This problem is not going to be solved by a new phone app or an increase of a few pennies in digital ad rates. It’s time to try something dramatically different.

The local media ecosystem of the future must have a much bigger role for nonprofit media and philanthropy. We accept this reality in the worlds of education and health care. It’s time to embrace it for local journalism. We believe people have an obligation to support libraries and symphonies. Now they have to support good accountability reporting.

But let’s do this in a way that improves on what came before.

Report for America started almost two years ago on the premise that journalism had as much to learn from the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps as it did from big media companies like Gannett, Sinclair or GateHouse. Local journalism needs national service.

Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project, runs two competitions. In one, talented emerging journalists make a case for how they can have substantial impact. We had 940 applicants for 50 slots this past year. Meanwhile, news organizations, including nonprofits, identify civically important gaps in their news coverage, such as health care, the environment, schools, criminal justice or whole regions or communities, for which they would use a Report for America reporter.

We then split the funding for an entry-level salary. We pay half. The other half is paid by a combination of the local newsroom and local donors. By drawing new local dollars off the sidelines, we hope to enable these positions to persist for years to come.