Underwriting for Local News Capital.
PressViable scores a newsroom’s durability against its own market, projects cash two years forward, and tests a purchase under the buyer’s own terms, including what happens if only half the gains arrive. Every figure in the written brief traces to the record. Built for trusts, funds and buyers deciding whether the numbers can carry the mission.
Built on
Scored against the target’s own IRS 990, audited financials, or CPB financial report.
Traditional Due Diligence Leaves Critical Blind Spots.
Standard balance sheets and historical P&Ls report past performance. They don’t say whether the operation can carry itself two years out, or what it will take to get there.
The Traditional Blind Spot
Historical P&L Myopia
Last year's statement reports last year. It masks a structural deficit behind a bridge grant or deferred maintenance, and says nothing about the year after next.
Grants That Look Recurring
A three-year grant reads like permanent revenue until the year it steps down, and the plan for replacing it is rarely in the numbers.
Cash That Never Moves
Projections that escalate costs but leave the cash balance where it started, so the year the money runs out never appears.
Advice That Goes Stale
A bespoke engagement answers the question once. The numbers keep moving after the deck is delivered, and nobody re-runs it.
The PressViable Underwriting Standard
Operating Durability Scoring
Structural margin, runway, months of cash and a wage ratio against the BLS benchmark, scored on an operating basis with the reasoning visible.
Multi-Year Cash Projection
Salary and vendor escalators, per-line revenue growth or decline, and a cash balance rolled forward year to year, so the year it runs out is on the page.
Acquirer and Funder Lenses
EBITDA, debt service coverage and seller's discretionary earnings for a buyer, plus a pro forma under an operator's terms, tested at half the plan's gains; the replacement question, step-down path and key-person risk for a funder.
Validated Executive Brief
An AI-drafted brief in which every figure is checked against the record before it publishes. A draft that can't be traced doesn't ship.
One Modeled Outlet. Two Scenarios. Three Years.
These are the engine’s own results for a modeled outlet, shown exactly as the workspace scores it. Switch the scenario and the year to see whether an investment carries the operation past the year its grant steps down.
Operating Durability Score
At risk?
Earned revenue is up 37% on year one, but contributed revenue is down 58%. The gap widens to $14,699 and cash ends at $51,876: six weeks.
Scored components
- Structural margin−3.6%
- Runway3.5 years
- Months of cash1.5 months
- Wage ratio to benchmark81.4%
- Trajectory−2.8 pts (revenue +0.4%, expenses +3.2%)
Year 3 figures
Earned revenue
$308,907
Contributed revenue
$86,550
Operating result
−$14,699
on $395,457 of revenue, $410,156 of expenses
Year-end cash
$51,876
1.5 months of operations
Projected years escalate salaries 3.5% and other costs 2.5% a year, apply each revenue line's growth rate, and roll the cash balance forward from the prior year's result. Not modeled: capital spending, working capital, new borrowing.
With a $150K investment
The investment funds a fifth hire and a larger grant line. Earned lines grow 10 to 25% a year; the grant steps down 40% a year; donations grow 10%.
From the validated brief
Earned revenue is growing, but contributed revenue steps down faster than earned revenue replaces it in the projection window, and the Y3 operating result widens to a gap rather than closing. A funder considering investment must weigh whether additional resources can accelerate earned revenue growth to cover that widening.
Every figure in a PressViable brief is checked against the record before it publishes. A draft that can’t be traced is rejected and redrafted.
A modeled digital-first community outlet. Operating figures are illustrative; the market data is real. Captured Oct 28, 2026.
Built for the Fiduciary Decisions Behind Local News Capital.
One auditable scorecard, three deployment contexts — acquisition diligence, portfolio governance, and funder cohort review.
Civic Media Trusts & M&A Diligence
Model a purchase under your own operating terms, straight from the deal memo: shared services, a new payroll, revenue by year. See the pro forma beside the paper as it stands, tested at half the plan's gains, with pay checked against the local benchmark.
Regional Operating Networks
Monitor financial sustainability and wage position across multiple regional titles. Track whether shared back-office infrastructure is closing local structural gaps over time.
Philanthropic Funds & Cohort Programs
Evaluate cohort applications with standardized, auditable criteria rather than self-reported optimism. Benchmark grantee operating viability across peer markets.
Launching an Independent Local Newsroom? Test Your Assumptions First.
Before you leave a legacy newsroom or recruit a founding team, find out if your market math holds up. PressViable’s self-guided feasibility modeling lets independent publishers and civic entrepreneurs test staffing models, audience revenue assumptions, and local philanthropic capacity against actual Bureau of Labor Statistics wages and Census benchmarks.
- Calculate minimum viable payroll for your target county.
- Model earned vs. contributed revenue mix without relying on permanent subsidies.
- Export a structured feasibility brief ready to share with fiscal sponsors and seed funders.
I didn’t have a model that could answer him.
In 2006 I left a newspaper job to start a weekly for an underserved community. I spent a year on it and it never launched. One funder asked the question that killed it: if the existing papers can’t make money, how will you? I had conviction and meetings. I didn’t have a model that could answer him.
Local news has never lacked courage. It has lacked a shared way to check the math. PressViable is that check: a newsroom’s financials set against its market, scored, projected, and written up so the reasoning is visible and people can argue with it before the capital moves.
Yoni Greenbaum
Nearly 30 years in newsrooms and public media, including running a newsroom and a public media station. Built independently.
Underwrite a Target Before You Commit Capital.
Tell me what you’re evaluating: a prospective acquisition, a network property, or a grantee cohort. I’ll scope the walkthrough and send the NDA.
- Bilateral NDA before any target record is loaded.
- A scorecard and brief you can take to a board or an investment committee.
- Modeled from the financials you share. Nothing is published or indexed.