Special Edition

Civic trust is bigger than whether people trust a news organization. It includes the role local media can play in helping people understand their communities, participate in civic life and navigate differences with one another.

Reach out to that person and share how they helped you reconsider a challenge you were facing, led you to a new idea or shaped your career. Ask them what challenges or ideas they’re wrestling with now.

We’ll dig into three areas that are important to the future of local journalism: civic trust, people and culture and organizational resilience.

Impact-minded organizations build habits that help them notice what their communities are responding to, interpret what those signals might mean and adapt their journalism while the work is still unfolding.

Everyone in the newsroom needs to not only recognize impact signals but frame their work through an impact lens. One way to do this is by making this discussion part of the editorial process before an article is written or a project is published.

Identifying deeper impact signals your newsroom wants to track and engaging colleagues from across your organization on what impact they want their work to have.

How do we bridge that gap between the standard KPIs and those mushier signals of your work’s impact — how can you identify and quantify what’s changing in the lives and perceptions of the communities you serve?

Look for transferable ideas and skills that can help you think about your local news ecosystem — and use this as a blueprint for engaging with experts in your community.

This week’s action: Think big about how a partnership with an outside organization can serve your community. In addition to collaborating with non-news experts to [...]

Addressing systemic local news issues, such as building trust or overcoming polarization, can be more effective and sustainable when part of your approach includes learning from outside experts, who can help surface new methodologies or approaches.