How do you stay informed in Middle Tennessee?
Local news is essential infrastructure, as vital to a community as roads, schools, or public parks. Across Middle Tennessee, access to trusted local reporting is uneven. Take 8-10 minutes and help shape what comes next.
We are listening before we invest.
Local news is a public good. It is how communities make decisions together, how people find their footing after hard times, and how a region understands itself. It is also how people come to feel they belong to the place they call home. Yet across Middle Tennessee, access to trusted local reporting is uneven. We cannot strengthen what we do not yet fully see. That is why this work begins with listening. Learn More
Hear from every community
We want to hear from residents in all 40 counties, from city centers to the smallest crossroads, about how they get news today and what they feel is missing.
See the full picture
Your answers help us identify where local reporting is working, where it is strained, and where communities may lack access to timely, trusted information.
Invest with intention
What we learn will guide where Press Forward Middle Tennessee directs funding and partnerships, so investment follows community need, not assumption.
Local news is essential infrastructure, as vital to a community as roads, schools, or public parks. It’s how people stay informed, have a say in what comes next, and keep up with the place they call home.
Conducted in partnership with The Sycamore Institute.
The Sycamore Institute is an independent, nonpartisan research center that has spent a decade helping Tennesseans understand and address the challenges facing our state. They will analyze the survey findings and publish the results as clear, public insight that communities across the region can use.
The Sycamore Institute
A few things you might be wondering.
Press Forward Middle Tennessee is an initiative led by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee that brings together funders, newsrooms, and community partners to strengthen access to reliable, community centered information across the region. It is a local chapter of a national Press Forward network of chapters across the country.
Access to trusted information shapes nearly every part of community life, from public safety to schools to civic participation. Supporting a strong local information ecosystem helps communities function and thrive, which sits at the heart of our mission as a community foundation.
This work begins with listening. We are working to understand where information gaps exist across our 40 county region so that future investments can be thoughtful, informed by residents, and built to last.
Your responses are confidential. Working with The Sycamore Institute, we analyze findings in the aggregate and publish results to share back with the region. Individual answers are never published with your name attached.
The most helpful thing is completing the survey and sharing it with neighbors. You can also sign up for updates at the end of the form, or visit the main Press Forward Middle Tennessee page to learn more about the steering committee and our partner organizations.
This is the moment to be heard.
Press Forward Middle Tennessee begins by listening. Roughly 10 minutes of your time helps ensure that the future of local news in our region is shaped by the needs of our communities.
