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Nic Dawes,
Managing Editor
at THE CITY in New York City, USA

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October 1, 2025                                                Case no. 33

Audience Development

How The City in New York built from the ground up to listen, respond and foster community

The award-winning and non-profit local news site The City offers "reporting to New Yorkers" since its launch in 2019 and now reaches an impressive audience. The investigative journalism of its 30-head newsroom has resulted in criminal indictments, political resignations and ethics inquiries. It has inspired new laws, influenced budget decisions and reversed injustices. An important inspiration for The City's journalism is the open newsroom and an intense and close dialogue with its readers.

 

Presented by Nic Dawes, Executive Director, The City, USA

By Niklas Jonason

Summary

THE CITY is a mission-driven, nonprofit newsroom serving New Yorkers with accountability and service journalism. Since launching in 2019, it has grown to 1 million monthly uniques and 83,000 newsletter subscribers, while keeping focus narrowly on New York City and on reporting that either directly helps people navigate life or holds power to account. 

 

Nic Dawes’ talk showed how “listening first” sits at the center of their model: open-newsroom events in libraries and community spaces, targeted question intake via text and email, and even printed postcards send outs—all feeding explainers, guides and investigations that convert readers into newsletter subscribers and, over time, members and donors.
 

The case demonstrated a repeatable flywheel: clear purpose → deep community listening → practical products (guides, tools, events) → audience growth and trust → revenue via philanthropy, major donors, membership, sponsorship and ads—while big accountability moments provide the spikes that convert to donations.
 

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Actionable ideas from THE CITY in short

  • Make “open newsroom” a product, not a slogan. Partner with trusted local orgs; host off-the-record listening sessions to surface needs; turn them into guides, look-up tools and events.

  • Target offline too, in smart ways. Use public datasets to pinpoint buildings/blocks with a problem (e.g., heating, trash rollout), then mail QR-coded postcards that beat social by an order of magnitude in response, as reported in the talk.

  • Close the loop on investigations. After publishing, bring service partners (legal aid, advocates) into the affected neighborhood for a co-hosted forum; grow the list; collect new leads.

  • Center the voter, not the politician. Build interactive election tools that ask readers’ questions and give them a guided path—THE CITY’s “Meet Your Mayor” quiz reached 265k users, 112k completions, and added 7k subs.

  • Measure for conversion, not just reach. Service explainers drive newsletter sign-ups (half of top converters); major investigations drive donation surges during news spikes.

  • Package sponsorships around civic utility. Example: a bank branch hosts and sponsors an open-newsroom series on financial literacy and neighborhood issues (shared in the session).

  • Sell memberships and not suibscriptions.

Facts about THE CITY

Founded: 2019 (as a nonprofit). 
Team: 30
Focus: New York City only (no suburbs, no breaking-news churn). 
Editorial pillars:

  • accountability

  • service/explainers that improve lives.

Audience/products: core products are site + newsletters; also podcast and events. 

  • 1m monthly uniques

  • 83k newsletter subscribers;

Revenue mix: diversified

  • philanthropy & major donors,

  • membership (no paywall),

  • corporate sponsorships

  • and advertising.

Edge:

  • deep, city-specific expertise navigating NYC’s systems and power structures;

  • community-driven reporting.

About the Speaker: Nic Dawes

Nic Dawes is an international newsroom and human-rights leader with earlier experiences such as

  • Deputy executive director at Human Rights Watch based in New York;

  • Chief Content Officer at Hindustan Times in India and

  • Editor-in-Chief at Mail & Guardian in South Africa.

Dawes was born in South Africa and educated in Canada.
He joined THE CITY in 2021 to help build a durable local institution rooted in trust, service and accountability.

In the webinar he noted he is transitioning out and assisting with succession to Carol Bogert of The Marshall Project.

Open Newsrooms: meeting people where they are

THE CITY treats “open newsroom” as discovery, relationship-building and sometimes revenue. Sessions are often off the record, co-hosted with partner organizations that act as trust proxies, and held in libraries or community venues. Insights from these meetings seed guides, tools and storylines—and grow the email list.

Postcards as platforms: turning questions into conversions

From complaints about cold apartments to confusion over NYC’s new trash containerization, the newsroom pairs reader questions (via text/email) with explainers and targeted, QR-coded postcards mailed to the exact buildings and neighborhoods most affected. In the talk, Dawes reported roughly 10× better response than comparable Facebook campaigns—reaching residents who never would have searched for the answer.

Closing the loop on deed-theft investigations

A multi-story probe into predatory home “flipping” in Black neighborhoods triggered legal scrutiny and policy change. THE CITY then returned to the community with a sponsored open-newsroom at a local bank branch, packed the room, connected residents with legal-aid partners, added 100+ engaged locals to the list, and gathered new leads—showing how service + accountability can compound.

Election tools that center voters (and travel by word-of-mouth)

Rather than only publish a long voter’s guide, THE CITY coded candidates’ positions and built a playful 18-question quiz. Result: 265,000 users, 112,000 completions, 7,000 newsletter sign-ups; notably, direct/one-to-one shares outperformed search—friends texting the quiz to friends.

From spikes to support: how investigations convert

“Top of the funnel” still matters: when THE CITY breaks major developments (e.g., investigations around the mayor), days with million-plus pageviews convert into thousands in small-donor gifts, especially when reporters explain that support sustains nonprofit reporting. Over time, service explainers populate the middle of the funnel and keep newsletter growth steady despite “newsletter fatigue.”

Membership: affiliation first

Membership (no paywall) is framed as joining the mission and gaining occasional newsroom access (invites to briefings/Zooms), with some merch at higher levels. THE CITY sees future upside in a values-aligned affiliate program once capacity allows (shared in the Q&A).

Questions and Answers

Q: Who owns THE CITY?
A: It’s a nonprofit with no shareholders. A board of New York City civic, journalism and business leaders provides oversight.


Q: How does your newsroom compare to the New York Times and New York Post on New York City coverage?
A: New York Times metro desk is larger but oriented to a national/global audience; the New York Post has a metro team but its coverage sits within a strongly partisan, right-leaning mix. THE CITY focuses exclusively on New Yorkers’ needs and accountability, with a higher cadence of investigations relative to its size.


Q: Examples of sponsored open newsrooms?
A: JP Morgan Chase supports a recurring series (plus a weekly newsletter sponsorship); Brooklyn SolarWorks backed climate-site community events and a schools/mental-health investigative forum.


Q: What’s “in” a membership?
A: Mission affiliation, special invites, occasional merch; it’s about belonging and proximity to the newsroom rather than gated content.


Q: Leadership transition?
A: Dawes is stepping down after five years; he’s advising THE CITY through a planned handoff to Carol Bogert and then moving to new projects.

The presentation, useful links and contact information

​​​​​​
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 

  • LinkedIn

Imprint

© 2023-2025 WAN-IFRA World Association of News Publishers

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