The Internet Archive is proud to announce that the Poynter Institute and Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) will receive the 2026 Internet Archive Hero Award for their leadership in preserving local news online.The Internet Archive Hero Award recognizes individuals and organizations that have demonstrated leadership in making information available to people around the world. The Poynter Institute, a 50-year-old nonprofit that works to strengthen journalism and train journalists, and IRE, a member-driven nonprofit that has spent 50 years helping journalists do better investigative work, have made preservation a vital part of their work.Local journalism is the first draft of history, and often the only record of what happened in a community. But as news increasingly moves online, that record is at risk. Stories can disappear when a newsroom closes, a website changes platforms, or digital archives are neglected. At the same time, major news publishers and media organizations are restricting access to web archiving tools like the Wayback Machine, making it harder to preserve the journalism being published today.Poynter and IRE are taking a different approach. In partnership with the Internet Archive, they are helping newsrooms understand the importance of digital preservation and giving journalists the tools and training they need to protect their work for the future.Through the national initiative Today’s News for Tomorrow, the three organizations are working to train hundreds of newsrooms in digital preservation and provide access to Internet Archive’s web archiving and preservation services. The program recognizes that preserving local journalism cannot be left to chance: The people creating the news need to be part of preserving it.The Internet Archive Hero Award is an annual award that honors those who have exhibited leadership in making information available for digital learners all over the world. Previous recipients have included Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the island nation of Aruba, public information advocate Carl Malamud, copyright expert Michelle Wu, and the Grateful Dead.The 2026 Internet Archive Hero Award will be presented during the Internet Archive’s annual celebration on October 21 in San Francisco. Join the celebration either in-person or online.The post Internet Archive to Honor Poynter Institute and Investigative Reporters and Editors with 2026 Hero Award for Preserving Local News Online first appeared on Internet Archive Blogs.