By FāVS News Staff
In a Q&A with FāVS News founder and executive director Tracy Simmons, she explores the importance of community support to local journalism.
Q: Why is community support so vital for local journalism?
Local journalism doesn’t survive on advertising revenue the way it once did. The business model that sustained newsrooms for generations has largely collapsed, and what’s filled the void — or failed to — is community. When readers become donors, they’re making a statement that this kind of accountability, this kind of storytelling, matters.
Q: What does community support do specifically for Favs News?
FāVS is a nonprofit, so community support is quite literally how we exist. Every dollar goes directly toward paying reporters, editors, and the infrastructure that keeps America’s only digital newsroom devoted to local religion news running. When you give to FāVS, you’re funding stories that no one else is telling — about faith communities navigating change, about the role of religion in public life, about the people in your neighborhood whose spiritual lives shape everything from their politics to their dinner tables. You’re also helping us expand. Right now we’re growing our coverage across Washington state, and that’s only possible because our community believes this work is worth investing in.
Q: What do you wish more people understood about the process of how of local journalism is produced?
That it’s slow, careful work done by real people who care deeply about getting it right. There’s a misconception that journalists just show up, ask a few questions and hit publish. But behind every story is research, relationship-building, source verification, editing, fact-checking, and often difficult conversations about what’s fair and what’s true. At FāVS, our reporters are covering religion — which means they’re navigating deeply personal territory, working to earn the trust of communities that have sometimes been burned by outside coverage. That takes time and intention. We’re not chasing clicks. We’re building a record of religious life in the Inland Northwest and beyond that will matter for years to come.
Q: Why is now an especially important time to support local news?
We’re at an inflection point. Hundreds of local newsrooms have closed in the past decade, leaving communities without anyone watching city hall, covering the school board, or telling the stories that hold a place together. At the same time, misinformation fills the vacuum that local journalism leaves behind. In the religion space especially, that vacuum is dangerous — it’s where extremism grows unchecked and where communities lose the ability to understand one another. Supporting local news right now isn’t just about keeping a publication alive. It’s about deciding what kind of information ecosystem we want to live in.
FāVS News uses professional journalists and thoughtful commentary to explore faith, values and ethics. Support journalism like this by making a tax-deductible donation. FāVS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. © FāVS News. All rights reserved. Reproduction permitted only to authorized media partners or with written permission.
