After a decade covering investigations for Louisville's WHAS11, Shay McAlister has launched an independent news venture designed to meet audiences where traditional media has retreated. The journalist started "Shay Informed" roughly a year ago as a website, podcast and newsletter focused on the greater Kentuckiana region's most pressing issues—and it reflects a broader struggle facing the American news industry.

McAlister, who worked at WHAS11 for 10 years before departing, cited the evolution of how people consume news, from traditional evening broadcasts to phone-based social media platforms. "I wanted to put all of my energy on podcast, on long-form written articles in their inbox, and on social media because that's where I feel like people are," she said in an interview with the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting.

The venture arrives as Kentucky newsrooms face unprecedented upheaval. Last month, the Lexington Herald-Leader lost half its newsroom staff when parent company McClatchy Media cut more than a dozen journalists—eliminating the paper's only dedicated reporter covering Eastern Kentucky and removing its city government beat for the first time in the newspaper's history.

Nationally, more than 130 newspapers shut down in the past year alone, with newspaper employment declining 7 percent as digital startups struggle to offset losses in traditional outlets. Kentucky is not immune: one Central Kentucky newspaper recently became the state's first legacy publication to convert to nonprofit status in an effort to survive declining advertising and subscription revenue.

McAlister views her independent operation as an antidote to the influence of untrained social media personalities dispensing news without fact-checking standards. "I felt like more people were getting their news from influencers, not trained journalists," she said. "That bothered me."

Her venture offers both free and paid memberships at ShayInformed.com, where she emphasizes investigative and consequential reporting—a hallmark of her work covering major cases like the disappearance of Crystal Rogers and other significant investigations for WHAS11.