Eight Minnesota news organizations win grant money to build up local journalism

CATHY WURZER: While we're on the subject of journalism, reporting, mis and disinformation and all of that, let's talk about local news reporting. It's very important, but as you've all heard, it's in trouble. We've talked about that many times on

This program. Here's a hard fact. Newspapers in this country closed at the rate of more than two per week during 2023. But there's some good news. 81 digital news sites sprouted and are still going. To keep momentum going for small, hyperlocal sites in Minnesota, eight local journalism outlets across the state have each won a $100,000 grant to further their work.

The grant comes from Press Forward, a national organization aiming to close local coverage gaps, and the money was competitive. There were more than 900 applications. The winners from Minnesota?

BLCK Press, WTIP North Shore Community Radio in Grand Marais, ICTV in Grand Rapids, The Pine Knot News in Cloquet, SPEAK MPLS, the Swift County Monitor-News in Benson, ThreeSixty Journalism in St. Paul, and Project Optimist in Central Minnesota. Nora Hertel is the founder and executive director of Project optimist. We've talked to her in the past. Welcome back to the show, Nora. How have you been?

NORA HERTEL: I'm great. Hi, Cathy. Thank you so much for having me.

CATHY WURZER: Absolutely. Congratulations. That's a big deal.

NORA HERTEL: Thank you. Yeah. I'm thrilled. I'm really proud and honored to be on the list with the other recipients.

CATHY WURZER: That is quite a list that you're on. When you saw these grants, what did you think?

NORA HERTEL: Well, to be honest with you, I cried for joy. I really did.

CATHY WURZER: I can understand why, because this organization that you founded is so close to your heart. $100,000 is a big deal, a lot of money for a small organization. What are you hoping to do with the money?

NORA HERTEL: We are going to use it to shore up the business side of the organization. My background is in journalism. I worked at newspapers. I bring that passion into the organization, and we have a lot of journalism expertise with staff as well.

But I'm still learning how to run an organization and be a fundraiser, and the money will allow us-- we're just doing our first strategic plan, and so I'll be able to implement it with that funding. It will give me some runway to bring up some other revenue streams and to do some more fundraising on the ground.

CATHY WURZER: Good. So speaking of fundraising, most of these digital startups I talked about are nonprofit instead of for profit businesses, yours included. Why go the route of being a nonprofit site?

NORA HERTEL: I've heard it described as revenue promiscuity. It just allows you to raise through fundraising and grants and also earned revenue, like consulting or training, that kind of thing.

CATHY WURZER: So tell folks who are not familiar with Project Optimist-- I know your website says you like to pair inspiration with information. What does that mean exactly?

NORA HERTEL: Yeah. Our specialty is solutions journalism, which is rigorous and in-depth reporting on solutions to problems. So we look at how communities respond to problems, not just the problems themselves.

CATHY WURZER: But then do you fulfill the watchdog responsibility of a local news organization? Do you still do that?

NORA HERTEL: Yeah. I think that it's important to have solutions coverage within accountability coverage, because you present evidence that solutions are possible and that they are being tried and not that they are silver bullets, but that the problems are not completely intractable.

CATHY WURZER: By the way, as a longtime journalist, what does our society lose when there are not watchdogs on the ground in these local governments to tell you what's happening?

NORA HERTEL: Yeah. Well, we lose a sense of community, because we don't have the good news that we share-- sports games, prom, that kind of thing. We also get more divided because people go for their news from national organizations, which tend to be more negative and also more polarizing. I mean, news avoidance is a whole thing that we could talk about all hour.

CATHY WURZER: Yes.

NORA HERTEL: And I try to bring people back in with the solutions framing, because that at least presents possibilities for people.

CATHY WURZER: What's the reaction so far? Are people finding a home with Project Optimist?

NORA HERTEL: Yeah. We've had a lot of growth this year. We increased our subscription lists more than four times, and our donation numbers are also increasing three-fold this year. We have a couple staff people. And we're doing our latest audience survey, and people are typing in what they like about us especially. And it's really that sense of hope and pragmatic hope. We're not telling fluffy stories by any means, but people are really hungry for that.

CATHY WURZER: I'm wondering about your goals then. Now, you mentioned that you're doing some strategic planning, which is great. What are your major goals here for the next couple of years?

NORA HERTEL: I am hoping and expecting us to be involved in a lot of collaboration, so collaboration with other news organizations, collaboration with nonprofits for events. We also host community dialogues, and we report some of the things that emerge in those conversations. So we have partners already that we're working with, and we are hoping to do more of those going forward.

CATHY WURZER: And by the way, how big is your staff? Just curious.

NORA HERTEL: Four, but not everybody is full time. So I have a full time managing editor, part time visual photographer, marketing person, and then an event manager.

CATHY WURZER: OK. Reporting projects. Are you the main reporter? Gosh, Nora. I hope you're not. That's a lot of work.

NORA HERTEL: I'm not. No, I'm not. My managing editor does a lot of reporting, and then we work with freelancers around the state to cover issues that are close to them. So we did a big wildfire series, and the primary reporter of that lives up in Northern Minnesota in the area affected.

CATHY WURZER: So you're not just strictly focused on central Minnesota by any means.

NORA HERTEL: Yeah. I mean, that's where I'm rooted. My community is really St. Cloud, but my staff are spread out, and our freelancers are spread out. We're trying to find regional stories or go into pockets with partners to tell local stories that have been overlooked.

CATHY WURZER: What gives you joy about doing this work, Nora? It's a ton of work. I know you've worked in the business for a long time. You could have found another job somewhere, I suppose, but you went off in this direction, which is interesting to me. Where's the joy in this?

NORA HERTEL: Well, we incorporate a lot of art, and the solution focus brings me a lot of pleasure. Framing issues around attempted solutions is just so-- I just love it so much. It really saved journalism for me, and I'm hoping that it could save journalism on a larger scale.

And we include a section on delight in our newsletter every week with a photo. A lot of them are reader submitted. We do a lot of art around natural inspiration in the environment, and we just we really try to incorporate a lot of beauty into the aesthetic and just recognize that people need that.

CATHY WURZER: Well, Nora, again, congratulations. I'm pleased that you got that grant. That's going to help you. And I wish you all the best in the future.

NORA HERTEL: Thank you so much, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: We've been talking to Nora Hertel. She's the founder and executive director of Project Optimist.