5 Projects We're Proud of This Year—And The People Who Made Our Work Better
We consider ourselves lucky that as we reflect on five of our most successful projects of 2025, they’re all in line with the kind of work we were most excited to do.
In reflecting on these projects, one key throughline is just how critical and powerful network building is in the context of field building.
In this post we’ve highlighted one guiding question for each project, how we answered it and what happened as a result.
Rethinking Who Creates, Shares, and Sustains Local News: Why Information Stewardship Is the Future
The local news field is redefining itself in the midst of a polycrisis. And that's exactly why we wrote our latest report.
At Commoner Co, we've spent years working in newsrooms, with support organizations, and alongside funders who are all grappling with the same fundamental question: How might we reimagine and rebuild a local media ecosystem over the next decade that serves communities—and who is working toward that future?
Newsletter #1
Welcome to our first note as Commoner Company. We’ll use this space to occasionally share knotty questions we’re thinking about, highlight inspiring ideas and talk about what we’re learning from work we’re putting out in the world.
But first, we want to properly introduce ourselves: In this Q&A, we share what led us to creating Commoner, some dream projects for 2025 and a few people who are inspiring us now.
Three takeaways from the 2025 Local News Researchers Workshop
Three takeaways from the 2025 Local News Researchers Workshop was hosted by the Center for Sustainability and Innovation in Local Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy at Duke University.
Nieman Lab and News Funders Highlight Commoner's Report on Local News Support Organizations
We're excited to share that NiemanLab has featured our recent report examining how journalism support organizations can better serve the local news ecosystem in an in-depth article published on February 18.
The NiemanLab report followed up on highlights from the Knight Foundation on February 13, Democracy Fund on January 30 and many lively field conversations on platforms like LinkedIn.
Report: The Critical Role Support Organizations Can Play in Maturing the Local News Field
In recent years, support organizations in journalism have faced growing criticism for inefficiency and disorganization. While better coordination is needed of the field, the more impactful solution that we recommend is a field-level agenda.
Meet Commoner’s Cofounders: A Q&A with Darryl Holliday and Anika Anand
Commoner Company’s cofounder discuss how and why they built Commoner, the throughline of Commoner projects and dream partners in 2025.
Why We're Launching Commoner Company, a Cross-sector Approach to Building the Civic Society of our Dreams
The new name reflects our fundamental belief: Our work is in service to people and all that we have in common.