Andy Lack — the former NBC News and MSNBC chairman who founded Mississippi Today and Deep South Today, and has now committed $12 million to nonprofit journalism — joins the Chuck ToddCast to explain why he went from running the most-watched news division in the world to building newsrooms in the Deep South. He argues Democrats simply don’t know how to talk to rural voters, white or Black, and describes a Mississippi that has made real gains in early education while still fighting brain drain and a sense of being stuck. On the business, Lack is clear-eyed: trust is the whole formula, video is essential, and the concentration of media ownership among billionaires and tech executives is a genuine threat. Plus what happens to medium-sized markets when the affiliate structure collapses, and why state and local government desperately needs watchdogs again. 

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Timeline:

00:00 Andy Lack joins the Chuck ToddCast

01:30 Why he founded Deep South Today

03:45 Mississippi’s politics, and the openings Democrats miss

06:15 Early education gains, brain drain, and a state stuck in the past

10:15 The model: pairing capital cities with smaller ones

12:30 Local news in a fragmented media era

14:15 The formula for success — video, and trust above all

25:00 Tech billionaires owning the media ecosystem

29:15 What happens when the affiliate structure collapses

39:30 Streaming, legacy brands, and journalism in the age of AI

45:15 Data centers and how tech engages communities

49:45 Expanding into news deserts and why watchdogs matter