Ken Doctor

CEO & Founder

Ken Doctor believes the best days of local journalism are ahead of us.

He founded Lookout Local, Inc. in 2020, in the belief that mission-oriented publishers, and believers in the power of local democracy, can themselves be digital disruptors. Lookout Santa Cruz, now four years old, has quickly built both a solid business, based on multiple revenue streams, and a reputation for editorial excellence, highlighted by the winning of the 2024 Pulitizer Prize for Breaking News.

Now, Lookout launches its second market with Lookout Eugene-Springfield, with three additional Lookouts planned by the end of 2026.

“We’re a very good community newspaper, which happens to be digital,” Ken has written. “We don’t complain about hedge fund-owned local news. We replace them.”
Key to the Lookout model is the building of a large-scale product, created by a well-staffed, professionally paid newsroom, a product that readers will pay for as members and advertisers will stick with given its market reach.

The company uses philanthropy, both national and local, for substantial seed capital, with fast-growing earned revenue building new trustworthy institutions that can grow and last. Its “journalists and friends” company model now grants stock options to its employees.

Lookout is in the midst of the industry conversation of local news challenges and opportunities. With support from both the Google News Initiative and the Knight Foundation, Lookout is a participant in the The Knight Growth Challenge Fund, working with other expansion-oriented local news organizations. Among our national connections: Lenfest Institute, LION publishers, Newspack. Ken also serves as a Local Media Association board member

Ken is a 21-year veteran of Knight Ridder Newspapers, having served in several executive and newsroom capacities. As a business-of-news analyst, his Newsonomics book and Nieman Journalism Lab column, set a standard of understanding the unprecedented changes in both the national and local news business models. Since 2005, he’s been extensively quoted in the press on the changing economics of the news business.

Newsonomics is the word he coined to describe this new discipline of understanding the money flow within the print and broadcast transition to digital. His Newsonomics site collects his broadcast appearances, and his work, including his columns for Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab.

An early graduate of UC Santa Cruz, Ken has served as both past president of the UC Santa Cruz Foundation and the UCSC Alumni Council, and continues as a Foundation trustee.