Why the Beacon is needed more than ever

On Sunday, the Rochester Beacon marked eight years since its start on Oct. 18, 2018. A few days before that anniversary, the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University released its 2026 State of Local News Report. It would be hard to find a document that more clearly highlights why we launched this venture.

“For more than two decades, the American local news industry has been in a state of contraction,” the report begins. “Seismic shifts in publishing business models, combined with aggressive consolidation by large chains, have led many news media outlets to merge or shut down entirely.” Even in communities where traditional sources of news have survived, there has been “a dramatic shrinkage” of journalism jobs.

“Alarmingly,” the report adds, “these trends have shown no signs of slowing. In fact, they’ve been accelerating.”

Here are some of the hard numbers that back up those statements:

■ Over the last year, 170 newspapers nationwide have closed or merged—a rate of roughly three a week, up 50% from previous years. In the last two decades, there has been a net loss of over 3,400 papers, a 38% decline.

■ From 2024 to 2025, the newspaper industry shed more than 7,500 jobs, a decline of more than 8%. Since 2005, the number of newsroom jobs overall has declined from 75,000 to 29,090, a 61% drop.

■ Two decades ago, there were just over 150 “news desert” counties in the U.S., places without a locally based source of professional news reporting. That number has climbed to 238 today, and the report states that “more than half of all U.S. counties, in which 47 million people live, have limited access to reliable local news.”

■ Readership of local news outlets, including online readership, has “dropped precipitously.” Indeed, after a surge during the 2020 election and COVID-19 pandemic, internet traffic to the largest local news sites in the last four years has decreased by 50%.

Fortunately, the Rochester region has not joined the list of news deserts. But it has not escaped many of the trends—in particular, the decline of daily newspapers—outlined in the Medill report. Two decades ago, the Democrat and Chronicle had more than 150 newsroom employees; by 2024, the number had dropped to around 25.

We launched the Beacon believing there was a need in Rochester for a local nonprofit dedicated to news and investigative reporting, analysis, and opinion grounded in facts. We were less sure it would survive more than a few months—startups have a high failure rate. But for eight years now, we have delivered fresh content each weekday. And unlike news outlets whose online readership has fallen sharply in the last few years, the Beacon’s has continued to expand—since October 2022, there’s been a more than fivefold increase in annual traffic to our website.

We believe we also have lived up to key objectives put forth in our Mission Statement such as highlighting the community’s most pressing needs, driving conversations about solutions and providing a forum for diverse voices.

Beacon anniversaries bring with them a feeling of gratitude for all of those who have helped us reach this point. First, our readers. Your belief in our mission has carried us every step of the way over the last eight years.

We also are very grateful for the generous support we have received from corporate sponsors such as Bond, Schoeneck & King, lead sponsor of our website and weekly email since the earliest days—and charitable foundations. Over the last 12 months, the Beacon has received vital grant funding from the ESL Charitable Foundation, the Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation and the Greater Rochester Health Foundation.

We also want to thank our board: former Rochester mayor Thomas Richards; Alex Amorese, a licensed associate at CB Richard Ellis; Valerie Alhart, Armbruster Capital Management’s chief marketing officer; Allison Frisch, assistant professor of journalism and documentary studies at Ithaca College; and Erin Hunt, digital marketing manager at Mirion Medical.

And personally, I’d like to thank all of the folks who have been part of our core news team. Among them: Managing Editor Smriti Jacob, a Beacon cofounder and the person who deserves the most credit for the content you see each day; and Jacob Schermerhorn, a former intern who has become our senior writer and data journalist. Thanks as well to David Wazana, another former Beacon intern who now is a regular contributing writer; and Gary Craig and Will Cleveland, two former D&C reporters who now are sharing their excellent work with Beacon readers.

Each anniversary of the Beacon’s first day of publication is an important milestone, but it’s also a reminder of the challenges we still face. Perhaps the biggest one is long-term sustainability, or as the final section of our Mission Statement puts it: creating “an enduring business model for responsible, high-quality journalism in the online era.”

The Beacon is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We began as an all-volunteer venture and continue to run a very lean operation, but it’s not cost-free. The biggest line item in our budget is paying our journalists—since the second year, all writers, editors and photographers on assignment have been compensated—and our growth requires that line to keep pace. Most importantly, we need the Beacon to be a place where the next generation of journalists—such as Jacob, David and others who have participated in our internship program, now known as the Oasis Project—can be employed and start to build their careers.

What will it take for us to be truly sustainable over the long run? The honest answer: roughly double our current annual revenues. It’s not a small number, but one we believe we can obtain. The cornerstone of our financial support is donations from community members who believe that the Rochester region needs a nonprofit, independent source of in-depth local news coverage. NewsMatch, our biggest annual fundraising campaign, once again will start Nov. 1 and run until Dec. 31. It is a national matching-gift campaign that matches up to $1,000 per individual donor to eligible nonprofit news organizations, all of which belong to the Institute for Nonprofit News. We greatly appreciate all donations. If you haven’t donated before, we hope you will do so this year; if you have contributed in the past, we hope you will consider increasing your donation during this year’s campaign.

We also would appreciate your help in spreading the word about the NewsMatch campaign—and, of course, encouraging others to read the Beacon. (Anyone who wants to receive links to each article we publish can sign up to receive our free Weekly Review email.)

We are not discouraged by the financial challenge we face; it’s a fact of life in the news business these days. If anything, our resolve has grown. We are working on some exciting new initiatives for the next 12 months. As the Medill report observed, “Within the highly dynamic ecosystem of local news, sustainability requires a willingness to change and explore innovative ideas, while remaining true to the essential mission of keeping local voices alive.”

With your support for our mission, the Beacon will become an even stronger presence in our region and help ensure that the Rochester community gets the news and information it needs.

Paul Ericson is Rochester Beacon executive editor.

The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing  [email protected]