What the Washington State News Alliance will do in 2026
This year-long pilot project will help to coordinate people, funding, and resources in support of a strong, equitable local news ecosystem in Washington.
After eight months of publishing Fresh Ground—a newsletter for people who care about reliable news and information in Washington state—we recently shared that we’ve received a grant from the Washington Local News Funders Collaborative. This support allows us to pilot a new effort: the Washington State News Alliance (WSNA).
The WSNA builds on the work of Fresh Ground to coordinate people, funding, and resources in support of a strong, equitable local news ecosystem in Washington. We’re designing the Alliance as a peer-led collaborative, meaning this work will be shaped and carried out by a broad group of participants from across the state.
Over the next year, we’ll experiment with four initiatives:
Launch a Steering Committee
We will convene a committee of 7-8 Washington State residents to guide the vision of WSNA and build our coalition. They’ll also help track our progress toward outcomes and assess community interest and energy to continue this pilot long-term. The Steering Committee is led by Anika Anand, with Sarah Gustavus Lim and Linda Shaw as members. We’re currently working to fill our other seats.
Grow the Fresh Ground newsletter
Led by Linda, Fresh Ground will continue to publish and curate stories about local news in Washington state. We’re particularly interested in incorporating more original storytelling and analysis from contributors across the state. Our goal is to grow and diversify our readership, reaching community members beyond journalism who are interested in learning more about how to best support local news in our state.
Host a statewide local news convening
Led by Sarah, WSNA will host a state-wide convening for local news supporters. As of now we’re aiming for a spring convening in Yakima that will include people from newsrooms, educational institutions, civic organizations, local government and other supporters of local news. The goal of the event is to begin to identify a common vision and priorities.
Launch a series of conversations about local news policy in Washington state
Given recent momentum around supporting local news as a public good, we plan to host a series of conversations to discuss legislative and policy efforts. The WSNA Policy Learning Group will be a place for folks to learn about what’s happening in these efforts, and potentially help shape the direction of this work.
Want to get involved?
Reach out to us at freshgroundwa@gmail.com. We’d love to hear about your interest in this work.