BOSTON—Who is holding the fort down on the information ecosystem in your city?

The creator economy is about to be a $500 billion industry, and yet there are cities whose information ecosystem isn’t “activated.” The media landscape is strong, but it’s still fragmented. Creators are everywhere on social media, and people love and trust their journalists as well. And yet, the two rarely meet — and more importantly, they’re not supported by industry leaders, foundations, and brands.

The lack of a well-rounded information ecosystem often leads to what researchers call "content deserts" — areas where people lack necessary information because there isn't enough good journalism reaching social media platforms, even where a robust local news ecosystem exists.

This is because, whether we like it or not, creators and journalists are sometimes the same thing to the audience. People don’t know the nuances of journalism, and they don’t know the difficulty of being an independent creator — they just see you on their phone screen while scrolling on social media. That’s why it’s vital to connect the two, so they can work together to better serve their collective audiences.