What’s Next for the Local News Lab?
New experiments and the long-term work of building community around the news.
Lessons from the Local News Lab — Part Six
This is the sixth and final essay documenting what we have learned about building new networks for local news and fostering more creative, sustainable and community driven journalism. Read part one, part two, part three, part four and part five.
By Molly de Aguiar and Josh Stearns of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation
The future of local journalism is not a clear, linear path from uncertainty to sustainability. We’ve become fond of talking less about giving people a roadmap with one path forward, and more about equipping them with a compass so that they can navigate the future where ever it may lead. Orienting newsrooms to a new era of constant change, of iteration and participation, demands more than just giving money or advice. It requires creative approaches, new alliances, and patience.
We are trying to change the relationship between newsrooms and communities in ways that strengthen the sustainability of local news. Encouraging digital, business and community innovation in newsrooms takes enormous amounts of time and energy. There are no silver bullets, but there are lots of lessons that can be adapted to other newsrooms and customized for other contexts. The goal of this series of posts has been to capture what we believe are those pieces of replicable knowledge that other journalists and foundations can build upon.
While journalism collaboration has been on the rise, nowhere else has network building amongst journalists and news organizations been such an intentional strategy as in New Jersey over the last five years.
Our work is proving out the idea that in a time of dramatic change and limited resources local newsrooms can do more together than they can apart.
As we enter the next year of experiments in community engagement and sustainability we expect to discover new possibilities between communities and newsrooms and have a lot more to share. We are going to continue the in-depth mentoring and coaching that we’ve seen work so well with local journalists, but some of our other major priorities for this year include:
1) Testing New Ideas for Journalism Events
Events have gotten a lot of attention as an emerging revenue stream for newsrooms, and while there has been some very good reporting done on the topic, there still aren’t enough concrete resources for small newsrooms just starting out with an events strategy. We want to lower the bar to help more journalists try events and test how collaboration across newsrooms might help make events more accessible and successful.
2) Experimenting With Local Advertising
Much of what has been written about the state of advertising — from big ad networks to concerns about ad-blocking — has focused on large scale ad strategies. At the very local level, the ad market looks and feels different, with unique challenges and opportunities. We want to explore new ideas for connecting local news and local businesses, and experiment with how the unique networks we’ve built in New Jersey could support new kinds of joint sales operations.
3) Continuing Support for Creative Community Engagement Opportunities
We have stressed that community engagement is a key component of sustainability and that building relationships takes time. This year, we will continue to support the community engagement initiatives we already have launched (e.g. New America Media, News Voices New Jersey, Hearken, Listening Post, et. al.), giving them the space and time they need to blossom and take hold. At the same time, we intend to make additional dollars available through a Creativity Fund designed to explore small projects at the local level that use creativity to expand newsrooms’ reach and engage audiences in unexpected and even joyful ways.
4) Creating Resources for the Field
One of our primary goals in all of this work is to create valuable resources and guides for local newsrooms here in New Jersey and beyond. We see our work as a service to the field. To that end, we will engage some fellows this year — both known experts and emerging leaders — who can help us conduct research, expand our knowledge and create resources to address some of the biggest challenges facing local news. We are also working to make www.localnewslab.org more user friendly and inviting. Stay tuned.
Finally, through out all of this work we will continue to support projects focused on meeting the needs of all New Jersey residents. Local newsrooms across the state are doing amazing work, and we’ll continue to shine a spotlight on how journalism is serving local people. But, there is still much work left to do to foster a media that fully reflects and responds to the diverse needs of our communities. To that end, we’ll keep learning and listening, and we hope you will too.
This is the sixth and final essay documenting what we have learned about building new networks for local news and fostering more creative, sustainable and community driven journalism. Read part one, part two, part three, part four and part five.
Molly de Aguiar (@MollydeAguiar) is the Informed Communities Program Director and Josh Stearns (@jcstearns) is the Director of the Journalism Sustainability project at the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.
The Dodge Foundation’s Informed Communities grants seek to strengthen and grow the New Jersey news ecosystem and support local journalism as a critical space for innovation, creativity and community building. For more information on this work, visit the Local News Lab and the Dodge Foundation’s website. Sign up for the Local Fix weekly newsletter here.
