Springfield-based news site to launch mid-February
The Springfield Daily Citizen, a locally based online news site, will launch in mid-February. (Screenshot courtesy of the Springfield Daily Citizen)
SPRINGFIELD - No printing press is required to tell the story of journalism’s next chapter in Springfield, but a deadline still looms. Less than a month remains until the launch of the Springfield Daily Citizen, the region’s non-profit newest news source that will focus particularly on topics with a public affairs mission, and deliver all content exclusively online.
While days may feel short until the launch, the project has been much longer in the making. It has leadership and buy-in representing decades of news reporting and civic experience – and it all started with Tom Carlson, former Springfield mayor, who began bouncing around the idea around a year ago.
“I was looking for something that would have a lasting impact on the community and its citizens,” says Carlson, who was a journalist early in his professional career before becoming an attorney.
“A trusted community newspaper is essential to democracy,” he says. “I’ve come to believe that as a former journalist and as a public official for more than two decades.”
Those considerations led Carlson to consider the idea of a non-profit news source – and to David Stoeffler, former executive editor of the Springfield News-Leader from 2010 to 2014, who was living in Wisconsin this time last year.
“Tom Carlson reached out to me in the late spring and he was very concerned about the future of news in the Springfield community,” says Stoeffler. “The direction of other media in town was obviously in decline. He’d heard about non-profit news organizations and wondered if I knew anything about them and if I had any ideas or suggestions about it.”
At the time, Stoeffler was leading a non-profit himself, and had some experience observing others in startup news organizations. So he agreed to give some input on the concept. Those early conversations led to others, as well as ongoing discussion with a local workgroup about the feasibility of the project.
When the answer was found to be Go, Carlson asked Stoeffler if he would come and lead the Daily Citizen. He agreed.
“For me, Springfield was a place that I really enjoyed living,” says Stoeffler. “I’ve lived in a lot of different communities. I had developed some deeper connections and deeper friendships here than some of the places where I had lived. And the community had welcomed me, even as an outsider, had welcomed me and encouraged my efforts. So it was a very intriguing opportunity to come and be involved in creating the Daily Citizen from scratch, and basically to make a new organization that could prioritize the types of things that I felt were important in a community that I really care about.”
That sentiment ties back to the Daily Citizen’s public affairs mission – which is also reflected in its home at Missouri State University, which has given on-campus office space in support of the new publication – and to bigger issues facing the community. Stoeffler voices plans for coverage to focus on critical issues requiring critical thought, but also provide ways that allow the public to act when help is needed.
“Certainly good journalism, investigative techniques, in-depth reporting and writing techniques are important, but a big element of our big stories is helping people understand why they should care, who is affected by an issue, and what they can do about it,” says Stoeffler. “We wouldn’t be prescribing for them a solution, but we’d be telling them about others who are working on an issue so if they want to be involved.”
Stoeffler, Carlson and others are also seeking support from the wider community. The Daily Citizen is currently backed by a group of contributors, including significant support from Carlson, but is working to build long-term sustainability.
“While we are relying on startup donations from a group of people to get us going, in the end this is an organization that will be owned by the community,” says Stoeffler. “So if the community supports it, they’ll need to invest in it to keep it going whether it’s through donations or subscriptions or sponsorships or other mechanisms.”
“We need readers to see the value in the content and be willing to pay something for it.”
That said, Stoeffler notes that the Daily Citizen will not initially include a fee to access content, but it may in the future. Businesses are also being sought to support the organization, which currently has a staff of 11.
“Of course, we don’t need to make a profit,” says Stoeffler. “Nobody is going to earn a return on their investment. Naturally the employees are being paid, but the board members are all volunteers, they’re not getting any compensation and they won’t get anything back other than the gratification of knowing that they helped the community with this need for good journalism.”
In addition to public affairs content, the online publication will also feature elements such as a community calendar, arts and cultural coverage and more. Some of this content will be sourced through collaborations with local organizations (including Ozarks Alive) and KSMU, local NPR affiliate which is also housed at Missouri State University.
“We have an agreement to collaborate in a couple of different ways,” says Stoeffler of the agreement with KSMU. “We will be sharing a certain amount of each other’s content … We also will collaborate on some larger projects.”
That is another piece of the Daily Citizen’s fundamental ability to share stories and shine lights – things that inspire Stoeffler and remind of why he’s excited about this new chapter.
“As a journalist, I suppose I’ve always been interested in not just informing, but in helping make a difference in the community for an individual person or for helping people understand the complexity of an issue and allowing them to make judgments about what should or shouldn’t be done – but doing it in a place that you care about is the pixie dust,” he says. “It’s the magic that makes it worthwhile.”
Want to learn more?
Click here to sign up for the Daily Citizen’s email list and to stay up-to-date as the new publication prepares to go online. Updates leading to the launch are also available here.
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