The Springfield Daily Citizen, a nonprofit online news source, launched this week with a goal of providing public service journalism from a community perspective. David Stoeffler, formerly the top editor at the Springfield News-Leader, has been tasked with getting the new venture off the ground—and he joined us in the studio for an interview. Click the "Listen" button above to hear the conversation.
'Three things that we're doing' differently
Stoeffer said there are three things that help set the Daily Citizen apart, particularly from for-profit news outlets in the area.
"Number one, we are a nonprofit organization, and so we are run by local people and really owned by the community," he said.
The Daily Citizen also plans to offer in-depth public affairs coverage of Springfield and Greene County issues, Stoeffler said.
"And then we'll also be providing what I call a 'sense of place'—content that helps people feel like they're part of the everyday community here," Stoeffler said. That will include arts and culture, outdoors coverage, feature reports on individuals and free death notices.
A newsroom of journalists with Missouri ties
Stoeffler says the staff members he recruited have ties to the community or, at least, the state of Missouri.
"It's been a very deliberate process. First of all, we're very focused on what our overall mission is, which is to inform the community and be a catalyst for good," Stoeffler said.
According to its website, the Daily Citizen has brought on eight staff members for its news operations, and it will draw from other local writers and photographers for supplemental content.
Given their similar objectives in public affairs, KSMU-Ozarks Public Radio and the Daily Citizen plan to share some local content.
Startup capital and nonprofit funding model
The startup money for the nonprofit Daily Citizen has come from a handful of local donors; Stoeffler says the goal is to establish a funding model that allows the news outlet to be "fully sustainable" by its sixth year of operations.
"That model looks like a combination of revenue from readers—subscriptions in our case—[and] also sponsorships from local businesses and other organizations who will get some sort of advertising in return," Stoeffler said.
He anticipates there will be a smattering of other revenue sources, including special events.
The Daily Citizen operates out of Freudenberger House, a dormitory on the Missouri State University campus. The two organizations signed an agreement in October establishing that the news outlet could use the office space and a handful of other university resources at no cost to the Daily Citizen.
The Springfield Daily Citizen's website is www.sgfcitizen.org.