Celebrating Five Years of Nonprofit Local News in Peekskill

July 22, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In July 2024, the Peekskill Herald celebrated its fifth anniversary as a nonprofit digital news outlet. Publisher Regina Clarkin told Local Matters Westchester that the paper’s rebirth began not with a business plan, but with a missed chance to speak at a public forum about relocating a homeless shelter. She posted her thoughts on Facebook instead, got a strong response, and realized she missed having an editorial voice. That led to a blog in 2018, then a Kickstarter campaign in 2019, and finally a formal nonprofit launch in 2021. The Herald now serves Peekskill and is expanding into parts of Cortlandt, covering news, sports, arts, and obituaries with a small staff of roughly 1.75 reporters.

The Nonprofit Model: Three Legs, One Stool

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What you'll learn

1 (00:29) **Origin Story: From Blog to Nonprofit** - Regina Clarkin explains how persistent community pressure and a personal frustration with being silenced at a public meeting led her to revive the Peekskill Herald as a blog in 2018.
2 (03:31) **The Nonprofit Leap** - Clarkin describes discovering the nonprofit model for local news through the LION (Local Independent Online News) association, which made expansion possible.
3 (06:07) **The Grant Funding Reality** - Clarkin details the intense competition for foundation money and the specific strategies hyperlocal outlets use to survive.
4 (08:09) **Five Years of Growth and Shifting Challenges** - The publisher reflects on the outlet's financial evolution and the current difficulty of competing with direct social services for philanthropic dollars.
5 (09:53) **The Hyperlocal Digital Trend** - Clarkin explains why digital-only, hyperlocal news is the fastest-growing segment of the newspaper market.
6 (11:15) **Breaking Through in a Digital Age** - Clarkin addresses the challenge of visibility in an algorithm-driven news environment and outlines her social media strategy.
7 (14:22) **The Core Financial Challenge: The Donor Gap** - Clarkin identifies the biggest threat to local news: educating consumers that they must now pay for the news that advertising used to cover.

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Show Notes

Peekskill Herald founder Regina Clarkin delves into the challenges and tremendous rewards of serving the community with nonprofit local journalism on the eve of the online news outlet's fifth anniversary.