And while we’re taking about how to save journalism - may I suggest that this most important effort- so central to our democracy begins at home. I’ve been thinking about this a lot so here are some thoughts.

I really think the days of reporters parachuting into communities are done. The trust gap is so big now that the only way to close it is to build up LOCAL journalism. For a very long time we have placed too much value on the outsider...

The reporter as narrator and curator who is supposed to be without place, or gender identity or race (but is usually coastal, white and male) who “observes” a community from a distance...

And that distance is supposed to give that person the “perspective” necessary to “make sense” of the story and the people living it.

When in truth, it’s not distance but proximity that brings out the truth. And that’s what local journalism is about. Whether it’s your NPR member station or your local paper. These journalists understand the people in the stories because they are their neighbors.

And that’s how you start to close the trust gap - you invest in journalism that reflects the reality of people’s lives - as told not by outsiders - but by reporters who know them because they ARE them.

Yes there are layoffs happening left and right now in our industry and it’s hard to be encouraged but yesterday I talked on the phone with a new college graduate going to work for my hometown paper in Idaho Falls, ID...

He is going to cover rural health care. He asked me how to cover conspiracy theories. He asked how to guard against false equivalency. He asked how to account for one’s own biases and blind spots. About holding people accountable...

He asked me what keeps me going and I told him it was knowing that he and other young journalists are out there ready to get in this fight on the frontlines of local journalism. And it’s up to ALL of us to make sure they succeed.