For the first time in the newspapers’ long histories, Wednesday Journal, Austin Weekly News, Riverside-Brookfield Landmark and Forest Park Review will have out-of-state owners in a bid for financial sustainability. 

The papers, run as nonprofit publications under the Growing Community Media umbrella since 2020, are now part of nonprofit journalism group NEWSWELL’s portfolio of publications. The GCM papers are the organization’s first titles outside of the state of California and the only regular weekly print publications included among the group’s portfolio. 

No immediate changes for the papers are anticipated. 

GCM will dissolve as an entity following a transition period, with the organization donating its publications to NEWSWELL. All of GCM’s employees are being offered employment by NEWSWELL, including Executive Director Max Reinsdorf, who until now carried an interim title, and longtime Editor Dan Haley. 

The move comes amid longstanding financial issues for GCM, with the organization terminating its lease last summer for the Oak Park office space that staffers had occupied since the 1980s. 

This deal represents the clearest path to financial sustainability for the papers in recent memory, Reinsdorf said in an interview. 

“Our struggles showed that we didn’t necessarily have a guaranteed path to continued news coverage for the decades to come, and that was a realization that the GCM board had over the summer,” said Reinsdorf.  “We have a path towards standing the test of time with NEWSWELL, and it puts us in a position to be stronger and more resilient than we were before.” 

Founded in 2024, NEWSWELL is a nonprofit affiliated with Arizona State University (ASU) that provides centralized support to bolster local publications in areas including legal support, business strategy, audience development, marketing and human resources administration. Reporting and editing remains local. That help is desperately needed for the four papers, Reinsdorf said.  

“Donating these assets to NEWSWELL allows us to get the expertise and the resources that GCM had been seeking that had been out of reach for us,” he said. “From a financial perspective, there’s revenue upside and there’s also savings to be had by NEWSWELL taking over the backend functions.” 

“It allows me to see a much stronger financial picture for us.” 

The group’s other publications include Stocktonia covering Stockton, CA, Times of San Diego covering San Diego County and Santa Barbara News-Press, the one-time bankrupt paper of record for the oceanside city that NEWSWELL recently helped resurrect as a digital publication. 

The group has ambitions to expand to wherever local news needs support, said NEWSWELL’s Executive Director Nicole Carroll. The GCM newspapers fit exactly what the group was looking for, Carroll said.  

“I’m really impressed with the four news titles, all of them make a difference in their communities, all of them are the source of truth for their communities, they’re all respected,” she said. “That’s really important for NEWSWELL; when we partner with someone … it’s important that they do solid journalism, that they’re of their communities and that they’re respected by those communities. The four titles check all those boxes.” 

Carroll also works as a professor of practice at Arizona State University’s famed Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and previously served as top editor for the Arizona Republic and editor-in-chief of USA Today. She said that bringing the GCM papers into the NEWSWELL portfolio also makes sense as another link between Chicago and Arizona, alongside Cubs and White Sox spring training, Portillo’s and Lou Malnati’s franchise locations and Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.  

“There’s a well-worn path from Chicago to Phoenix,” she said. 

NEWSWELL’s mission comes in response to the widespread closures of local news outlets and the dramatic reduction of journalism jobs seen across the country over the last 20 years. Hyper local outlets, like the four GCM papers, are worth protecting, Carroll said. 

“We want to go where we’re needed, wanted and can make a difference,” Carroll said. 

The papers’ newsgathering and editorial processes will remain unchanged, except for some additional support on investigative projects that NEWSWELL will provide, said Haley, who was a founder of Wednesday Journal in his mid-20s. NEWSWELL offers journalism support to its network, including investigative editing and legal support for public records requests and pre-publication review. 

“The goal we have had since the very start was to create intensely local, authentic, independent journalism,” Haley said. “This step is a big step, but it’s in my mind an extension of everything we’ve done up until now. This is another variation on the goal of creating an independent viable local news model, and I’m really excited about what this offers us. 

“We’ve found an entity that’s as focused on legit local news as we are.” 

The papers will continue on their regular print schedules for the foreseeable future, Haley and Reinsdorf said. 

While the NEWSWELL donation will buy the papers more room to breathe, the deal doesn’t represent an immediate exit from choppy financial waters, Reinsdorf said. The operations of the papers will still largely be paid for through local fundraising and subscription and advertising revenue. 

True financial sustainability for the papers will almost certainly involve a more formalized reader membership program, Reinsdorf said. 

“It is not a money cannon; we’re still responsible for fundraising at a similar level,” he said. “One of the first major goals will be to launch a membership program. We need a reader revenue model to generate new income and to reinvest in our newsroom.”