When a popular D.C. news outlet abruptly shut down in February, six journalists resolved to create their own worker-led, nonprofit newsroom. The initiative, called the 51st, promises to bring more community-centered reporting to Washington’s dwindling local news scene and exceeded its $250,000 fundraising goal on Aug. 13.
“This has been a labor of love,” Eric Falquero, former journalist at the DCist and Street Sense Media, said.
Falquero and co-founders Abby Higgins, Maddie Poore, Colleen Grablick, Teresa Frontado, and Natalie Delgadillo are looking to fill the gap that opened when Washington’s NPR affiliate WAMU closed the DCist to focus on its audio brand, laying off 15 staffers. The digital paper offered a wide range of hyperlocal coverage, from holding elected officials accountable to suggesting fun weekend plans.
“The DCist, when it originally started, or before it was under WAMU, was a really voicey publication. It was a really political publication. It was funny. It wasn’t afraid to be a little provocative and poke fun at powerful people in D.C.,” Higgins said. “I think that’s a voice that we really need, and we want to bring back.”
The 51st will be the latest addition to the D.C. local news landscape, which has seen journalists laid off and bought out in the last two decades as readership habits change and conventional revenue-raising sources, like advertising, decline.
The District’s status as the nation’s capital already puts its local news scene in a unique position.
“D.C. has a really high concentration of journalists, but the vast majority of them are reporting on the White House, and on Capitol Hill, and on public politics,” Higgins said. “They’re not reporting on the lives of D.C. residents and what is happening to people in this city.”
Still, local news in D.C. isn’t as scarce as it is in non-metro areas, some of which have no local news outlets. There are local affiliates of national television stations, like NBC4 Washington D.C., as well as radio stations, like Washington Top News. There are also local divisions of national outlets, like Axios D.C. and the Washington Post’s local section.
But the local focus of these national news brands has also waned as executives pursue business decisions intended to capture larger audiences. When Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post in 2013, he sought to transform the traditionally local outlet to a globally-recognized brand. Though he initially kept the Post’s Metro section largely intact, according to Robert McCartney, former Metro editor, the Post’s local coverage eventually lessened over time as Metro reporters took buyouts during the 2008 recession and again in 2023.
But lately, the Post seems to be prioritizing its local roots—Axios D.C. reported in June that the Post’s CEO Will Lewis is thinking about offering “Local+,” a service where readers can “pay extra for premium local content.” McCartney also noted the importance of maintaining the Post’s local brand for both economic and reputational reasons, even as the outlet’s reach expands.
“The local audience is the most loyal audience to the Post,” McCartney told the Voice. “They read more stories, they spend more time on the web, and they are interested in more sections of the paper.”
Meanwhile, on the hyperlocal level, outlets like the Washingtonian, Washington City Paper, the Washington Informer, and others strive to offer the fullest picture of the District that they can.
Some outlets aim to highlight specific issue areas, such as Street Sense Media, which strives to end homelessness through reporting on housing and poverty. Annemarie Cuccia (SFS ’22), former editor-in-chief (EIC) of the Voice and current EIC of Street Sense, said there’s great value in having a paper dedicated to homelessness, which can go underreported at other news outlets with broader priorities. Street Sense has partnered with other outlets like the DCist, when it existed, and WAMU to bring its coverage to a larger audience and different reporting mediums.
“I think there is a good spirit of collaboration,” Cuccia said, describing the interactions between the local news outlets in D.C. “Unfortunately, whenever layoffs happen, I think there’s a recognition that I see of the D.C. media scene is already maybe smaller than it could or should be. And so [there’s an] appreciation of the journalists that we have and that we’re working alongside, even if people are working towards the same stories.”
As for its contribution to the D.C. news scene, Higgins said the 51st will bring a worker-led organization with “a deep sense of community engagement.” The outlet will focus on four categories in their coverage: issues of affordability in the District, explanations for how to access government services, investigations into corrupt systems, and stories that showcase D.C.’s culture.
It’s also emblematic of the community-focused direction that some newer newsrooms take where journalists strive to build relationships with the people they report on, according to Christina Sturdivant Sani, a freelance writer and editor for several D.C.-based publications.
“I think a lot of relationship building and trust building is coming out of the newer models of journalism,” she said.
In addition to filing paperwork to establish the organization and drafting workplace policies, the co-founders of the 51st held pop-ups at the Dupont, Bloomingdale and Ward 8 farmers markets. There, they conversed with District residents about what stories the outlet should cover, the first of several plans to engage their readers in the process of writing the news.
“We really want to make sure that we are in communities, and we are talking to communities, and we are listening to communities,” Higgins said. “And we are not only getting story ideas from them, but we are also hearing what they think about our coverage and the stories that we do.”
The 51st would be the only worker-led D.C. news outlet, which Poore said can make it less expensive to operate and potentially more sustainable than models that require high salaries to be paid to executives. She’s been reassured by the volume of small-dollar donations they’ve received and the engagement at their in-person pop-ups.
“We want to create change, and we want to build the local news ecosystem,” Poore said. “It’s easy to not be optimistic, but we’re doing this work because we are optimistic.”
