Az. Nonprofit Stands Guard Over Local News

It’s unlikely that Dylan Smith could have chosen a more apt name for his nonprofit Internet pureplay than the Tucson Sentinel. The name suggests a lonely solider, ever alert, charged with guarding against all possible comers. And Smith, a self-professed workaholic with an almost religious commitment to quality journalism, fits the bill in almost every regard.

The former online editor for the Tucson Citizen, Smith was cut loose when parent company Gannett folded the paper’s print operation and turned its site over to a blog network format. With one daily left in the market, the Arizona Daily Star (which is run by Gannett and Lee Enterprises in a joint operating agreement), Smith decided to scratch out a more aggressive site that would break news more quickly, cover volatile border issues more substantially and be better braced for what he sees an end of print, or at least the large chains operating in that legacy medium.

“The problem with all the big newspaper chains is that they are so heavily indebted that they can’t go from the print dollars to the digital dimes,” Smith said. “They can’t make that transition.”

That said, if Smith is to be the new sentinel that rises in Big Newspaper’s place, then he is very lightly armed, at least fiscally speaking. The bulk of his revenue, which skims below the $20,000 range, comes from individual donors and small business sponsors, to whom he has been beating the pavement to connect. Coupled with the fact that his shoe leather is already heavily worn from his in depth reporting efforts, one wonders if he’ll be able to stay upright much longer in his self-appointed post.

“I don’t want to work 90 hour weeks for the rest of my life, but I see that our traffic is going up and more and more sponsors have heard about us all the time,” he said. “I think this sort of operation that organically grows out of a community is going to be in the long term much more sustainable than something that’s imposed through a national chain.”

By distinguishing the publication with heavy coverage of border issues (Smith takes an avowedly apolitical approach to that political hot potato) and other galvanizing area stories (Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has been a recurring topic), Smith hopes to hold the standard high enough for other potential sponsors and topic-oriented foundations to find him. A recent collaboration with the Center for Public Integrity, for which the Sentinel contributed reporting for its ongoing “Poisoned Places” series, gave hope to that end.

Smith elected to forgo foundational support in the Sentinel’s early days. “We didn’t jump into that first wave,” he said. “I’ve always been more of a mind to prove you know what you’re doing rather than ask for a huge pile of money and then stumble along. That’s probably my mistake.”

Or maybe not. Recently, Daily Star owner Lee Enterprises announced that it would declare bankruptcy. And though it may be pulling itself along on the thinnest of shoestrings, the Sentinel still soldiers on.

Smith fired off the site’s main bullet points.

Launched: January 2010

Updates: Seven days weekly: “If there’s news happening, we want to be on top of it. It doesn’t matter what day it is or what time of night it is.”

Monthly unique visitors (average): 100,000 (Google Analytics)

Mobile platform: None

Content focus: “News that people need to know to be informed citizens.” This breaks down to ample coverage of southern Arizona and state politics, border issues and breaking news

Geographic focus: Metro Tucson and southern Arizona

Target demographic: “We don’t worry too much about age, gender or income. We’re trying to reach people who are interested and involved into their community.” Still, feedback suggests a 35-55-year-old readership, Smith said.

Annual operating budget: Less than $20,000: “We’re all volunteer. I’ve managed to pay a few people for a few projects.”

Annual revenue: Less than $20,000: “Basically, whatever comes in goes right back in trying to leverage this thing. We’re very much a bootstraps operation.”

Revenue Streams: 60% local individual donors

25% business donors

15% outside project grants

Ad sales: No sales reps; as a nonprofit site, Smith currently pursues sponsorships with small local businesses

Editorial staff: “Two of us who work 24/7, ultimately;” a core group of 10 freelancers

Social media: Twitter and Facebook. “A lot of what we do is admittedly a glorified RSS feed, but I do try and be involved.”

Most popular features: Breaking news: “We manage to get things reported much more quickly than anybody else in town most of the time;” also investigative and analytical border coverage

Media partnerships: The Tucson Sentinel runs reporting from the Arizona State University-based Cronkite News Service as well as from Global Post, the Center for Public Integrity, Kaiser Health News and ProPublica; it has a content partnership with local radio station KVOI.