Built for you: What’s next for Need to Know

Last month, we asked you what you need from Need to Know, and more than 100 of you responded. Thank you!

Here’s what you told us:

  • You want more analysis grounded in local news.
  • You want more practical solutions you can apply right away.
  • You value Need to Know, but you’re short on time.

If you’ve worked with API, you know we take feedback seriously. That’s because we’re here to support you and equip you to build people-first organizations that survive and thrive.

Over the next couple of months, you’ll notice us testing some changes designed to make Need to Know more useful, focused and easier to navigate.

Here’s what you can expect:

  • A renewed focus on local news, in our lead analysis and in the News in Focus section
  • A streamlined News in Focus section that prioritizes what’s most important for you
  • The last Training Edition will publish in April; starting in May, we’ll include training resources in regular editions of Need to Know
  • A more skimmable format for our lead analysis will begin in May
  • Continued improvements to our Monday special series, which you may have already noticed

This is an iterative process, not a one-time change. We’ll keep testing and learning and adjusting based on your feedback. If you have thoughts, we want to hear them: news@pressinstitute.org.

Thanks for being part of the API community and for helping us build a better experience for you!

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

Civic Discourse & Democracy

>> From shuttered print editions to firings, student journalists clash with universities (Christian Science Monitor) 

Cathryn J. Prince documents the challenges faced by student journalists across the country “from censorship to administrative stonewalling to the elimination of print editions.” Many of them are fighting back. One way is by enlisting support from advocacy groups like the Student Press Law Center. “If you really want to take out the media, you strangle them at the source, and that source is student journalism,” Mike Hiestand, senior legal counsel at center, told Prince.

  • Related: University of Alabama students sue Board of Trustees over magazine closures (The Crimson White)

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Culture & Inclusion

>> New ‘Informed Reporting’ podcast confronts journalism’s emotional toll (Kent State Today) 

Gretchen Hoak, an associate professor of journalism at Kent State University, has launched a new podcast exploring the emotional burden that journalists carry and ways to manage it. Hoak, whose research focuses on trauma in journalism, said she is “trying to get a well-rounded view and conversation going about what it is to be a journalist today and some of the challenges and how they can be overcome.” The podcast launched March 16.

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Community Engagement & Trust

>> Black gold in the basement: Community newsroom archival intelligence as an ethical A.I. revenue stream (JSK Journalism Fellows at Stanford) 

Candice Mays, a JSK Knight Fellow at Stanford, says she fell into her work mining the archives as project director of Mapping Black California at Black Voice News. Now she’s helping other newsrooms do the same. “I’m digitizing, authenticating, preserving and developing an ownership and revenue model for these archives so newsrooms can maintain ownership of their data while attaining licensing deals compensating them justly for decades of life risking work that has and continues to save lives,” she writes.

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Revenue & Resilience

>>  A ‘bridge fund’ buys time for public media — but it may not be enough (CNN)

Dozens of small public media outlets across the country lost funding after Congress and President Trump clawed back appropriations for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In response, the nonprofit Public Media Company launched a “bridge fund” to help stabilize them. But the longer-term prognosis is uncertain, writes Liam Reilly. “There will come a time that we will hit a wall,” said Betsy Schwien, the general manager of Smoky Hills PBS in Kansas.

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What else you need to know

🎲 Prediction markets are trying to lure journalists with partnership deals (The Verge)

🔍 New merger benefits investigative reporting (Editor & Publisher)

🤖 Beehiiv to allow creators to manage accounts through AI platforms (Axios)

🎧 This company is secretly turning your Zoom meetings into AI podcasts (404 Media)