As public conversations go, this was a first for Indy: a discussion about local news coverage with a “public editor” hired to hold the media—and public officials—accountable.
Wednesday night’s gathering at the Glendale Branch of the Indianapolis Public Library introduced Tracey Compton, recently named IndianapolisPublic Editor by the Poynter Institute. The initiative—funded by the Hearst and Lumina foundations—is an experiment aimed at strengthening trust in local news by giving the public a direct voice in how journalism is evaluated and explained.
Compton will work with local media outlets including Mirror Indy, WFYI, and the Indiana Capital Chronicle to examine how journalism is done, raising questions about accuracy, fairness, coverage priorities, and the relationship between news organizations and the communities they serve.
Her four columns so far have included a piece explaining the new role, and others about how the public won when an Indiana public records fight went to court, coverage of the death of a police officer in the line of duty, and what we learn about local newsrooms by looking at their Olympics coverage.
For Compton, the role reflects both a professional calling and personal mission.
“I see journalism as a way to give back and contribute to society in a positive way,” she told the group. “A lot of people don’t trust the media right now, and we’re very much entrenched in these polarizing ideologies. I thought this kind of role was really needed."
A Listening Tour Across the City
Compton plans to meet residents at libraries, festivals, community centers, and neighborhood events throughout the year.
“My plan is to be out in the community,” she said. “We’re going to go as far and wide as we can with listening sessions.”
Those conversations will help shape the columns she writes examining how local media operates.
The public editor role could once be found at major news organizations, but most eliminated those positions during the financial pressures that reshaped the industry over the past two decades.
That history is part of what inspired Kelly McBride, senior vice president at the Poynter Institute and public editor for NPR, to help launch the Indianapolis experiment.
“I’ve been enamored with the idea of having public editors on the local level,” McBride told the group. “Many newspapers used to have them. They got rid of them a long time ago."
After years of McBride pitching the idea to funders, the concept finally found support in Indianapolis.
Holding Journalism Accountable—Without Becoming an
Adversary
Being a public editor is not always comfortable work.
“You make zero friends as a public editor,” McBride said. “Journalists get very nervous when they see an email coming from you.”
But she emphasized that the goal is improvement, not punishment.
“The job has two levels of responsibility,” McBride explained. “The first responsibility is to the audience, to the news consumers. And the second responsibility is to the journalists and the journalism organizations.”
Criticism, she said, works best when it encourages improvement rather than defensiveness.
“If we’re too harsh—if we’re too much like internal affairs at the police department—we’ll be less effective."
What the Public Wants From Local News
Much of the evening focused on what Indianapolis residents feel is missing from the local media landscape. People raised questions about:
- How newsrooms decide which crime stories to cover
- Whether local outlets still maintain strong education
beats
- Whether the rise of data centers is covered sufficiently
- How well local newsrooms reflect the city’s growing diversity.
One participant noted the growth in Indy of Spanish-speaking communities and other immigrant populations whose experiences are rarely explored in depth.
“There’s a whole infrastructure there that we know nothing about,” the man said. “People are having all kinds of experiences that are unlike my own.”
Compton said these questions highlight an important issue: representation.
Future columns from the public editor may examine whether the communities that make up Indianapolis are reflected in newsroom staffing, sourcing, and coverage decisions.
“You can look at the newsrooms themselves,” Compton said. “You can look at sources. You can look at how different communities are covered."
Big Stories Ahead for Indianapolis Media
Several larger issues facing local journalism also surfaced during the discussion.
One is the consolidation of local television ownership, which McBride predicted will become a major story for the Indianapolis media market.
Consolidation is partly driven by changing audience habits. Just as digital media reshaped newspapers, the same forces are now affecting television.
“In the same way that we saw consumption of newspapers fall off a cliff as people had more choices,” McBride said, “that same thing is predicted to happen with television.”
Another challenge is telling complex stories that don’t naturally grab attention but have enormous civic impact.
Stories about school boards, government budgets, and policy decisions may not be flashy, McBride noted, but they are among the most important for democracy.
“They’re compelling,” she said. “But they can also be boring. And those are some of the hardest stories to tell well."
A New Experiment in Local Media Accountability
The Indianapolis public editor project is still in its early stages, but its goals are ambitious: rebuild trust in journalism, strengthen accountability, and create a regular channel for community voices in the news process.
That begins with simple conversations like the one held at the Glendale Library.
For Compton, the work ahead is about reconnecting journalism with the public it serves.
Listening, she suggested, is the first step.
