Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro is the co-founder and founding CEO of the National Trust for Local News.
The National Trust for Local News conserves, transforms, and sustains community news organizations. We build stronger communities by keeping local news in local hands. As the only organization dedicated to strengthening existing sources of local news, we pair national expertise with local knowledge and commitment to ensure long-term, sustainable community news.
Previously, Dr. Hansen Shapiro was a Senior Research Fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism. At the Tow Center, Dr. Hansen Shapiro’s work focused on the future of journalism in public media and public policies to support local news. She has published research on combining audience revenue and engagement strategies, the relationship between news publishers and social platforms, and the opportunities and challenges of funding local and single-subject news. Her last research project, The Public Media Mergers Project, was an 18-month study of eight acquisitions of digital newsrooms into public broadcasters.
Previously, Dr. Hanse Shapiro led the news sustainability research at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and was the Research Director for the Membership Puzzle Project’s Guide to Membership.
Dr. Hansen Shapiro teaches strategy and managing organizational change as an adjunct lecturer in the CUNY Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism’s Executive Education Program in News Innovation and Leadership.
From 2016 – 2017, she was a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and a Center affiliate from 2017 – 2019. She received her PhD in Organizational Behavior from Harvard Business School.