Report

Our hope is that this guide can demystify and derisk influencer collaborations for newsrooms and get more of you on a path to responsible experimentation.

We worked with a small team of lawyers to draft a contract for these new working relationships. The template includes highlighted sections that we suggest you edit to meet your needs and reflect your collaborations with trusted messengers.

Questions, flags and a checklist to help you anticipate and prepare for any potentially sticky ethical situations that arise in partnering with trusted messengers, including language for how to get on the record about the ethics guiding your collaboration.

The Table Stakes Local News Transformation Programs ran from 2015 to 2024. More than 200 local news organizations from across the United States benefited from these programs.

As we look ahead to the next five to 10 years, the American Press Institute team brainstormed future non-negotiables that we believe local news organizations must consider to ensure their longevity and resilience.

Change is hard. Leading others through major organizational changes that you are also experiencing is even harder. There’s a framework that Table Stakes organizations come back to again and again to help them navigate those tough waters.

Collaboration allows you to bring in more perspectives and ideas, making you better equipped to solve problems and take on bigger, more complex projects. Though the benefits are apparent, many teams and organizations need help with effective collaboration.

“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.”

Develop strategies based on the audience funnel, move from ad-supported journalism to subscriber- or member-supported journalism, and seek philanthropic funding.

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.