Service Journalism and Celebrating Immigrant Life

Vanan Murugesan — executive director of Sahan Journal, Minnesota's only nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering immigrants and communities of color — joins the Chuck Toddcast ahead of Local News Day on April 9th to discuss a dimension of the local news crisis that rarely gets attention: community news deserts. Murugesan explains that even in Minnesota — a state with relatively strong local news — immigrant stories were consistently missed or covered with biased narratives by mainstream outlets. He draws a vivid analogy: mainstream news organizations are like Target, offering broad coverage for a general audience, while immigrant outlets are specialty stores that reflect the specific realities of their communities. 

The conversation turns to the business of sustaining community journalism in a fractured media landscape. Murugesan argues that the ideal model is 50 to 70 percent reader-funded through a combination of subscribers and donors, noting that audience size isn't the ultimate goal — who the audience is can matter as much as how large it is. He explains that immigrant newsrooms actually have an advantage because they don't follow the conservative, cautious practices of legacy media — they're willing to experiment with video, social media, and syndication partnerships that allow them to overindex their audience relative to their size. They discuss why  local service journalism — helping people navigate schools, immigration processes, and government services — isn't always sexy but is incredibly useful, while insisting that the joyful parts of the immigrant experience need to be better covered alongside the hardship.

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Timeline:

(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)

00:00 Vanan Murugesan (Sahan Journal) joins the Chuck ToddCast

02:00 There are both local news deserts, and community news deserts

03:00 How would you describe the Sahan Journal and its mission?

04:00 Minnesota has great local news, but immigrant stories were missed

06:30 Immigrant media was created to reflect realities of their audience

08:30 Immigrants truly want to understand the place they’re living in

10:00 Mainstream outlets are like Target, immigrant outlets are specialty stores

12:00 How do you decide when a community needs a full time reporter?

13:00 Sahan publishes in English to serve all Minnesotans 

15:00 Addressing immigrant issues can uplift the entire community

16:30 Why not publish in multiple languages? Is it a resource issue?

17:30 Sahan added a spanish language version

18:30 Insisted on using a spanish speaking human for translations

19:30 Digital tools allow for pretty good translation

22:30 What works about the nonprofit model? Could you see going for-profit?

23:30 Sustainability is the ultimate goal regardless of profit model

25:15 Generating revenue from subscribers + donors is the ideal model

26:45 Washington Post has become beholden to Jeff Bezos

28:45 Ideally, 50-70% reader funded is the business model

29:30 Audience size isn’t the ultimate panacea

30:30 Who the audience is can matter as much as the size of it

32:30 Craigslist destroyed the business model for local newspapers

35:00 Newsrooms tend to be conservative and cautious trying new models

38:30 Immigrant newsrooms due well to not follow national media practices

41:00 Media is fracturing, but the barrier to entry is getting lower

43:00 Able to overindex audience by using video & social media

44:00 Are you able to syndicate any of your work to other outlets?

45:30 Finding stories they can collaborate on with other outlets

46:30 Local service journalism isn’t always sexy but is incredibly useful

47:30 What type of service journalism do you produce?

48:45 The joyful part of the immigrant experience needs to be better covered

50:00 Trying to balance what the audience wants with what they need

51:45 Celebrating Local News Day on April 9th

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