State University of New York Chancellor John B. King Jr. launched an initiative last October that aims to support local communities across New York state while also giving SUNY undergraduates much-needed, hands-on learning experiences. The SUNY Institute for Local News, the statewide program – the first of its kind in the nation – tasks students at SUNY’s 64 campuses to report on news happening in their communities and then deliver that content to local media outlets, many of which are struggling to survive.
The U.S. has lost more than one-third of its newspapers since 2005, according to the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University. On average, two newspapers shut down every week nationwide – the Cortland Standard being a recent closure in Central New York. Researchers argue that this is a crisis for more than just the news industry – it is also a crisis in American democracy.
“Journalism is the keystone of a healthy democracy," SUNY Chancellor King said in his announcement launching the SUNY Institute for Local News. "But as thousands of local news outlets have closed their doors or dramatically reduced staffing since the mid-2000s, that keystone is chipping away.”
Last week, SUNY Oneonta hosted the SUNY Institute for Local News Summit, the first statewide meeting of faculty, students, and news producers who are participating in the SUNY chancellor’s initiative. In attendance were representatives from 17 different SUNY campuses, including numerous campuses in Central New York and the Southern Tier: SUNY Broome Community College, SUNY Corning Community College, SUNY Cortland, SUNY Oneonta, SUNY Oswego, and SUNY Polytechnic University. Partners from a half-dozen private universities in the state also joined in, Syracuse University and Hofstra University among them.
The inaugural summit was driven by one primary goal: secure the future of journalism in New York by placing it in the hands of young students from across the state. Richard Watts, a SUNY Cortland grad who is the coordinator of SUNY’s new university-led reporting program, summed up how increasing local news coverage by tapping into the resources of the SUNY system, the skills of expert faculty, and the passion of college students can be a win-win for New Yorkers.
“There’s a lot of concern about what has happened to local news, and there are a lot of solutions,” Watts said. "It’s a rich and educational experience for students to produce real stories for real people. It provides honest and trusted content for local media partners.”
Watts, who is also the director of the national journalism support organization the Center for Community News, was one of the more than 50 participants who gathered in Oneonta for the summit. “Personally, I'm really concerned about what's happened with local news and the impact on our democracy,” Watts lamented, before offering a hopeful way out. “And because there's 6,000 colleges and universities and over 300,000 students in communications and journalism, I feel like this is part of the solution.”
It is not only veteran journalists and academic faculty who feel these concerns. Jelisa Gonzalez, an undergraduate English major at the University at Albany said, “I think it's important to support local news, especially in today's political climate. These local news outlets know exactly what's going on, on the ground.”
Olivia Sippel is a recent SUNY New Paltz alum who is now the Hudson Valley bureau chief of The Legislative Gazette, a student journalist-led news publication covering New York state government in the capital. Sippel underlined the importance of creating trusted news from within the state university system, explaining that the SUNY Institute for Local News is “trying to work directly with publishers and editors with students so that they can get that connection before graduating. A lot of people don't trust the industry and don't trust journalists. The [ILN is] really trying to incorporate local news and community building on campuses across New York.”
Dylan Murphy, a student at SUNY New Paltz who is also currently interning at SUNY Press, delivered a speech at the summit about the impact that a journalism education has had on him. He described the feeling of satisfaction he gets when stories he reports noticeably help others, and bring much-needed attention to local people and causes. “The core of it, of local journalism and doing what I do, I think of that impact,” Murphy said, adding, “like the way I was able to kind of raise this person up. It feels good to be able to have that impact.”
Murphy is also the news editor for the student-run newspaper The New Paltz Oracle. In explaining why he was attending the summit, he described wanting to pursue a career as a journalist.
“I'm here because I care about local news,” Murphy said. “And, to put it bluntly, we're in a really scary time for journalists right now. It is really concerning to see the current rhetoric, whether on the political or social level, that a lack in local news is also a lack in democracy. You know those two things, they are scientifically tied together. I don't think [enough people] see the importance of having even a small outlet in their community to cover their community.”
Murphy sees the value of having local journalists actually cover stories about the communities that they live in. He wants to make that his career, and he is hopeful that the Institute for Local News will help other young people see the value in that work and make it their future, too.
In its first few months in operation, the students and faculty working through the SUNY Institute for Local News have already contributed significantly to the news ecosystem in New York state. According to Todd Franko, editor for the SUNY ILN, 75 SUNY students produced 160 stories for 12 local news outlets around the state in the fall of 2024. This spring 2025 semester, Franko reports that nearly 200 students are active in local journalism, as more SUNY campuses join the initiative.