Report

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.

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.

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

As research continues to inform this slice of the news industry, we’ll continue learning, too. Who gets to be called a journalist in 2025? What is the future of trustworthy information, especially considering the access to and trust for online content creators? How might journalism adapt to the rise, or co-opt the styles, of news influencers?

We can all play a role in understanding and improving how the free press serves an inclusive democracy. For those interested in similar work, we are outlining implications and recommendations.

To support the work of civil society, philanthropy and research, we are sharing what we’ve learned in terms of what ideas have resonated. Here are some of the calls to action that  sparked interest from news leaders over several recent API Local News Summits.

Many researchers’ findings, including on polarization, can help media and its leaders shape the journalism. The questions raised in research can help news leaders ask new questions about how journalism is done.

This report builds on the wisdom and experience of those interviewed and surveyed, and those who shape and influence the work behind the scenes.

The press will be much more effective in serving people and strengthening democracy if it learns from what researchers are learning. Among the examples and takeaways, you will find that news leaders and non-news experts alike value the opportunity to think differently about the challenges in front of them, about how local news can change and how research can ask different questions.

Why might news leaders and researchers want to inform each other’s work? And what might we learn from the ways it’s occurred so far?