"Local NEWS, created by locals, delivered locally, and supported by local advertisers."
Connecting communities and businesses through relevant local news that informs, educates and inspires.
Local newspapers have been the backbone of communities for over 200 years, but during the last 20 years, they’ve virtually disappeared, creating more than 1,800 US news “deserts”, leaving 27,000 newsroom employees jobless, small communities uninformed, and small businesses without a way to reach local residents and visitors.
Most of the remaining newspapers began charging for their digital news and installing paywalls - blocking non-subscribers from getting the news – even though 86 percent of Americans feel access to local news should be free ( Knight Foundation .
Laurie Sigillito of Durango, Colorado, wanted to find a way to provide local news – supported by advertising revenue – to help small towns without reliable local news connect with each other, community leaders and local businesses.
In 2014, she purchased the local cable access TV station in Durango, Colorado, where she already owned a sign and graphics business. At the TV station, she saw firsthand the impact that local news could have on a community. As a small business owner, Sigillito’s local newspaper had been her “go-to” advertising platform to reach her local prospects and customers. Traditional advertising was expensive, had limited targeting and not very effective. She wanted to keep her advertising dollars in the local community, building tax revenue and creating jobs.
In 2019, she and Bert Carder launched The Local News Network in Durango. Carder, a serial entrepreneur has started 5 businesses across the USA and Asia working on SaaS (software as a service) and data and digital innovation solutions in the travel, training, recruiting and news industries.
The Local NEWS Network addresses two problems shared by at least 1,800 US “news desert” markets by providing relevant local news in small towns and communities, and by offering local businesses an easy, affordable and effective way to reach their local prospects and customers.
Our digital video news is always free to subscribers, without paywalls or required logins. News is accessible to viewers and listeners anytime in the format they prefer: on the website, mobile app, social media, newsletters, and podcasts. Additionally, a proprietary digital display network in high-traffic locations around town - in shops and restaurants, banks and community buildings - makes it easy for consumers to watch news and see advertising wherever they are throughout their day.
In addition to creating video news, we also offer professional eye-catching video ad creation services for businesses who want to tell their story to local consumers and visitors.
Our dedicated corporate team and contracted local video journalists and editors create and distribute the news. Story ideas are generated internally and from members of the community.
The Local News Network offers a new business model to help small and rural news deserts regain momentum. The broadcast outlet produces individual news stories that air at various video displays across each market. The stories are packaged with local business advertisements, which LNN produces, or advertisers provide.
Durango, CO - Bert Carder, the COO of Local NEWS Network (LNN) recently contributed his thoughts to Startup Colorado on the challenges and business opportunities ahead with bringing back local news to small towns across the USA.
It’s no news that local news has been dying in slow motion for two decades. Successive technological and economic assaults have destroyed the for-profit business model that sustained local journalism for two centuries. Since 2005, more than one-fourth of the country’s newspapers have disappeared and half of the journalists let go, leaving residents in thousands of communities – inner-city neighborhoods, suburban towns and rural communities – in vast news deserts.
With small-town newspapers struggling across the country, some even closing their doors, a Durango entrepreneur sees an opportunity producing videos to help keep local news viable.
Laurie Sigillito’s Local NEWS Network began in Durango by producing 3- to 5-minute videos to air on Durango’s Spectrum Cable Channel 15 to fill the ample programming space remaining after the channel had aired four hours of news from KUSA-TV, NBC’s affiliate in Denver.
Durango, CO - Local NEWS Network (LNN) was one of 8 companies to attend the week long RVC HyperAccelerator between June 22nd-29th.
The workshop was led by a dozen RVC teachers and mentors from all over the country, and delivered over 50 hours of Zoom calls, concluding with a pitch to their investor network. The topics included Pitching, Exit Strategies, Valuations, Due Diligence, GTM Strategies, Financial Planning, and even Term Sheets.
June 2, 2020 - Durango, CO - Local NEWS Network (LNN) is 1 of 5 SW Colorado Companies chosen to go through the SCAPE 2020 Accelerator Program.
LNN launched in April 2019 with the goal to expand its profitable local news business model to 50 towns over the next 3 years. Local affiliates are able to bring back local news to their towns and provide an effective marketing platform for local businesses to reach locals, using the proprietary LNN news production process, local distribution platform and back office support.
May 21, 2020 - Durango, CO - Local NEWS Network (LNN) is 1 of 27 Colorado Companies approved for an Early Stage Capital and Retention award in the amount of $100,000 through the Advanced Industries (AI) Accelerator Program.
The Durango-based LNN, which has local Affiliate Partners in Durango, Telluride, Cortez and Pagosa Springs, will use this grant to expand their local news media platform to additional Colorado towns in the coming months. LNN is helping these towns create jobs, rebuild their local news with good news stories, help local businesses promote themselves locally and retain advertising dollars in their communities.
March 7, 2020 - Durango, CO - Local NEWS Network (LNN) announces its local news network platform is now reaching viewers in four locations across Southwest Colorado: Durango, Telluride, Montezuma County, and Pagosa Springs.
The Durango-based LNN, which launched in April 2019 has expanded into Telluride, Colorado and Montezuma County, Colorado in 2019 and recently added a fourth location in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. The company plans to add 4 more locations in 2020 and expand up to 50 locations in the next 36 months, creating 150 new jobs along the way.
Local NEWS Network received several grants and we generate revenue through creative services and advertising sales. We plan to expand to other markets and continue offering FREE news, without paywalls or logins required. Our business model is technologically sustainable, scalable, and repeatable and relies on local “feet on the street” to identify important news topics that matter, and advertisers who want to reach their local audience.
