In an era of rapid, disruptive media reinvention, one of the biggest threats to news consumers is the absence of high-quality local reporting. But Noah Fernández Eckstein, founding editor of The Overlook News, told 2026 NPF Widening the Pipeline fellows that local coverage should be a non-negotiable resource.

“Community news is important civic infrastructure, as important as roads, bridges, and schools,” Eckstein said. “And when communities lose local news, civic engagement drops, budgets get passed without scrutiny, corruption rises, and there’s increased polarization and misinformation.” 

That personal belief and mission led Fernández Eckstein to upstate New York, where The Overlook’s staff of three covers the Catskills communities of Hunter, Hurley, Olive, Saugerties, Shandaken, Windham and Woodstock.

When local newspapers fail to report properly on their home communities, civic engagement falls, and officials are not held accountable. By becoming non-profit, journalists shift their loyalty from advertisers to the readers, Fernández Eckstein said.

Huge papers that claim to be one-size-fits-all are fading and smaller, more local newsrooms are growing in success. Fernández Eckstein suggests that’s in part because non-profit local news organizations can more authentically lean into the solutions journalism realm. By working to solve community issues, outlets will build relationships with community members as well as donors. 

“I think that The Overlook and local nonprofit news can go beyond just telling the news and reporting the news and creating in-person forums for community members to engage with the news and with solutions to the things that the news is bringing up in real time.”

Because he wears many hats with The Overlook, including editing, reporting, audience engagement, and fundraising, Fernández Eckstein is even more invested in his outlet’s success.

“You can’t just be a print journalist anymore… You need all these skills now. And I would add to that the business skills, the ability to talk to foundations and donors as a business person,” Eckstein said.

Access the full transcript here.