In our inaugural episode, Steve Cavendish, president and editor of the revived Nashville Banner, offers a unique glimpse into the challenges and successes of nonprofit, nonpartisan journalism.
Steve Cavendish is betting anybody in the Nashville area older than 35 will recognize the name the Nashville Banner, or at the very least, associate it with local news.
What they may not know is that it was a strategic branding decision to retain the name when Cavendish and his partner, renowned career journalist Demetria Kalodimos, revived and revamped the Banner for the digital age.
Another strategic decision Cavendish made was to focus on quality, local reporting rather than publication speed or quantity.
It’s a decision that has paid off for the nonprofit model.
“For us, it’s about resonating with our audience,” Cavendish shares. “We’re not concerned if 100,000 people click on a story. What matters is whether the story helps our readers make democratic decisions about their community.”
The Banner, Cavendish explains, re-launched as a response to the “decline of public service journalism” and has taken on the responsibility for accountability in their reporting. For example, with stories uncovering secrecy in the court systems, Cavendish hopes to do more than just inform his audience; he wants to engage with them.
“These are things that affect the public’s ability to know what happens in their courts, and we think it’s really important,” he says. “And the really amazing thing of it is the more of that work we do, the more response we get from the public, and that part of it’s been really nice.”
As both editor and president, Steve reveals that navigating a nonprofit newsroom is not without its challenges, including financial pressures. “I mean, it’s terrifying,” Cavendish admits. “I know how much money we have to raise. I know what we have to do to survive. And yes, that’ll keep you up at night.”
However, the team’s commitment to high-quality reporting, without the demand for churning out daily content, has earned them credibility and audience trust. And their non-profit membership model allows the Banner to focus on what they do best.
“We’re journalists. We care about where we are. We want to do news where we are,” Cavendish explains. “We got into it because there was this void and nobody else was doing it. And so Demetria and I raised our hands and said, ‘OK, we’ll do it.’”
One of the ways Cavendish is leading the Banner into the digital age is by embracing technology and leveraging social media, particularly Instagram, for broader engagement.
Cavendish offers a tip to all content creators doing the same: “You have to do it well, no matter what it is. And so if we choose to publish on Instagram or Twitter or on a website or in a newsletter, how are we doing it so that that’s the best version of what we can do? Because I think people notice when you don’t do it well.”
While sharing his vision for the Banner’s future, Cavendish highlights the importance of growing the audience and continuing to lean into investigative work. “We want to grow as fast as possible,” he says. “To get to sustainability, we’re doing things that on the for-profit side, they’ve done forever. We’ve gone to donors and we give them something in return.”
“What we have heard from our readers and members is that they want us to do more,” Cavendish says. “So we’re going to try every way we can to do more.”
You can support the Nashville Banner or learn more about their work at NashvilleBanner.com.
