Regional Independent Media
Owned by the community.
Accountable to no platform.
Each publication operates independently, serving its own county and community. Together they form a network of record for the people, governments, and stories of greater St. Louis and the Southeast Missouri Ozarks.
CH 01
St. François County
Covering Farmington, Bonne Terre, and the mining communities of St. François County — municipal affairs, school boards, labor, and the economic stories shaping the region's future.
CH 02
Ste. Genevieve County
The voice of Missouri's oldest permanent European settlement. History, culture, the Mississippi River, and the civic life of one of the state's most distinctive communities.
CH 03
Washington County
Washington County's paper of record — local government, courts, schools, and community events from Potosi to Caledonia and the towns in between.
CH 04
Madison County
Independent coverage of Madison County — the small towns, the courthouse, the farms, and the people the wire services never find. Small county, big stories.
CH 05
Greater St. Louis
Urban and riverfront reporting for the metro and the communities on both sides of the Mississippi. Politics, neighborhoods, and the civic fabric of America's original western gateway.
CH 06
Ozark Parklands
Rural living, agriculture, land stewardship, and community news from the Current River corridor and the Ozark highlands — reporting that treats rural life seriously.
LocalNews21 is an independent regional media company founded on a single conviction: communities deserve a press that is accountable to them, not to advertisers in distant cities, not to engagement algorithms, and not to the consolidation wave that has hollowed out local journalism across America.
We own and operate a network of county-level publications across St. Louis and Southeast Missouri. Each outlet covers its territory with staff who live there — people who see the school board candidates at the grocery store and know whose name is on the courthouse door.
We do not have investors to satisfy. We do not chase national traffic. We do not publish content farms or SEO filler. Our revenue comes from local advertising and community support, and our editorial decisions are made by editors, not dashboards.
This is not a nostalgia project. It is a deliberate, permanent commitment to the idea that democracy requires a local press — and that a local press requires independence.
"The decline of local news is not a market failure. It is a structural one — and it requires a structural answer."
LocalNews21, founding statement
All LocalNews21 publications publish to Nostr — the open, decentralized protocol for censorship-resistant communication.
We believe the infrastructure of journalism matters as much as its editorial integrity. A free press that depends entirely on corporate platforms to distribute its work is not truly free. Nostr gives our readers a channel that no company can revoke, throttle, or algorithmically suppress.
If you're sovereignty-minded — if you want to follow local news without feeding an engagement machine — find us on Nostr. Our npubs are listed on each publication's individual site.
"We publish to Nostr because the distribution of journalism should not be owned by the same companies whose power journalism exists to check."
We accept advertising from local businesses and organizations whose work is relevant to the communities we serve. We also welcome contributor pitches from journalists, writers, and community members with something worth saying.
Advertising
Our readers are engaged, local, and not scrolling past you. Advertising with LocalNews21 supports independent journalism and puts your message in front of the community you're trying to reach. County-specific and network-wide placements available.
Contributor Pitches
We welcome pitches from journalists, community members, subject-matter experts, and anyone with original reporting or sharp analysis about the communities we cover. We pay for work we publish. Introduce yourself and your idea.