The bigger vision
Protecting Dayton's information commons.
The Journalism Lab is the organization behind Dayton.FYI — a proposal to steward Dayton's information ecosystem as a civic commons, with the community at the center.
Newsroom jobs across America fell sharply over the last two decades, and Dayton has felt it acutely. Dayton.FYI asks a simple question: what if a community treated reliable local information as shared infrastructure — something it builds, governs, and sustains together, rather than waits for someone else to provide?
Our nearly six years of community journalism work — the training, the youth programs, the published stories — are the capacity layer of a much larger vision for a civic information platform.
How it fits together
Four layers of a civic information commons
Capacity
Journalism training, youth programs, and AI literacy that strengthen the community itself — the work the Lab already does.
Infrastructure
A public records library, civic calendar and map, an open data API, and civic AI tools that make dense documents readable.
Editorial
A newsroom, a community documentation network, and a Community Voice Network that amplifies residents' own reporting.
Distribution
Dayton.FYI as the platform that connects it all — plus neighborhood digests, SMS alerts, and print.
Built in three tiers
The proposal lays out a three-tier path. Tier 1 — the Foundation is what can be built right now: a nonprofit civic information platform operated by The Journalism Lab, needing no legislation or levy. Tier 2 — the Public Option is a voter-approved Information District with dedicated levy funding, a professional newsroom, and proactive public-records disclosure. Tier 3 — the Network links Dayton's proven model with other communities' Info Districts into a connected regional network sharing data, tools, and resources.
Tier 1 is not a fallback — it's the foundation, the working institution residents can use and critique before anyone is asked to vote on anything. It's a proposal, not a plan: a starting point for a conversation that belongs to the whole community. You can read the full proposal on Dayton.FYI.
Read the full proposal.
A Proposal To Steward Dayton's Information Commons With Heart — the complete draft report.