The National Trust for Local News has named former WNA board member Tom Wiley, a visionary local news executive who is currently president and publisher of The Buffalo News, as its CEO.
Wiley, whose tenure begins May 12, has decades of hands-on experience in local news, where he is renowned for leading digital transformation in news organizations ranging from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to the Middletown Press. Wiley is a former publisher of the Wisconsin State Journal. He was on the WNA board of directors and was publisher prior to Ross McDuffie.
Wiley attended high school and college in East Lansing, Mich. After high school he trained as a race car driver in France and eventually raced in the F2000 Series.
“Local news has been my life and career for 30 years, and I know firsthand what a breakthrough the National Trust is for our field,” Wiley said. “The discipline and scalability of a commercial operator with the mission and investment resources of a non-profit – we have all the right ingredients, and if we move fast we can build a vastly better future for local news in America.”
Beginning with his first job selling advertising for the Lansing State Journal, Wiley has spent his entire career in local news. He has earned a reputation as a relentlessly innovative operator, from developing proprietary advertising-technology software to building a data-centric sales strategy that extols the value of news audiences. He prioritizes community connectivity and civic engagement — and ensures his newsrooms do the same.
“Local news is a hard business, but it isn’t complicated,” Wiley said. “Journalism that audiences value is our mission and our business model. I am excited to help our newsrooms produce even more great local journalism, and help our sellers and marketers build a strong business around it.”
McDuffie, also a former WNA board member who continues to serve on the WNA Foundation board of directors, serves as the Chief Portfolio Officer for the National Trust for Local News.
The National Trust is a non-profit news organization and the primary source of local news for 6 million people in Maine, Georgia, and Colorado. It uses philanthropy to invest in local newspapers but relies on earned revenue from subscriptions, advertising, events, and more to sustain it. The trust’s goal is to harness local newspapers to build a more resilient, equitable, and vibrant future for local news nationwide. Learn more at https://www.nationaltrustforlocalnews.org/
