Why Columbus Chose to Invest in Local Journalism

By Monica Jones

When a community decides local journalism is worth investing in, it’s making a statement about more than newspapers. It’s saying that informed citizens matter. That local stories matter. That understanding what happens in city hall, our schools, our neighborhoods and our businesses is essential to the health of the place we call home.

That is exactly what happened this month as the Georgia Trust for Local News, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Local News, acquired the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer from McClatchy Media. The purchase, made possible through the support of local donors working alongside the Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley, represents a community-wide investment in the future of local journalism.

For Ross McDuffie, the announcement is deeply personal.

A Columbus native and Columbus High graduate, McDuffie began his newspaper career in 2010 as an advertising sales consultant at the Ledger-Enquirer. He later became the paper’s general manager before moving into leadership roles elsewhere and eventually joining the National Trust for Local News as its first Chief Portfolio Officer in 2023. Today, he oversees newspaper operations in Georgia, Colorado and Maine, making Columbus something of a full-circle moment.

“It means the world to me,” McDuffie said. “I grew up reading the Ledger-Enquirer. I remember it on the coffee table and the kitchen counter every day. Columbus deserves this opportunity.”

But while McDuffie’s story is compelling, he is quick to emphasize that this acquisition is much bigger than any one individual. “This institution has good journalists working inside of it,” he said. “What we believe the Ledger needs is to be relocalized again.”

That single word, relocalized, captures much of the vision behind the Georgia Trust’s plans.

According to McDuffie, readers can expect expanded local reporting, more investigative and enterprise journalism, stronger coverage of local government, education, sports and community issues, and more opportunities for local voices to be heard. The organization also plans to add four reporters over the coming months, effectively doubling the newsroom’s reporting staff while maintaining local editorial leadership in Columbus.

Just as importantly, the publication intends to move away from the national celebrity stories and syndicated content that have increasingly filled many local news feeds in recent years.

“Our niche is local,” McDuffie said. “Anything that takes away from that, from a resource standpoint or a bandwidth standpoint, we have to do less of.”

The print edition will continue its current twice-weekly publication schedule while digital coverage remains the primary vehicle for daily news. McDuffie noted that the organization is also exploring new ways to evolve both its digital and print products to better reflect how readers consume information today.

One question raised almost immediately following the announcement was how nonprofit ownership might affect editorial independence.

McDuffie said the National Trust operates under a strict donor non-interference policy. While philanthropic support may help fund new reporting initiatives or newsroom resources, donors have no role in determining what is covered or how stories are reported.

That same commitment was echoed by Betsy Covington, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley.

“We have no expectations that donors would have any editorial impact,” Covington said. “Everybody ought to be saying, ‘Here’s what I’d like to know more about. Here’s what I’d like you to investigate.’ That’s community engagement, not editorial influence.”

For Covington, supporting the acquisition aligns directly with the Community Foundation’s mission of building stronger communities.

“People have to have a common set of facts about what’s happening in their community,” she said. “They have to know what’s happening in city government. They have to know what’s happening in the school district. They have to have trusted information about economic development and the issues affecting where they live. I believe democracy depends on people being informed and engaged in their communities, and local journalism is at the heart of that.”

Through its long-standing partnership with the Knight Foundation, the Community Foundation has spent years watching communities across the country grapple with shrinking newsrooms and the growing number of so-called “news deserts,” places where reliable local reporting has all but disappeared.

Rather than waiting to see what might happen next, local leaders saw an opportunity.

When representatives from the National Trust for Local News approached the Community Foundation earlier this year about the possibility of acquiring the Ledger-Enquirer, the Foundation activated its Local News and Information Fund and began bringing together community donors.

“Honestly,” Covington said with a smile, “pretty much everybody said yes.”

That support allowed the acquisition to move forward without burdening the new nonprofit organization with debt from the purchase, giving the newsroom a healthier foundation from which to rebuild.

Success, however, will ultimately depend on the community itself.

While the National Trust combines subscriptions, advertising, philanthropy, events and other revenue sources to sustain its publications, both McDuffie and Covington stressed that reader support remains essential.

“Our love language is subscriptions,” McDuffie joked during the interview.

To introduce readers to the new ownership, the Ledger-Enquirer has temporarily removed its digital paywall, with plans to keep it down through approximately mid-August. When it returns, the organization plans to implement a more nuanced approach that considers the public-service value of certain stories before placing them behind a subscription.

New readers are also expected to be able to subscribe for an introductory rate of 99 cents for the first month while that promotion remains available.

For Covington, success five years from now is remarkably simple.

“We want this to be the community’s newspaper,” she said. “We helped them get off to a healthy start. Now it’s up to them to convince all of us that it’s worth our support.”

There is room in Columbus for many voices telling many different stories. Some shine a light on the arts, local businesses, festivals and the people who make this community vibrant. Others ask difficult questions, investigate important issues and document the decisions that shape our future. Together, those voices form the story of a community.

And if this new chapter unfolds as its supporters hope, the biggest winner won’t simply be the Ledger-Enquirer – it will be all of Columbus.