit-based Issue Media Group.

The Land plans to cover all of Cleveland's neighborhoods and the city's inner ring of suburbs, eventually building a staff of six reporters to cover government, development, environment, education, health care and civic engagement.

"There's been a tremendous amount of growth in the nonprofit news sector in recent years," Chilcote said. "The nonprofit model will allow us a lot of ability to serve the community, have some earned income but have memberships and grants to fulfill our mission."

Chilcote said he and Wise were motivated by what they see as a "news crisis" in Northeast Ohio as traditional news organizations, particularly The Plain Dealer, have made significant cuts in news coverage.

This is not a Northeast Ohio phenomenon. Across the country, the decline or demise of newspapers has created so-called "news deserts" in many communities. At the same time, foundations and other philanthropies are beginning to see that local news is critical to maintaining healthy communities, especially in lower-income parts of cities.

Last year, the Cleveland and Knight foundations commissioned a study, "Northeast Ohio's Local News and Information Ecosystem," by two North Carolina consultants that was aimed at civic leaders. One of its key conclusions: "Whatever your primary issue of concern, your second issue should be media." It argued that local news engages citizens, improves public decision-making and makes political and civic leaders accountable to their communities. It also makes contributions to public health and political participation.

When participants in six focus groups were asked to talk about issues they were facing and how they stayed informed, they were critical of the existing media landscape. Said one participant: "I can find out where the trash is, or (about) an event over here. But what's really, really happening policy-wise coming from city hall, coming from my school board and that sort of thing? People are not really getting good quality information."

The study also found that the number of news gatherers in Cleveland was down 61% between 2004 and 2019. In Akron, that figure was down 54%.

Michael Murphy, chief marketing officer of the Cleveland Foundation, said that funding parts of the ecosystem makes sense to his and other organizations in the community. In December, the Cleveland Foundation and the Akron Community Foundation, the Center for Community Solutions, the George Gund Foundation and the Knight Foundation announced more than $110,000 in journalism grants to address community information needs in Akron and Cleveland.

"As a coalition of funders, we are starting to see news and information as the critical part of any community infrastructure," Murphy said. "If you don't have a healthy news and information ecosystem, you can't have a community that's thriving. Citizens need to be informed."

The Cleveland Foundation, for example, has funded a project on food insecurity in Cleveland developed by Black Girl Media, a blog and podcast collective; Edible Cleveland, a print and online magazine; and WOVU, a community radio station created by Burten, Bell, Carr Development Inc., the nonprofit community development corporation serving Cleveland's Central and Kinsman neighborhoods.

It also is sponsoring a one-year pilot of a program through Neighborhood Connections, a Cleveland nonprofit that boosts Cleveland neighborhoods, to pay Greater Clevelanders to document official committee meetings of Cuyahoga County and City of Cleveland governments. The program, Documenters.org, was created in Chicago by City Bureau, a nonprofit civic journalism lab.

"Residents in Cleveland, especially, felt that they don't feel represented at editorial meetings, that there is not someone that looks like them who is making decisions. There is a strong, strong sense of distrust," Murphy said. "They feel that even when there are stories of hope in their neighborhood, the traditional media rely on antiquated B-roll, or antiquated images, to even tell a story of good news."

One of the oldest parts of the building Northeast Ohio news ecosystem is the Observer group, a loosely connected group of for-profit and nonprofit news organizations started more than a decade ago as print monthlies or biweeklies that are considered "hyperlocal" because they focus on a single community, or closely linked communities. They cover schools heavily but also housing, libraries and city councils. Seven Observers, each separately owned, cover communities from Westlake and Parma to Collinwood and Euclid.

Bob Rosenbaum, advertising director of the Heights Observer, which covers Cleveland Heights and University Heights, said the Observers started as print publications and continue to have a strong print presence because its revenue comes from local advertisers who don't need or can't afford to reach the kind of audience that larger media reach.

"We're now in our 11th year, and we've been making it on advertising revenue almost exclusively. Ninety percent of our revenue is advertising," he said. "We've largely had year-on-year growth until this year. This year, everything is blown to the wind."

Rosenbaum said his organization does attract some foundation funding for specific projects, and it is a member, along with some of the other Observers, of the Neighborhood & Community Media Association of Greater Cleveland. That association's website posts stories from its 14 members, including the Plain Press, which covers Cleveland's West Side neighborhoods, and the Real Deal Press, which covers "the interplay of race, class and power in the civic, business and cultural spaces of Northeast Ohio."

The Devil Strip, a 5-year-old online and print news co-op in Akron that believes media are a city's "chief storyteller," sees its role as being an advocate for the city.

"I think the way we fit into the local news ecosystem is filling gaps that we see," said editor Chris Horne. "We're looking at more narrative, long-term, slow journalism. Part of it is, we don't have the ability to do the daily stuff."

Those gaps include looking at local arts, music, entrepreneurship and community leadership, and celebrating the people who make Akron a unique place as well as exploring the challenges that hold it back.

Horne said Devil Strip is getting 30,000 unique visitors a month. Before the pandemic hit, much of Devil Strip's revenue came from advertising. But it also is in the middle of a two-year, $200,000 grant from the Knight Foundation, and it has won a $50,000 grant from the GAR Foundation.

News organizations like these are cropping up all over the country. The Institute for Nonprofit News, a Los Angeles organization that is a hub where members can share best practices, pool resources and collaborate on stories, has more than 250 members including The Devil Strip and Belt magazine in Northeast Ohio.

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Local news ecosystem is taking root in Northeast Ohio - Crain's Cleveland Business