New York Focus Statewide Community Listening Tour

As the state’s only nonprofit statewide newsroom, part of our mission is to help rebuild a local news ecosystem that has faced years of relentless cuts: Almost half of New York’s newspapers have died in the last two decades.

Why do we care? New York Focus, an independent nonprofit newsroom, investigates power in the Empire State. Founded in 2020, we publish in-depth journalism about climate, housing, criminal justice, immigration and economic development in order to explain how the state really works.

As the state’s only nonprofit statewide newsroom, part of our mission is to help rebuild a local news ecosystem that has faced years of relentless cuts: Almost half of New York’s newspapers have died in the last two decades.

With generous support from The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, we set out to answer this question. Between the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024, New York Focus traveled to cities like Rochester, Albany, Potsdam, and Syracuse to gather information from local communities and media partners to understand the local news landscape of New York.

Read our full report here.