Founder of Medill Local News Initiative to retire

Interim executive director appointed to carry on critical research and support activities

EVANSTON, ILL. -- Tim Franklin, the founding director of the Medill Local News Initiative and the school’s senior associate dean, will step down from those roles in September as he begins a phased transition to retirement.

Franklin will continue to serve as the John M. Mutz Chair in Local News and will be intimately involved in Local News Initiative projects. He’ll continue to oversee Medill’s State of Local News Project through next spring, as well as edit LNI’s website, make public speaking appearances and help with fundraising.

Mackenzie Warren, the director of Medill’s Local News Accelerator, is named interim executive director of the Local News Initiative. Warren joined Medill more than two years ago after having served as a top news executive at Gannett, the nation’s largest local news publisher.

“The Medill Local News Initiative is now the preeminent source of research on local news and support for local news outlets and their journalists, from professionals to high school students,” said Medill Dean Charles Whitaker. “Tim’s vision for this project and his tireless efforts to bring it to life have been transformational for our school, Northwestern University and for the media industry. We wish him well and will carry on this critical work.”

Franklin led the launch of the Local News Initiative in April 2018 as a research and development project intended to provide leading edge research on local news trends and to work directly with news organizations on strategies to strengthen their sustainability.

Since its modest launch with one research project, LNI has grown into one of the nation’s leading sources for local news research, thought leadership and entrepreneurship.

There are now six distinct programs that are part of the initiative, and about 30 faculty, researchers, staff and students work on LNI programs either full or part-time. Its State of Local News Project, which tracks both local news deserts and new startups, has been cited thousands of times by major news outlets around the world. LNI is supported with millions of dollars in grants from major foundations, corporations and individual donors.

“LNI has been a passion project, because I believe so strongly in the role that local news plays in the health of our communities,” Franklin said. “It’s been a thrilling ride to see it flourish, and to see the impact it’s having with news organizations, philanthropists, policymakers and other researchers.

“I’m eternally grateful to Dean Whitaker and my Medill colleagues for their incredible support,” Franklin said. “I’m confident that LNI is in good hands going forward. And I’m fully committed to remaining engaged in the initiative and helping make this a smooth, successful transition over the next year or two.”

Franklin is heavily involved in local news issues nationally and locally. He serves on the boards of the Local Media Foundation, the Alliance for Trust in Media, The Associated Press Standards Panel and the Google News Gaps Project. He was appointed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker to serve on the bipartisan Illinois Local Journalism Task Force, which made policy recommendations last year to help local news organizations. Legislation eventually was signed into law.

Before joining Medill eight years ago, Franklin was the president of the nonprofit Poynter Institute, a media think tank and school for professional journalists. He’s also served as the top editor of three metropolitan news organizations, The Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel and Indianapolis Star, and he was a Washington managing editor for Bloomberg News. He’s been inducted as a Distinguished Alumnus of the Indiana University Media School, where he founded the National Sports Journalism Center as an endowed chair in 2009, and has twice served as a Pulitzer Prize jurist.

Beginning in September, Warren will continue to lead the Medill Local News Accelerator and the Media Innovation and Leadership Academy, and he’ll take on added responsibilities overseeing the Medill Solutions Journalism Hub and the Teach for Chicago Journalism program.

Warren’s Accelerator program has worked directly with more than two dozen news organizations in the Chicago area that reach more than five million residents. He’s worked with leaders of those outlets on things like business strategy, growing audiences and new product development.

Later this year, Warren will spearhead the development of a new program funded by the Robert R. McCormick Foundation to provide shared services to news organizations in the Chicago area. That hub will provide strategy, infrastructure and legal support to news outlets.

“Mackenzie will provide outstanding leadership as we continue supporting the local news ecosystem,” said Whitaker. “He will continue to build on the strong programs that have been established.”