When E&P reported on Sept. 2 that Broad + Liberty and Access Network were merging to form the Fideri News Network, the press release generated more questions than answers: What exactly is this new company? How is it structured? Is it truly positioned to become a meaningful player in today's media landscape, or simply a rebranding of existing outlets? To delve deeper into the announcement, E&P sat down with Broad + Liberty CEO Terry Tracy and Access Global Advisors CEO Jim McDonald, now chairman of the network, for a closer look at what Fideri actually is — and what it aims to become.
Mission and local focus
Tracy positioned the effort squarely around the local news crisis. “We are fundamentally — what we’re trying to do here, what we believe we’re going to do here is solve for the crisis in local news,” he said. He pointed to the recent announcement that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution would cease print, the financial pressures on the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the steady erosion of county dailies.
“As quantity increases, the consumption quantity increases, and the quality at the local level decreases,” Tracy said. “So we’re building a model that we believe will give people the full complement of information and access that they’re looking for, but in a model that addresses some of the more fundamental challenges that the traditional companies are having.”
He emphasized that the network will not focus on national coverage. “We really believe that the opportunity, both in terms of the market opportunity and the editorial impact upside, really exists at the state and local level,” he said, citing Pennsylvania as a “center of gravity” for civic and political debates.
Structure and growth strategy
McDonald described the model as clustering outlets to achieve full market coverage. “I wouldn’t mistake national reach for nationwide coverage,” he said. “We will cluster our efforts first around Philadelphia and New Jersey, and then where it makes sense.”
He explained the approach: “Surround a city by buying independent journalism websites and independent news websites, and then launching adjacent to get full market coverage. It’s kind of like a real estate thing, really, if you look at it. So that’s, I believe, the way to compete in the market.”
McDonald added that success will depend on meeting consumer expectations rather than forcing traditional formats. “We are going to make it accessible. We are going to make it scaled, and we’re going to make it good. The content will be good and relevant to the consumers.”
Editorial positioning
Some external observers, including Google News indexing and watchdog groups, have characterized Broad + Liberty as right-leaning. Tracy pushed back on the idea that a single ideology would define the new network.
“It’s not entirely accurate in the sense that it’s really a portfolio of sites that do different things for different reasons, for different consumers that in the aggregate offer a wide range of almost a complete range of news products,” he said.
Tracy explained the origins of Broad + Liberty. “I found Broad + Liberty in 2019 because I believed that conservatives — intellectual conservatives — had seeded the ground in big urban, metropolitan areas to not just classical liberals, but progressives. And that was to the detriment of the people who live there,” he said. “There needed to be a platform for folks who wanted to engage in these issues to come and to write and to argue and to be heard.”
He described the broader editorial philosophy as “pro taxpayer, pro growth, pro individual responsibility,” while stressing that the network would continue to provide local accountability reporting. “There are very few people covering what’s going on, Mike, at school board meetings, in county commissioners’ offices. It’s just not happening anymore. And that’s what our reporters are tasked to do.”
Accountability reporting
To illustrate the kind of work the network intends to pursue, Tracy pointed to the federal COVID relief funds provided under ARPA. “County governments, state governments, school boards were given tens of millions of dollars with really a very broad parameter in which they could allocate those dollars,” he said.
“What we have found in many county courthouses in Pennsylvania is that a lot of that money went to create new bureaucracy. So it was one-time revenue sources dedicated to long-term fixed costs. And when that money is gone… the taxpayer is on the hook.”
He framed that as an example of the accountability reporting role local outlets must fill. “These are the kinds of things that we’re looking into that, quite frankly, no one else is looking into.”
Sustainability and revenue
Sustainability remains the core question for any new venture. McDonald argued that the Fideri model has already been validated. “In fact, it’s been vetted by a PE advisory company that looked at this deal and came back to us and said, ‘Wow, this is a good business model. This is a good investment opportunity,’” he said.
While declining to share specifics, McDonald said revenue diversity is key. “We are not just selling advertising. There are 10 different revenue sources. Obviously, because I look at this competitively, I’m not interested in giving our strategy out to our competitors… However, it’s essential to have diverse income streams. Right? Diverse revenue streams for the business. We’ve developed a model with what I call a revenue wheel that does just that.”
He noted his own background in mergers and acquisitions. “I’ve talked to hundreds of CEOs and publishers over the last seven years around the world… A lot of the gleaning is what I think is the amalgam of the best opportunities in the business to put a good business together.”
Tracy added a comparison to retail. “Nobody’s walking around naked, thank God. So why can’t we make any money selling t-shirts and sweaters?” he recalled from his time at Gap, Ralph Lauren and J.Crew. “There were some fundamental sacred cows within the business models of those companies… I think a lot of those challenges are translatable to the media industry as well. If we’re willing to challenge those sacred cows, think divergently and stay in our lane, which really is state and local — hyper local, I think it's going to offer us an opportunity to really deliver a terrific product.”
Looking ahead
The launch of Fideri News Network combines Broad + Liberty’s nonprofit identity with Access Network’s portfolio of lifestyle sites, political coverage, hyperlocal county outlets and WBCB Sports radio. For now, the founders describe their ambitions as clustering in the Philadelphia and New Jersey markets, with an eye toward expansion if the model proves sustainable.
As Tracy put it, “Solving for the business model challenges, and quite frankly, and almost equally as important, the civic challenges that media faces at the local level are really critically important for the good of our democracy and our ability to self-govern.”
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