I worked as a reporter at a small newspaper last year. There I was paid $14.43 an hour, and became intimately acquainted with how the profit motive can twist the local media narrative. I came away with the belief that, if we’re to have any hope of a healthy media ecosystem, we must publicly fund local newspapers.

Seven years ago, my former paper, the Daily Item in Lynn, Massachusetts, was bought out by a group of seven millionaire investors, some of whom maintained an active role in its day-to-day operations. Two of these men were large-scale landlords, one with more than two hundred apartments throughout the area and the other with more than six hundred.

I found myself on the radar of these two landlord-investors about six months into my employment, after I published a handful of articles on housing which discussed informal evictions, rising rents, and the affordability crisis.