Your community needs better news coverage, and we can help you get paid as a professional journalist.
TrulyNews is built for reporters who lost their local outlet — not to replace professional journalism, but to give it a new home. Bring followers from your online networks (like LinkedIn and Facebook), set your own prices, and earn a living as a freelance reporter.
Local journalism is in crisis — and so are the reporters who do it
As the newspaper industry collapsed, communities lost a critical source of information, and reporters lost the outlets needed to provide that information.
Local newspapers closed since 2005 — eliminating thousands of reporting jobs that covered city hall, schools, courts, and public safety.
Of newspaper newsroom jobs eliminated since 2008. Experienced reporters with deep community knowledge and established source networks are now without a platform.
Americans in news deserts — communities where a school board decision, a zoning change, or a public safety issue goes unreported because no one is paid to cover it.
How it works
Apply, get approved, and start publishing — with your byline, your beat, your prices.
Apply
Tell us about your reporting background, your beat, and the kinds of stories you'd pursue. Our team reviews every application to ensure that we are giving real journalists the opportunities they deserve.
Onboard your initial followers
Our onboarding tool lets you connect with existing contacts on platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook to bring them to our platform to support your work.
Publish and earn
Set your price-per-article from $0 to $100 with the ability to receive tips from readers. Get live updates on your earnings within your dashboard.
What earning a living actually looks like
The average U.S. reporter earns $60,000 a year. Here's how a freelance journalist with a modest following can match that — at just $1 per article.
A realistic example
Professionals average hundreds of connections on LinkedIn and Facebook. Bring your existing network with you.
A typical working journalist publishes at least 20 stories a month — a pace TrulyNews is built to support.
The lowest price point. A single dollar — less than a cup of coffee — is what readers pay to access each story.
That's $5,000 per month — or
Exactly the median salary for a U.S. reporter — earned independently, on your schedule, covering the community you know best.
You already have the audience
If you've been reporting for any length of time, you have followers on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or Nextdoor who already trust your work. Invite them to follow you on TrulyNews — and your existing professional network becomes your paying readership from day one. You don't have to build an audience from scratch. You just have to bring the one you've already earned.
Built for reporters who know their community
You don't need to be famous. You need to know the story.
Former Newspaper Reporters
You covered this community for years. You know the sources, the history, and the stakes. That knowledge doesn't disappear when a newsroom closes.
Independent Freelancers
You have the skills and the contacts. TrulyNews gives you the platform, the verification pipeline, and the payment infrastructure to make freelancing sustainable.
Beat Reporters
Courts. City hall. Education. Public safety. You built a beat. Own it — with a platform that lets you publish on your schedule, at your price.