
Decreased advertising revenue and declining readership, coupled with the proliferation of online platforms, leave local news publications across the country with a stark choice: adapt or risk shuttering their doors for good.
On June 9, 2025, journalists and faculty members from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and Philip Merrill College of Journalism collaborated to explore innovative business model solutions for local news publications during the Business of Journalism event.
Hosted by the Smith School of Business and marking the Local News Network’s second annual local news summit, the day-long conference featured several panel discussions and keynotes. Topics ranged from reimagining revenue streams and improving the business prospects of local journalism outlets to the potential role of emerging technologies and artificial intelligence in local news publishing. The event also aligned with the Smith School’s strategic imperative that business is “Everybody’s Business.”
“What we’re hoping to do is bring the business acumen of experts here at the Smith School together with journalists from around the state to see what can be learned and how things can get better,” said Jerry Zremski, director of the Local News Network and lecturer at Merrill College.
Smith School Dean Prabhudev Konana opened the event with a fireside chat with Axios CEO and co-founder Roy Schwartz, '98, MBA '01. The day concluded with Tom Rosenstiel, Eleanor Merrill Scholar on the Future of Journalism and Professor of the Practice, interviewing Stewart W. Bainum Jr., founder of The Baltimore Banner. Both Schwartz and Bainum emphasize their vision for local journalism, its role as both a civic duty and a scalable business model.
Rosenstiel, one of the event’s organizers, emphasized the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to addressing some of the most significant challenges facing the journalism industry.
"There are so many structural things that have led to the decline and crisis in journalism,” said Rosenstiel. “Some of them are technological, some of them are product-based, some are marketing problems, so the expertise to address them doesn’t really reside in one school.”
Wedad Elmaghraby, Dean's Chair of Operations Management and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty, also a co-organizer of the event, viewed the day as a “refreshing” opportunity to collaborate with faculty members from other disciplines and leverage their collective expertise in search of generating positive industry impact.
“An overall theme of the workshop, to me, was the role of business in elevating communities in so many different ways, and how local news can be that economic connector within them,” said Elmaghraby. “This was a way for us to put a stake in the ground and say, ‘We have expertise here on both sides, let’s help push this forward, together.’”
In addition to her role in coordinating the event, Elmaghraby also moderated the event’s third session, which focused on harnessing AI capabilities to produce positive outcomes within journalism. She was joined by Smith faculty members Eaman Jahani and Kunpeng Zhang, who provided their expertise on the panel.
Other participating Smith faculty throughout the event included Yogesh Joshi, professor of marketing; Balaji Padmanabhan, professor of decision, operations and information technologies; Daniel McCarthy, associate professor of marketing; W. Jason Choi, assistant professor of marketing; and Bobby Zhou, associate professor of marketing.
The event concluded with a cocktail reception, marking the culmination of a day filled with meaningful dialogue and actionable ideas regarding the challenges facing local journalism, as well as the immense potential for innovation arising from the convergence of media and business minds.
"There are all these potential partnerships that we’ve never had before,” said Zremski. “This is the beginning of a closer relationship between the two schools that can help journalism across the state and across the country.”
Smith MarComm graduate intern James Consoli contributed to this story.
Media Contact
Greg Muraski
Media Relations Manager
301-405-5283
301-892-0973 Mobile
gmuraski@umd.edu
About the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and flex MBA, executive MBA, online MBA, business master’s, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.