How to structure a knowledge hub

Once you’ve gotten a sense from your news organization about what types of training and skill-sharing are desired and have come up with a plan to integrate them into your outlet’s culture, organizing and managing these resources ensures they’ll be accessible and up-to-date.

To stay ahead in an increasingly fast-paced digital media landscape, Univision transformed its approach to newsroom training and knowledge-sharing through the creation of a centralized digital training portal. Spearheaded by Hilda García, vice president of digital local news, this portal serves as a one-stop hub for staff across the organization — housing critical tools, workflows and training materials on SEO, social media strategy, live streaming and more.

Originally developed to eliminate inefficiencies from scattered resources, the portal now drives knowledge sharing. Although challenges — such as the need for a product owner of the portal and adoption hurdles — emerged, ongoing updates and integration into daily workflows ensure its lasting impact.

Allison Bradshaw and Hilda García are members of the 2024-25 Table Stakes Advisory board. Bradshaw interviewed García in spring 2025 about how the digital portal came together and shared ways for news organizations to optimize their own resources.

Q: How did this become a best practice at your organization? What problem were you trying to address?

A: The shift from a television-first to a digital-first newsroom model required comprehensive, accessible training across all Univision newsrooms. However, as new trainings proliferated — on topics ranging from SEO to short-form video — staff often struggled to locate materials or determine which version was most up to date. Many of these resources were buried in personal inboxes or stored in scattered folders, leading to frequent repeat requests and workflow delays. To solve this, Hilda and her team built a centralized, easy-to-navigate portal that housed all training materials under a single URL.

Q: What worked?

A: Hilda discovered there was a lack of common fundamental knowledge when it came to all things digital. To address it, she launched “Hilda’s Little School,” which was a weekly training meeting focused on a different topic each week. The format eventually evolved with other teams contributing and taking ownership of their respective trainings. Recordings were edited for brevity, optimized for future use, uploaded to YouTube and then housed in the portal. Since Univision has the training repository up and running, Hilda’s team now only holds a monthly meeting with the news directors to update them on changes.

The portal now offers:

• An organizational chart and contact list
• Shared logins for digital tools
• Reporting templates and visual standards
• A glossary of legally vetted terminology for sensitive topics
• Direct links to resources such as Canva and Jira
• Style guides and breaking news protocol

Quarterly audits have helped track platform usage, optimizing costs for paid accounts on tools such as Canva. Regular updates and industry-relevant tools keep the portal effective, reinforcing Univision’s commitment to ongoing skill development and collaboration.

Q: What didn’t work? Or what happened that you didn’t expect?

A: A key challenge has been sustainability. Keeping the portal updated requires consistent time and attention — something that’s often difficult to allocate amid newsroom demands and the rapid pace of digital change.

Initially, large-scale training sessions were used to reach broad audiences, but they lacked interactivity and accountability. The team pivoted to smaller, more focused group trainings, which led to greater engagement but also required more time and planning. These trade-offs highlighted the importance of flexibility and the need for a dedicated product owner to manage and evolve the platform.

Maintaining momentum — especially in the face of shifting technologies and team structures — remains a challenge.

Q: What’s next for this work?

A: The next phase for Univision’s training portal is all about integration, adoption and evolution. Plans include:

• Increased visibility and access, embedding the portal deeper into daily workflows
• Push notifications and update alerts to keep staff in the loop
• Expanded onboarding use, in partnership with HR, to ensure all new hires are immediately plugged into the portal from day one
• More personalized content, such as team-specific resources and interactive modules
• Regular user feedback loops to refine layout, content and overall experience

Try it out

García suggests these considerations for others interested in building a digital training and resource platform:

• Centralize everything. Designating one shared digital space for all workflows, glossaries, how-tos and tools reduces confusion and speeds up onboarding and daily tasks.
• Plan before you build. List everything you want to include, then group items into logical, easily navigable sections — such as “Social Media Tools,” “SEO Resources” or “Video Templates.” Think like a user, not just an organizer.
• Make it visually welcoming. Use clean layouts, concise language and easy-to-skim formatting. Most people won’t read dense documents, so structure your portal for scanning and quick access.
• Design for different learning styles. Not everyone learns the same way. Include video tutorials, step-by-step PDFs, checklists and visuals to meet people where they are.
• Smaller is smarter. Team-specific training sessions are more engaging and effective than broad, general ones. Focused learning builds deeper understanding and allows space for Q&A.
• Stay flexible. Expect turnover, tech changes and shifting needs. Continually gather feedback, audit the portal and make iterative improvements.

Allison Bradshaw is a member of the 2024-25 Table Stakes Alumni Advisory Board. She is the audience engagement lead at the Maine Trust for Local News, where she specializes in audience development and subscriber engagement.