ABSTRACT The crisis narrative around the future of local news has prompted an urgent search for solutions to sustainability. There has been an emphasis on new approaches that provide immediate or short-term relief for struggling news outlets. This paper argues there is a need for a more temporal reflexive approach to the issue of news sustainability that ensures measures to support local journalism are informed by lessons from the past as well as by practices that have endured through time. We have identified 11 independently owned Australian newspaper companies that have remained under family leadership for at least 100 years. We find three key areas that are considered central to their continued sustainability: an ability to adapt; a commitment to developing a sense of ownership and loyalty among staff; and a personal understanding of the people and places they serve that has developed over time and shapes their attitudes to growth.