Ken Doctor, Founder and Ashley Harmon, Chief of Staff
September 3, 2025 Case no. 31
Audience Development
Showing up. First principles and lessons from Lookout Local’s successful local models
Lookout Santa Cruz won a Pulitzer in its fourth year of operation. Lookout Eugene-Springfield – Lookout Local’s second site among a near-term buildout of five sites – won large audiences and early and enthusiastic member support after more than a year of community building. What makes the Lookout model – “a good community newspaper that happens to be digital” – tick and what differentiates it from the hundreds of startups proliferating across the U.S.? Integrated tech stack, diversified revenue models, deep school programs and thorough community engagement – all supporting one another – have made a difference, as do the very non-remote, in-person downtown-based operations.
Presented by Ken Doctor, Founder and Ashley Harmon, Chief of Staff
By Cecilia Campbell
Background: building a community newspaper that is more – and digital
The original Lookout Local site, Lookout Santa Cruz was launched in November 2020. Ken Doctor had been a consultant to the news industry for many years, and was getting to the point where he was itching to prove that it was possible to launch a digital only local news outlet, with the traditional newspaper's role of being a hub for the local community, while leveraging and benefiting from everything it means to be digital – including no legacy overheads, and being able to reach people in so many more ways, including through newsletters, multi-media, apps etc, while keeping a sharp focus on showing up in and for the local community.
Thanks to the ground work done in Santa Cruz, including getting the tech stack up and running smoothly, the launch of the second site, Lookout Eugene-Springfield, on April 10 this year, has seen a ramp-up 3–5 times faster than for Santa Cruz. (Numbers in slide below)
The Lookout Local team plans to launch more sites by the end of 2026
"The ability to move very quickly is one that I think is a critical differentiator for us. And having done consulting and still talking to a lot of people throughout the industry, I know the inability to move quickly has really hampered our industry across the world. We have a singular focus."
Ken Doctor
The speakers
Ken Doctor became a major name in the US news media industry as an analyst and consultant, writing the book Newsonomics: Twelve New Trends That Will Shape the News You Get and setting up the accompanying Newsonomics site, whose articles were also published at NiemanLab. Before his analyst years he worked for 21 years at KnightRidder, then the US's second largest news media company, in a variety of roles, including as managing editor of the St. Paul Pioneer Press and as a vice president of Knight Ridder Digital.
In 2020, he founded Lookout Local in his home town of Santa Cruz.
Ashley Harmon has a background in marketing, communications and sales. She started her career working for the NBA team The Golden State Warriors in ticket sales. She then worked in marketing for the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, before joining Lookout Local in June 2021. She is now Chief of Staff, which involves a little bit of everything, including developing advertising, as well as a lot of product development. "And then really connecting those products and vendors to the workflow of staff and make sure onboarding and workflows are just like seamless."
Context – the US local news industry
The genesis of Lookout Local should be seen in the context of what is going on in the US local news industry more broadly. It's a well known fact that local newspapers in America have shut down at an alarming rate since the mid 00s.
Now, however there's a trend of new, and existing local news publishers expanding into underserved communities across the country. The Google News Initiative and the Knight Ridder Foundation both support many of these, as shown on the map.
In Eugene, Oregon, The Eugene Registered Guard was the daily paper and it was, according to Ken, highly regarded, really best independent paper in the state by far and one of the best in the country. Before its sale to Gatehouse Media in 2018 (who subsequently bought Gannett and took that group's name in 2019) it had 80 reporters – by 2024 that number was 6 and there's no longer a local editor. Says Ken Doctor:
"What that created was both a crater of local news, a lack of local news. And also a market opportunity for us."
Critically, says Ken, at Lookout Local, 75% of expenses go to staff – key for showing up for the local community. "During my years as an industry analyst, I figured out that no more than 20% – and usually 12–15% of a newspaper company's expenses actually went to paying people in the newsroom. While we are wholly digital in terms of publishing, being in touch with people is a huge part of our strategy."
"Last week, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which is the major paper in Atlanta and in Georgia and now going statewide, really surprised a lot of people. It's the first major metro newspaper in the United States to announce it's going to stop all publishing in print by the end of the year. And I think we're going to see that trend accelerate within the next two years," said Ken.
Actionable Ideas from the webinar
(please watch video to get all the details!)
1. Build Multi-Channel Reach (Apps + Newsletters + Social)
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Lookout Local found that readers engage 6–12x more via an app than on the browser, so they invest heavily in app development.
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They supplement this with general + neighborhood newsletters (using AI to make them hyperlocal) and curated social media.
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The newsletters and social media act to fill the top of funnel, while the app is for paying members – a hybrid model.
👉 Action: Develop an app (even a lightweight one) and diversify distribution and fill the top of funnel through targeted newsletters and curated social, not just a website.
2. Deepen Community Engagement with In-Person Connections
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Lookout Local runs community forums on elections, housing, and local issues, livestreaming for broader reach.
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Reporters physically show up in communities, hold “Lookout Listens” feedback sessions, and keep offices downtown as accessible community hubs.
👉 Action: Host regular in-person forums and feedback sessions, and make the newsroom physically visible in the community.
3. Expand Access Through Schools & Teachers
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The Lookout in the Classroom initiative provides free memberships for students, plus teacher-facing support (guides, visits, workshops).
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They fund this through foundations and donor support.
👉 Action: Partner with schools/teachers to embed local news into education and grow the next generation of readers.
4. Use Partnerships for Brand Growth & Revenue
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Lookout Local runs a Civic Partner Program: nonprofits promote Lookout in their channels; in return, Lookout gives them visibility and ad support.
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They also raised $1M locally through grassroots donor organizing, then matched it with national philanthropy.
👉 Action: Formalize reciprocal partnerships with nonprofits and local organizations, and mobilize community fundraising as part of launch/growth.
5. Leverage AI for Unique Hyperlocal Products
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Lookout Local uses AI to quickly assemble neighborhood newsletters from public data (permits, roadwork, inspections, crime reports, weather, events).
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This gives them a distinctive product readers love (68% open rates), without replacing reporters.
👉 Action: Use AI to scale repetitive, data-heavy products (e.g., hyperlocal newsletters) while keeping human oversight for editorial quality.
The presentation, useful links and contact information
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The webinar presentation can be downloaded here.
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The presenters
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Ken Doctor, Founder & CEO
ken@lookoutlocal.com -
Ashley Harmon, Chief of Staff
ashley@lookoutlocal.com .
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The Lookout Local sites:
Lookout Santa Cruz (California)
Lookout Eugene-Springfield (Oregon)
You are welcome to contact the WAN-IFRA Innovate Local team,
if you have questions or examples of similar cases.
Cecilia Campbell: c.campbell@wan-ifra.org
Niklas Jonason: n.jonason@wan-ifra.org