Troy Niday is hoping to launch Press Onward , a nonprofit, community-based digital newsroom, mid-2026
membership and advertising growth. Once under the Newswell umbrella, says Niday, “I can go start hiring journalists.” His goal is to raise another $1.2 million from local donors to fund journalists, or perhaps a particular news beat such as agriculture or city hall. “So far [there’s been] a high level of interest and acute awareness of need—and a high level of concern over the degrading local information ecosystem,” Niday says. …… Former Press Democrat Managing Editor John D’Anna saw the writing on the wall last spring. Three days after receiving an offer letter for the managing editor position he’d been pursuing with CalMatters, the announcement came May 1 that the PD had been sold to Alden Global Capital. “We all knew it was coming,” D’Anna says about the widely reported negotiations to sell the PD , though most understood Hearst Corp., publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle , as the destination for the Santa Rosa daily. While D’Anna concedes a sale to Hearst seemed the likeliest scenario, “I think anybody who’s watched the industry should have known Alden would sweep in,” D’Anna says. “People felt blindsided, but they shouldn’t have been.” Now eight months into his new gig with CalMatters, D’Anna holds a unique perspective on journalism within both privately held and nonprofit news media. In many ways, he says, there are more similarities than differences. “[With privately owned media] advertisers want audience, so you’re constantly looking at audience. With a nonprofit, donors want impact, so you’re
looking at impact more than audience numbers. “But it’s all similar because good journalism drives audience and impact.” D’Anna’s been following Niday’s efforts to launch Press Onward and believes if anyone has the “business sense and acumen to pull this off,” it’s him. Still, he describes it as a “big lift” to “get the nonprofit news model up and running and build the plane as you’re flying it.” He says Press Onward’s challenge will be garnering sufficient support for a Sonoma County digital newsroom, while any long- term effects of Alden’s PD ownership have yet to be felt by the community. Despite the initial cuts and consolidation, says D’Anna, “I don’t think they’ve rendered Santa Rosa a news desert yet. “But that’s clearly where it’s going to go.” For Niday, it’s not a question of replacing the Press Democrat . “There’s already not enough quality local journalism in Sonoma County or any local market,” he says. “We need the PD to succeed—and [ Press Onward ] to add value above and beyond what they can.” …… If everything falls into place, Niday hopes to launch Press Onward in mid-2026. In the meantime, he continues an active community engagement tour—and says that kind of outreach will be an ongoing component of Press Onward’s community presence. So far he’s hearing calls for coverage of issues that have presented increasing challenges to the community in recent years: housing affordability, homelessness, Santa Rosa’s ability to recruit new businesses, school performance, changing wine-consumption
42 NorthBaybiz
January 2026
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