Building on our founders’ experience in non-profit local news, the Lexington Observer also operates the Local News Hub (LNH).
Local news brings communities together, drives participation in civic life and helps build the informed citizenry required for a thriving democracy. LNH’s mission is to support the essential work of local and independent news organizations across the country by providing consultations and advice, distributing grants, and acting as a fiscal sponsor.
The Local News Hub operates as a program of the Lexington Observer under the Lexington Observer’s non-profit tax status.
Through fiscal sponsorship and re-granting efforts, LNH has distributed funds to nonprofit newsrooms in Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Ohio, Texas, Wisconsin through an invitation-only grant-making process.
The Local News Hub’s role as an advisor, grant giver and fiscal sponsor is due to the support of partners like Pivotal Ventures and the expertise of the founding team:
Nicco Mele is a Venture Partner at Draper Richards Kaplan where he serves on the board of the News Revenue Hub, City Bureau, Define American, and Recidiviz. From 2016 to 2019, Nicco was the Director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School where he led research on sustainable business models for local journalism and misinformation on social networks. He previously served as the Senior Vice President and Deputy Publisher of the Los Angeles Times where he was responsible for digital revenue for all of the California News Group’s brands.
Elizabeth Hansen is founder and CEO of the National Trust for Local News. Elizabeth started the Trust in 2020; the Trust currently operates newspapers in three states. She is a Harvard Business School-trained leading expert on local news business models and organizational change.
Lauren Feeney, executive director of LNH, is a multimedia journalist whose work has been featured on PBS, The New York Times, The Intercept, and The Atlantic, among other publications. In addition to LNH, she also serves as Executive Director of the Lexington Observer and Executive Producer of Proof News. Her work has been recognized with an Emmy nomination, four Edward Murrow Awards, the Newhouse Mirror Award, and several SPJ Awards, among other honors. Lauren is a graduate of Columbia’s journalism school, where she has also taught multimedia journalism.