Director of communications
Emily Ristow is the director of communications at the American Press Institute, where she ensures solutions and actionable advice are delivered to local news leaders across API’s platforms and channels.
Previously, she served in the role of Director of Local News Transformation and managed the Major Market Table Stakes program and API’s alumni sprint cohorts and coordinated efforts across the various Table Stakes programs. The Digital Transformation Guide from the American Press Institute, written by Emily, highlights proven strategies from the Table Stakes program, which helped news leaders transform their organizations' journalism and business through intensive change management training.
Before coming to API, Emily worked for a decade in local news, including as Loyalty and Engagement News Director for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, her hometown newspaper. She helped develop and supervise the Journal Sentinel's strategy to grow its loyal audience and to double its digital subscribers and managed the newsroom's engagement strategy across digital platforms, including its sites, apps and social media accounts.
She has also worked as a social media editor, digital producer, copy editor and print designer. She graduated from the University of Missouri with degrees in journalism and political science.
More from the author
Practicing engaged journalism
“Engaged journalism is an inclusive practice that prioritizes the information needs and wants of the community members it serves, creates collaborative space for the audience in all aspects of the journalistic process, and is dedicated to building and preserving trusting relationships between journalists and the public.”
Diversifying revenue
Develop strategies based on the audience funnel, move from ad-supported journalism to subscriber- or member-supported journalism, and seek philanthropic funding.
Adopting a product-thinking mindset
More product-focused news organizations seek not only what content audiences need and want but also how they prefer to consume it. This information can help them develop new products that address needs and that their intended audiences will actually use.
