BALTIMORE, Maryland — Sinclair and New Media are preparing to turn local reporting into a national subscription product called The National Press, the companies announced October 6.
The planned service will draw on approximately 1,200 Sinclair journalists across more than 60 content centers. Distribution will include free and paid Substack subscriptions, along with video, podcasts and social platforms. Lyndsay Keith will lead programming.
For local television, the consequential change is the business model: reporting produced in individual communities can become material for a separate national audience and paid relationship.
That creates an opportunity to support journalism beyond traditional advertising. It also raises questions about newsroom workload, editorial priorities and whether participating stations receive resources from the new revenue.
The announcement establishes the planned service, but does not establish how subscription income will be allocated to individual newsrooms or what additional reporting commitments subscribers will receive.
RNN’s next reporting step is to examine ownership of subscriber relationships, correction procedures and the balance between national story selection and local public-service obligations.
The RNN Question
Who controls story selection, and how much subscription revenue returns to the journalists and communities producing the reporting?
Sources: Official announcement