On the Virtues of Statewide Journalism
A few days ago I published an item about a year-old online effort to revive local news coverage in Tennessee, The Daily Memphian. It was part of an ongoing series about efforts to…
Recent posts
Articles & News
Planting a ‘Trail of Giants’
Last month, as part of a “Big Little Ideas” series, I mentioned a surprisingly valuable short-term step that communities can take, on their own, for positive climate effects. That is to start planting…
Deborah Fallows Featured on The Newsworthy Podcast
The Thursday, November 7, 2019 The Newsworthy podcast episode features Deb Fallows speaking on “Why American Workers are Moving to Smaller Cities.” To listen, go to this link and advance…
Fallowses Keynote at Delaware Community Foundation
James and Deborah Fallows presented the Delaware Community Foundation’s Building Opportunity Keynote in Wilmington on Nov. 6. “One of the things that touched us around the country was seeing people who decided to…
In Memphis, A Lab Experiment for Local News
It’s time for another look at new financial, editorial, and technological models for local journalism. You’ll find previous entries at these links: from Mississippi; from Maine; from Massachusetts; from Southern California and the San Francisco…
The Gem City Moves Forward
This is the first in a series of posts on the city of Dayton, Ohio. I’ve been there three times since August and am about to make another trip. Almost…
James and Deborah Fallows to Present Delaware Community Foundation Building Opportunity Keynote Nov. 6
James and Deborah Fallows will present the 2019 Delaware Community Foundation Building Opportunity keynote address Wednesday, November 6, at the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington. The event also will be…
James Fallows Featured at CityLab DC
James Fallows moderated a discussion at the CityLab DC summit on global cities on October 28, 2019. The discussion, with Sidewalk Labs’ Head of Urban Systems, Rohit Aggarwala, General Manager of LADOT,…
Referenced in Humanities Magazine
In her feature in Humanities, The Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Jennifer Howard describes libraries as one of the only, “truly public places left in America.” She…
Referenced in The Herald Republican
Jim and Deb Fallows visited Angola, IN in April of 2019 for a project organized jointly by New America Indianapolis, and Indiana Humanities, as part of their new two-year-long INseparable program intended to foster conversations…
The New Approach to Local Journalism
Here’s another installment in the ongoing series on how local news operations, especially newspapers, can devise new ways to stay in business. For previous entries—from Mississippi, from Maine, from Massachusetts, from Southern California and the San…
Featured in The Bulletin
The Fallowses have been in Central Oregon filming a segment of their upcoming HBO documentary. Read the article in The Bulletin here.
A River of Words in Pittsburgh
As we've traveled around the country with our American Futures and Our Towns projects since 2013, my husband, Jim, and I have evolved from being skeptics to evangelists about the impact of public arts on communities.
‘We’re Doing It for Love of Community’
Do local public-radio stations play an important role? In big cities, from Boston and Washington to San Francisco and L.A.? In small towns, like those across Mississippi or Alaska or…
Start Planting Trees
Recently Deb Fallows kicked off a series of “Big Little Ideas”—innovations or reforms that could be applied fairly easily at the local level and that might have cumulatively very important effect.…
Rebuilding After Incarceration
More than 2 million Americans are in the country’s prisons and jails now, giving the United States both the largest number of prisoners and the highest per-capita incarceration rate in…