by Ellie Fivas, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]
July 15, 2026
While some Georgia newsrooms are shrinking or closing down, two of the state’s largest local publications are being reimagined as nonprofit newsrooms.
The Georgia Trust for Local News announced Wednesday that they have acquired the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer and the Macon Telegraph to join its growing nonprofit media portfolio. With this sale, the organization — a subsidiary of the National Trust for Local News — now operates 21 local newsrooms across the state.
Both newspapers were previously owned by McClatchy Media for 20 years. McClatchy did not immediately respond to the Georgia Recorder’s request for comment on the sale Wednesday.
The Ledger-Enquirer and the Telegraph will both transition to become nonprofit organizations, a recent trend for local journalism. Additionally, the Telegraph will merge with the Macon Melody, a community outlet run by the Georgia Trust and funded by a Knight Foundation grant in 2024.
Georgia Trust Executive Director Cynthia DuBose said the acquisition will make the relationship between readers and the outlets stronger.
“If you live in Columbus, if you live in Macon, I think the biggest change you’re going to start to see is that we’re going to be visible,” DuBose said. “We’re going to cover things that are relevant to their lives, and that help them enjoy the life they’re living in these communities.”
DuBose emphasized that Columbus and Macon community members drove much of the fundraising and donation efforts to make the acquisitions possible but she declined to share the exact value of the purchases.
The Peyton Anderson Foundation, named for Peyton T. Anderson, Jr, who is a former Telegraph owner and publisher, provided the funding for the Macon newspaper. With help from the Georgia Trust, the information fund at the Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley assisted in purchasing the Ledger-Enquirer, along with other local donors.
Nora Benavidez, director of digital justice and civil rights at the national nonprofit Free Press, called the news “tremendous” and said the outlets becoming nonprofits will strengthen democracy and civic engagement.
According to Benavidez, who serves on the Georgia First Amendment Foundation’s board, when people can’t access local news, research shows they are less likely to be aware of community issues and less likely to vote in local elections. Additionally, municipal salaries typically rise, and as a result, corruption tends to increase.
“Study after study has shown that local homegrown reporting is essential to democracy,” she said.
Distrust in major news organizations and corporate media is increasing, and Benavidez said decades of declining investment in local outlets has created news deserts across the United States. A news desert, she said, develops when a community no longer has access to reporting about local issues.
With the shift from corporate ownership to nonprofit, Benavidez thinks Columbus and Macon readers will see revitalized coverage of issues that matter to their communities in the outlets.
“Nonprofit news models are really thriving, bringing news that people can use to communities. They often invest and pour into understanding more deeply what communities and readers or consumers want,” Benavidez said. “As a result, the quality of the paper or the coverage in these outlets often really reflects a deep value-driven, mission-driven commitment to community issues.”
It’s been a tough year for journalism in Georgia so far. The Atlanta Civic Circle, a nonprofit outlet that focused on housing and metro Atlanta development, permanently shut down its operations in June due to a lack of funding. And in February, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution laid off 15% of its staff, citing the outlet’s transition away from print media.
Avoiding news deserts is what the Georgia Trust is working toward with its 21 community newspapers, DuBose said. The executive director, who joined the organization in May, said Wednesday’s purchase has been in the works since before she began her role.
DuBose estimated the acquisition of the Telegraph and Ledger-Enquirer will preserve local journalism for about one million Georgians, and left open the possibility for the Georgia Trust to acquire more papers in the future.
All of the Georgia Trust’s newspapers have nonprofit structures, but some still have paywalls and subscription models. In a press release, the organization said the Ledger-Enquirer and the Telegraph’s paywalls will come down for a 30-day period for community members to peruse their revamped content and website.
While it’s a challenging time for journalism, DuBose said she is excited to continue serving communities like Columbus and Macon by reforming local news.
“All the wonderful organizations and residents that got together to preserve local news in their cities,” she said. “We have an obligation to not let them down.”
Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.