Kelsey Ryan, 33

Founder & Publisher, The Beacon (The Kansas City Beacon and The Wichita Beacon) Education: Emporia State University, bachelor of science in political science, minor in journalism

What advice do you have for other young professionals in the news industry?

Build the place you want to work.

It’s up to us to rebuild our industry, but we must build things more equitable and more financially nimble. There are more resources than ever before to help you start a local news organization in your community. So if you feel a tug in your heart that you should explore it, don’t ignore that feeling. Research. Talk to other founders. Reach out to the folks at Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers and the

Institute for Nonprofit News (INN). But most importantly, talk to people in your community about what they need from journalism. That audience is key to any venture’s success.

Lastly — and this is hard for some of us — try not to wrap up your identity too much in being a journalist. Instead, give yourself time to learn new things and build yourself as a human outside of work.

What do you think the news media landscape will look like in 10 years?

I hope to see a thriving, diverse ecosystem of news outlets springing up in news deserts across the U.S.— nonprofits, hyper-local for-profits, digital-only, multimedia, breaking news, investigative, single subject, multi-lingual, etc.

That diversity is good for our democracy. We need a marketplace of ideas. No matter your political persuasion, the need for accountability and information about how our government and society functions is critical, from city hall to the White House. We’re in a sea change and must continue supporting the free flow of information for the next decade and decades to come — supporting facts, defending truth. And there are people in our communities who want the same.