The effort has come at a moment of instability, but also invention, for the news media. National news organizations like The New York Times and The Washington Post have attracted a surge of new readers since President Trump’s election, even as he has persisted in his attacks on journalists. (The momentum has trickled downward: The Village Green gained 100 new subscribers after the presidential election, a not insignificant sum, Ms. Mann said.)

Yet evidence of the dismal landscape for many local news organizations abounds. Journalists at The Denver Post rebelled in the newspaper’s pages against its hedge-fund owner over continuous cuts and the mass layoffs at The Daily News alarmed elected officials and longtime readers, highlighting how a once-mighty voice in New York, still drawing attention with its splashy front-page headlines critical of the Trump administration, was reeling.

Journalists have had to get creative to countervail the forces that have undermined the industry, like the erosion of print advertising and pressure from corporate overseers to prioritize profits ahead of maintaining coverage. Wealthy patrons have stepped in and nonprofits and public radio stations have sought to fill holes.

Given the dire situation, government funding has become an increasingly reasonable solution, said Ms. McBride, a senior vice president at Poynter, a nonprofit focused on journalism education and democracy.

“There is deep, deep need across much of the country for local public-service journalism,” Ms. McBride said. “Information is hard to come by. I have a theory that if you don’t see media writing about your life that you can trust, it’s very hard to trust any media.”

Still, government involvement in journalism raises concerns about public officials potentially working to sway news coverage or interfere with damaging reporting. Even though the legislation includes what proponents argue are safeguards against such intrusion, experts said maintaining a healthy distance will be a critical element in judging the consortium’s success.

Critics contend that it is not the government’s role to fund journalism and questioned whether the consortium was an effective use of public money. “It just didn’t seem like an appropriate expenditure of $5 million without more detail and more explanation,” said Jon M. Bramnick, the Republican leader in the Assembly.