The National Trust for Local News taps Buffalo News publisher as its next CEO

The National Trust for Local News announced on Monday that Tom Wiley, currently president and publisher at the Lee Enterprises-owned Buffalo News, will become its new CEO.

Last month, Nieman Lab dove into some of the challenges the National Trust for Local News is facing. They include several formerly profitable newspapers now operating in the red, an exodus of news executives, and frustration with a lack of transparency and clear mission from the corporate offices. National Trust for Local News CEO Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro agreed the nonprofit she cofounded needed new leadership to move forward and stepped down in January.

The nationwide search was done “pretty quickly,” noted Keith Mestrich, a Maine-based financial services executive and labor leader who became board chair in March. “We had a good sense of what we needed.”

“It was clear we needed somebody who had exceptional operating skills,” Mestrich said. “We needed someone who would be able to come in and not only articulate a great sense of mission, but also have the wherewithal and skillset to make sure that we never threatened that long-term vision because we didn’t operate the properties that we own really, really well.”

With Wiley, the National Trust for Local News is getting a sincere and well-liked news executive with deep experience driving revenue and forging community connections for local news organizations, according to journalists and news leaders who have worked with him. Before joining The Buffalo News, Wiley spent time with Digital First Media, Wisconsin State Journal, and a group of Connecticut newspapers, among others. He has a degree in advertising and his first job was selling car ads for the Lansing State Journal in Michigan.

“It is rare, in the local news space, to find a business-side person who not only believes the business can grow, but delivers on that,” said Mike Connelly, who served as editor at The Buffalo News for two years during Wiley’s tenure.

“He was exactly what you’d look for in a business-side person,” Connelly added. “He cared. He didn’t stick his fingers into what the newsroom was doing. He believed the business should grow and the newsroom should grow — and that the newsroom doing more and better was a big part of how to make the business grow.”

Matt DeRienzo, previous executive director of LION Publishers and current director of the SciLine service, worked with Wiley at The New Haven Register and other Connecticut newspapers. Wiley understood what it means for a local news organization to be both in and part of the community, and can articulate that relationship in ways that got buy-in from other local community leaders, DeRienzo said.

DeRienzo described Wiley as “revenue guy” but one “who understands you can’t cut your way to success.”

“My experience with him during [a month of wall-to-wall Sandy Hook coverage] — and many, many other examples of journalism that had to be fearless and deeply resourced — was excellent,” DeRienzo said. “He always had the newsroom’s back on issues relating to the newsroom’s firewall and independence.”

Wiley’s reputation for operational acumen and people skills was on display in an interview with Nieman Lab. He was equally happy to get into the weeds of “the flywheel of reinvestment” and burn rates or discuss the unique value of local news and how intensely affected he was by the Sandy Hook shooting coverage.

On Monday, Wiley planned to hold an all-hands meeting and convene the employees from all three states at one time — a first for the National Trust for Local News. He’ll officially start on May 12 and will launch a road trip visiting National Trust newsrooms in Maine, Colorado, and Georgia.

“A disconnected corporate team is just not as functional as a connected one,” Wiley said. “This is a small enough organization that I can personally go visit every single office we have in a few months. There’s no reason not to go out and meet people and let them vent and let them praise and let them ideate. I think something really cool will come out of that.”

Wiley arrives with some plans (“You’ll see us moving very rapidly toward an audience-based selling model”) but said he’ll reserve most decisions until after he’s spoken to newsroom leaders and journalists on the front lines with the community in the three states.

“Give the local people the respect they deserve for what they know and what they’re good at — and listen to it,” Wiley said. “If it doesn’t feed the mission or the margin, then let’s have a conversation about how to nudge that in a way that does work.”

Wiley is an advertising expert but said the Trust’s revenue mix would be determined by the demand in each market and what products each outlet produced. The Trust currently earns revenue from traditional sources such as advertising, reader revenue, and events. (“Local news is a hard business, but it isn’t complicated,” as Wiley said in the press release announcing his appointment.) The profits will be reinvested back into the local newsrooms.

Unlike his previous employers, The National Trust for Local News is a nonprofit. Wiley does not have extensive fundraising experience, he acknowledged. He will start by leaning on existing National Trust leadership for fundraising connections and expertise, he said.

“I think the economics of the newspaper business don’t wildly change if you’re a nonprofit or a for-profit,” said Knight Foundation vice president of journalism Jim Brady, who was editor-in-chief at Digital First Media when Wiley worked there. “It’s a tough business right now, but Tom has a long history of being deep in the weeds and really knows the economics of the newspaper business. I think that’s what the Trust needs at the moment.”

There’s plenty to build on. The first quarter of 2025 was the Trust’s most successful fundraising quarter ever, the nonprofit said, including multiple six- and seven-figure gifts from first-time funders. The Trust also received a donation in the form of the Dawson County News in rural Georgia, marking the first time the Trust has acquired a newspaper via donation.

Wiley has seen a lot of consolidation and cuts over his three decades in for-profit local news. Despite the ups and downs and additional downs, he remains bullish about the business.

“I’ve seen it over and over again: we are undervaluing the unique benefit we bring to the markets. Don’t forget that everybody else has pretty much eliminated local journalism,” Wiley said. “Not only is that a unique community value, it’s also a unique selling proposition to both the consumers and the businesses. I want to get us out of apologizing for having to run the business in order to support the journalism. The journalism is the business. It is the unique value. I think we can do a lot with that.”