At the 2025 Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit, we had the privilege of hearing from Dale Robinson Anglin, Director of
Press Forward—the organization leading a $500 million investment in local newsrooms—in a conversation that reminded us why we built SYNDEX in the first place
“Local news is so important to our community,” Anglin said. “It is the collective glue that brings our communities together.” She captured what we believe is the heart of journalism’s role: a connective tissue—one that fosters civic understanding, safety, and belonging. “Every community wants local news, every community deserves local news, every community needs local news,” she added. “Our job is to help figure out how to help them get it.”
That challenge is exactly what we’re taking on at SYNDEX.
SYNDEX is a predictive news and intelligence platform built for local publishers, storytellers, and communities. We combine real-time aggregation, AI-driven discovery, and emerging trend detection to surface the stories that matter.
Through
Syndex Pub we repurpose local news publishers existing content to maximize reach & engage new audience, generate insight and incremental income in today’s AI zero-click world.
Post summit, we’re taking things even further. Inspired by conversations with leaders like Anglin and sessions like “Connecting Service to Community Outcomes,” we are developing a new feature called
SYNDEX Give—a reader donation tool that makes supporting journalism as easy and human as buying someone a coffee (
see the Lenfest Institute publication to learn more)
Our vision: when readers finish a story and feel connected, they shouldn’t have to wonder how to support that newsroom. A simple, elegant prompt lets them give directly to the publisher—no login required.
Because sustainable journalism requires more than reporting tools. It requires monetization infrastructure that’s intuitive, emotional, and community-driven.
As we continue to pilot SYNDEX and onboard new publisher partners, we’re grateful for the clarity the Lenfest Institute for Journalism and Press Forward News Philanthropy Summit gave us: local news doesn’t just need funding—it needs ecosystem infrastructure.
We're proud to be building it.
