Filling the Gaps: Examining Reach, Engagement and Impact in North Carolina’s News Nonprofits Charles Duncan Faculty Advisor: Penelope Muse Abernathy School of Journalism and Mass Communication University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill April 2015 This project was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Graduate Liberal Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University. Copyright Charles Duncan 2015 Abstract In an attempt to fill gaps in coverage caused by shrinking newsrooms in the traditional news industry, numerous nonprofit digital news organizations have been established around the United States in recent years. These organizations are diverse in focus and scope. Three organizations in North Carolina, all less than five years old, are part of this new wave. Each has a different niche and geographic focus: North Carolina Health News covers state politics and public health issues; Carolina Public Press focuses on investigating regional issues in the western part of the state; and PlanCharlotte is devoted to urban planning and design in the Charlotte area and is part of the Urban Institute at UNC Charlotte. All of these sites face significant hurdles as they attempt to figure out a long-term business model. Instead of returns for shareholders, nonprofits must show impact on their communities to receive funding from foundations, donors and other sources. This paper uses readership data, content analysis and qualitative information gleaned from anecdotes, articles and interviews to gauge where the sites stand today. NC Health News and the Public Press have seen healthy readership growth and have well-documented local impacts. But the two nonprofits are far from financial sustainability. They need to focus on business development and the founding editors need to move into the roll of executive directors. PlanCharlotte’s readership has been relatively flat over the past two years. Because it is part of a university, its financial concerns are less about bringing in donations and grants and have more to do with being part of a public university budget. iii Table of Contents ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................................. III LIST OF TABLES & FIGURES ................................................................................................................ V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................................... VI INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 1 THE COLLAPSE OF A FOR-PROFIT MODEL .............................................................................................................. 2 A NEW NONPROFIT MODEL ...................................................................................................................................... 4 THREE CASE STUDIES FROM NORTH CAROLINA .................................................................................................. 8 CAROLINA PUBLIC PRESS ...................................................................................................................................... 10 NORTH CAROLINA HEALTH NEWS ...................................................................................................................... 11 PLANCHARLOTTE ................................................................................................................................................... 12 REACH, IMPACT, SUSTAINABILITY ....................................................................................................................... 13 CHAPTER 1 - READERSHIP: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN AND WHY ............................... 15 NORTH CAROLINA HEALTH NEWS ...................................................................................................................... 16 CAROLINA PUBLIC PRESS ...................................................................................................................................... 17 PLANCHARLOTTE ................................................................................................................................................... 19 READERSHIP: WHY ................................................................................................................................................. 22 CHAPTER 2 - CONTENT ANALYSIS: UNIQUE, IN-DEPTH ......................................................... 28 CAROLINA PUBLIC PRESS ...................................................................................................................................... 29 NORTH CAROLINA HEALTH NEWS ...................................................................................................................... 33 PLANCHARLOTTE ................................................................................................................................................... 36 PARTNERSHIPS EXPAND CONTENT AND REACH ................................................................................................ 39 CHAPTER 3 - IMPACTS: KNOWLEDGE, CHANGE ........................................................................ 43 CAROLINA PUBLIC PRESS ...................................................................................................................................... 45 NORTH CAROLINA HEALTH NEWS ...................................................................................................................... 49 PLANCHARLOTTE ................................................................................................................................................... 53 CHAPTER 4 - CHALLENGES FOR THE FUTURE ........................................................................... 58 STAFFING .................................................................................................................................................................. 59 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT ...................................................................................................................................... 61 DIVERSIFIED REVENUE .......................................................................................................................................... 62 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................................... 66 APPENDIX A: READERSHIP DATA .................................................................................................. 70 APPENDIX B: READER SURVEYS ..................................................................................................... 73 APPENDIX C: CONTENT ANALYSIS ................................................................................................. 87 APPENDIX D: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS .................................................................................... 96 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................. 105 iv List of Tables & Figures Table 1 - North Carolina Health News readership by top 10 locations. ................................ 17 Table 2 – Carolina Public Press readership by top 10 locations. ............................................. 18 Table 3 - PlanCharlotte readership by top 10 locations. ............................................................ 20 Table 4 - How readers access each organization. ......................................................................... 21 Table 5 - Top ten stories by page views for Carolina Public Press, March 2014. ............... 32 Table 6 - Top ten stories by page views for NC Health News, March 2014. ........................ 35 Table 7 - Top ten stories by page views for PlanCharlotte, March 2014. ............................ 37 Figure 1 - North Carolina Health News readership. ..................................................................... 16 Figure 2 - Web traffic to Carolina Public Press since February 2011. .................................... 18 Figure 3 - PlanCharlotte readership data from March 2012 through August 2014. ........ 19 Figure 4 - Age distribution for North Carolina Health News. ................................................... 22 Figure 5 - Age distribution for PlanCharlotte. ................................................................................. 23 Figure 6 - Age distribution for Carolina Public Press. ................................................................... 23 Figure 7 – Valued coverage from NC Health News. ...................................................................... 23 Figure 8 – Valued coverage from PlanCharlotte. ........................................................................... 24 Figure 9 – Valued coverage from the Public Press. ....................................................................... 24 Figure 10 – North Carolina Health News issue responses. ......................................................... 25 Figure 11 - PlanCharlotte issue responses. ...................................................................................... 26 v Acknowledgements Many people in both my academic and professional careers have helped lead the way to this thesis, in many ways a marriage of the two. I am grateful to my advisor on this project, Penelope Muse