A Kansas high school student noticed a lack of local news, so he started his own publication

Michael Glenn, a 16-year-old from Hutchinson, Kansas, and Gina Long, a local librarian, launched The Hutchinson Tribune in July.
There's never not news in Hutchinson, Kansas, Michael Glenn says. Sometimes, it just needs to be found.

Glenn, 16, is the publisher of The Hutchinson Tribune, a digital news publication he started in July with his friend and mentor Gina Long, a Hutchinson librarian.

Glenn says there wasn't much local coverage coming from his hometown newspaper. The Hutchinson News, once an award-winning publication, had outsourced local coverage to Topeka years ago. So he decided he might as well start his own. Now, The Hutchinson Tribune publishes as many as five local news stories a day, as well as sports and opinion coverage.

Glenn said the experience has taught him the importance of local reporting.

"Nobody's holding people accountable without a newsroom," Glenn said. "We need journalism in every single community, regardless of its size."