Happy Local News Day!

by Zach Jaworski, 2025-26 duPont Fellow

It’s the first ever Local News Day, a new national day of action celebrating the crucial information local journalists provide their communities. 

The day – which was organized by the Montana Free Press, American Journalism Project, Press Forward and other outlets – is meant to draw attention to local news organizations and encourage people to re-engage with them. 

The duPont-Columbia Awards have long honored original and deeply-reported work serving local communities. This year alone, four awards were given out for local reporting. 

Scott Friedman – and his team at KXAS-TV NBC Dallas Fort Worth – won his third straight duPont-Columbia Award while locally reporting for “Driven to Death,”  a 14-month series investigating why traffic fatalities in Dallas are so high relative to other major U.S. cities. 

WNYC & Gothamist exposed a former correction officer who abused multiple women inmates at Rikers Island, a notorious New York City jail in “He Was Officer “Champagne” at Rikers. 24 Women Accuse Him of Sexual Assault in Jail,” a podcast episode. 

WXYZ-TV and Ross Jones were honored for “Shielded,” a two-year investigation into disgraced police officers in Michigan who moved to different departments and continued abusing their power. 

“Help that Harms,” by WXIA-TV Atlanta & Rebecca Lindstrom, showed how assumptions from well-intentioned medical providers can lead to innocent parents losing their children. 

Two other winners this year, “Social Security’s Secret” by Cox Media Group | KFF Health News and “Dealing the Dead” by NBC News, combined reporting from their affiliates and local member stations to amplify the work to the national level. That model is becoming increasingly prominent as local newsrooms struggle to find funding and resources. 

Local news remains the most trusted type of media in the United States, according to polling by Emerson College. The organizers of Local News Day are hoping it becomes an annual event.