L.A. Reported prepares for launch as a weekly Substack that “won’t waste readers’ time”

How many times have you read a Substack — even a good one! — and thought, “This could use an editor”? A new nonprofit newsroom wants to combine magazine-style editing, deep connections to local reporting talent, and the easy-to-launch newsletter model to cover Los Angeles County.

L.A. Reported believes “a smaller number of higher-quality, deeply reported, well-written stories” is exactly what the city needs, editor-in-chief and cofounder Scott Woolley said on Thursday. The publication plans to start with one “tightly edited” issue a week, and ramp up to three per week by the end of the year.

The “less is more” editorial model accounts for generous pay (roughly $2 to $5 per word) for contributors, said Woolley, a freelance writer and editor and former West Coast bureau chief for Forbes Magazine. Stories will typically range between 750 and 1,500 words, according to the L.A. Reported site. If my math is right, even shorter stories could pay between $1,500 and $3,750. Very generous, indeed!

“We might only produce the same amount as a typical one-person Substack, but we’re going to do it with eight times the manpower,” Woolley said. “Hopefully that will be reflected in the quality of the stories and in the depth of the reporting we can do.”

L.A. Reported has multiple sections on its inspiration (“Our model explained,” “What we borrow from traditional local newspapers,” “What we borrow from 20th century magazines,” and “What we borrow from 21st century online newsletters.”) on its website. Ultimately, however, its mission is to “focus on what makes Los Angeles livable, or not: housing, transportation, public safety, and the systems that shape daily life.”

The first issue — scheduled for Sunday, January 18 — will feature “how regulations have (or haven’t) improved city safety since the fires, practical guidance for residents, and a personal essay from a self-described ‘fire nomad’ displaced by the disaster.”

When L.A. Reported launches, it’ll have company. As my colleague Sophie Culpepper has reported, Los Angeles has seen “an explosion” of new local news sites lately. National outlets like Politico, The New York Times, and The New York Post — sensing opportunity as The L.A. Times has struggled — have also launched new California projects.

Former congressman David Dreier is also cofounder. (Dreier, a moderate Republican when he served in Congress, is better known in journalism circles for his work on the Fallen Journalist Memorial and serving as chairman of Tribune Publishing before its sale to Alden.) Dreier and Woolley met through their mutual alma mater, Claremont McKenna College; L.A. Reported inaugural editor Karin Klein, a veteran of the L.A. Times, came aboard shortly after giving a presentation to students at the college.

The nonprofit newsroom is launching with a stable of freelancers rather than the two full-time staff reporters it once envisioned. L.A. Reported has raised startup funds from foundations and individuals, Woolley said, and will maintain a small newsroom in downtown Los Angeles. (L.A. Reported has not made its funders public. Nieman Lab has requested a list and will update with the response.) The nonprofit newsroom hopes to convert to a model relying on reader donations and Substack subscription revenue within three years.

“I ultimately think it’s healthier for a publication to owe their financial health to their readers instead of their donors,” Woolley said. He noted the difficulty in chasing enough philanthropic funds each and every year to sustain a newsroom. “And from a journalistic standpoint, I like the idea of our primary duty being to readers.”

Subscriptions to L.A. Reported start at $5/month via Substack. Woolley explained why the news startup chose the email newsletter platform.

“The magic of the Substack model is that you don’t need an IT department. You don’t have to run a big CMS operation,” Woolley said. “I went through the income statements of a bunch of different nonprofits and looked at their expenses and asked, ‘What can I cut out?’ with the goal of maximizing editorial dollars.”

The L.A. Reported website is here. You can sign up for their Substack directly.