Collaborative paths to sustainability for ethnic media with URL Media’s Sara Lomax and S. Mitra Kalita

Local News Matters

In this candid discussion, Sara Lomax and S. Mitra Kalita, co-founders of URL Media, delve into the network's mission to support and empower independent media serving Black and Brown communities. Now in its fourth year, URL Media aims to address the gaps and challenges faced by these media entrepreneurs, focusing on enhancing reach, expanding revenue and building long-term sustainability for BIPOC outlets.

We delve into the unique relationship that ethnic media have with their audiences. The trust inherent in that relationship is a cornerstone in providing nuanced and community-centric journalism. URL Media was founded in the wake of the racial reckoning of 2020, and we discuss the unfulfilled promises from that time and the systemic barriers that persist in various institutions, including the media. They emphasize the importance of trust over scale in journalism and critique the mainstream media's approach to objectivity, which often creates distance and alienation.

Episode chapters:

(02:27) - Founding URL Media to address gaps experienced by media entrepreneurs serving Black and Brown audiences

(05:38) - Scale is not the answer to solving democracy’s woes; trust is

(09:10) - Addressing the challenges of audience and revenue growth for BIPOC media

(18:28) - URL Media’s structure

(22:05) - We're not just covering a community. We are the community.

(27:09) - How notions of objectivity in mainstream media creates distance and alienation

(29:55) - How mainstream newsrooms can work with ethnic newsrooms in non-extractive ways

(35:01) - Philanthropy, ethnic media and systematic disenfranchisement

Links:

• URL Media: web, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X

• Sara Lomax: LinkedIn, Twitter/X

• S. Mitra Kalita: LinkedIn, Twitter/X

• Mentioned:

• WURD Radio

• Epicenter-NYC

• Charter

• The Philadelphia Inquirer

• Media Transformation Challenge program

• TBN24

• The Haitian Times

• Garry Pierre-Pierre

• Local News Matters: web, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

• Colorado Press Association: web, Twitter, Facebook

• Tim Regan-Porter: bio, Twitter

For show notes, transcripts, newsletter sign-up and past guests on the Local News Matters podcast, please visit localnewsmatterspodcast.com or lnmpod.com.

Past guests on the Local News Matters podcast include: Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro (National Trust for Local News), Mike Rispoli and Richard Young (via When the People Decide), Sarabeth Berman (American Journalism Project), Rabbi Hillel Goldberg and Shana Goldberg (Intermountain Jewish News), Lyndsay C. Green (via The Journalism Salute), Rashad Mahmood and Mark Glaser (New Mexico Local News Fund), Christian Vanek and Barbara Hardt (The Mountain-Ear), Dan Grech (BizHack), Zack Richner (Easy Tax Credits), Tracie Powell (Pivot Fund), Dan Oshinsky (Inbox Collective), Linda Shapley (via What Works), Yehong Zhu and Jake Seaton (Zette, Column), Charity Huff (January Spring), Joaquin Alvarado and Dave Perry (Aurora Sentinel), Steve Waldman (Rebuild Local News), Maritza Félix (Conecta Arizona), Michael Bolden (American Press Institute), Jeff Roberts and Corey Hutchins (CFOIC, Colorado College), Eve Pearlman and Erica Anderson (Spaceship Media), Jennifer Brandel (Hearken, Democracy SOS), Corey Hutchins with Bay Edwards, Todd Chamberlain and Raleigh Burleigh (Sopris Sun).