News Blog

This guide features strategies tested and proven by local news organizations that participated in the Table Stakes Local News Transformation Program along the themes of product thinking, revenue, engaged journalism, collaboration and managing change.

Conducting community-based engagement efforts could open new opportunities for relationships and new forms of revenue for local media.

As newsrooms aim to boost their visibility and engage new audiences, identifying the right local influencers becomes an essential part of their strategy.

After breaking bread together a few times, “the media” grew a face and some humanity, and “the community” became more complex and interesting. Real relationships started to emerge.

Resident participants must have a way to inform and impact reporting practices — material proof of impact — not just offer story ideas.

The experience helped foster candid conversation without demonizing the media. With the commitment and intentionality of our community liaison, the local news advisory project also worked to amplify the voices of residents who are often afraid to speak up.

Ultimately, for the inaugural advisory committee, I believe the newsrooms benefited more than the community. I am hopeful that the media will access community members and information we shared as resources to cover stories that reflect the conversations from the advisory committee. 

What I didn’t know, but would quickly learn, is how uncomfortable and personal the discussions could get and, despite it all, how dedicated the committee was to making the process work.

After a six-month pilot of an ecosystem-wide local news advisory committee, we’re sharing a multi-part perspective series on this effort: an outgrowth of our deep, three-year commitment to the Pittsburgh media ecosystem, which included two learning cohorts, a dozen community listening sessions and now this committee.

Through its 2025 Revenue Experiments Learning Cohort, API will support the eight local and community news organizations — all alumni of the U.S.-based Table Stakes Local News Transformation Program — with peer-learning calls to help them clarify their experiments, share ideas, and define effective tactics and strategies.