Bringing creators into local news 

Legacy media is “increasingly borrowing from the creator playbook,” Natalie Korach wrote this week for Status News, detailing ways that CNN and other outlets are experimenting with new production styles and brainstorming other ways to bring independent creator-inspired content into their offerings.

The Washington Post this week posted the first video as part of its WP Creator program. Its president, Sara Kehaulani Goo, spoke with Digiday’s Sara Guaglione about what’s in it for both the creators and The Post.

These are big news organizations with a lot of runway to experiment and a reach that makes them attractive to creators. Can local newsrooms do the same?

This week, API’s Jan Ross Sakian writes about how historian Kwasi Hope interacts with journalists, museum professionals, local officials and community members in his work as an independent creator. She captured four tips from a conversation Hope had with API senior vice president Samantha Ragland about how news leaders can navigate partnerships with independent creators. 

Some argue that news leaders need to look no further than their own newsroom for creator talent. Local TV stations should let reporters return to their “farm-to-table” roots, Jill Manuel writes for TV News Check. The personalities that people trusted in the past have become hidden “behind call letters, brand rules and a corporate voice. We turned journalists into cogs. We stripped away what made them trustworthy: their humanity,” she writes.

How local newsrooms can navigate their relationships with creators continues to be a focus of our work at API. Please get in touch if you’d like to talk about it, and we’ll connect you with the right expert on our staff.

News In Focus
Headlines, resources and events aligned with API’s four areas of focus.

Civic Discourse & Democracy

>> AI-powered news sites launched in Henrico and Chesterfield (Axios) 

The sites are part of a push by the tech company Nota to fill news deserts, writes Sabrina Moreno. Josh Brandau, the CEO of Nota, an 11-site county government-focused network that launched in September, told Axios every story is “fact-checked and written by our editorial staff.” But a local news outlet has complained. The Henrico Citizen said that multiple stories on Nota’s Henrico site were “stolen” versions of the Citizen’s content.

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Culture & Inclusion

Watch: Journalist released from ICE custody speaks out in first cable news interview (MS Now)

After two weeks in detention, journalist Estefany Rodríguez of Nashville Noticias shared her experience with MS Now, describing it as one “I wouldn’t even wish on criminals.” (Her husband translated her answers from Spanish to English for MS Now). Those days in custody were “very dark,” she said. She also had a message for fellow journalists, telling them that it’s important to “keep raising your voice for others even when it feels unsafe to do so.”

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Community Engagement & Trust

>> Describe a healthy local news diet (maybe for Local News Day next week!) (Trusting News) 

Local News Day is next week, and Trusting News (which along with API is one of the partners) suggests using it as an opportunity to help audiences understand what a healthy news diet looks like. “If our goal is to be a public service, what better way to be of service than by directly helping our audience get smarter about their news consumption — both of our own products and of others,” writes Mollie Muchna. She offers tips and social media language newsrooms can copy and paste.

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Revenue & Resilience

>> A shutdown plan for several small-town Iowa newspapers may not be the end of the story (Iowa Public Radio)

More than 20 small-town publications could close under a plan recently announced by their owner, Mid-America Publishing, to stop printing, reports Sheila Brummer. The company’s president, Matt Grohe, said there are talks with potential buyers who could acquire some of the papers, saying the situation is fluid. “Journalism, to me, is so important, and I think it is to a lot of people in these communities,” Grohe said. “But at some point, if you have 300 subscribers, there’s just no way to run it profitably. It would have to be some type of nonprofit.”

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What else you need to know

🤝 ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network names five new partners (ProPublica)

⚖️ Judge blocks Trump order to end funding for NPR and PBS (AP News)

🎙️Substack rival Beehiiv makes a push into podcasting (Semafor)

⚙️ How Thomson Reuters powers ICE and Palantir (404 Media)