Thousands of local news operations have gone dark in the last decade, with hundreds of communities without any on-the-ground reporting. The broken business model, declining trust, fracturing of audiences, the rise of disinformation, pick an issue and the industry is suffering from it. A bright spot? Local news. All communities with healthy local news have higher voting rates and less government corruption and waste. They have more people who join civic groups and donate to local charities. Local news decreases political polarization and knits together disparate communities; residents become more aware of shared problems, interests and opportunities. Those who follow local news are more likely to know their neighbors. Come learn about experiments and successes in Changing the Story for Local News.