Useful insights for people advancing healthy, responsive and resilient news organizations.
The American Press Institute’s Need to Know newsletter offers media and journalism leaders analysis of the rapid changes in the journalism industry, a curated list of must-read stories and guidance on modernizing journalism editorial and business strategies.
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Are you just covering your community? Or are you building something for them?
Here’s the challenge: Take a look at the last week of your coverage. Which pieces solved a problem? Which could have been reshaped into a product? Try this shift once and see how it feels. Not just for your audience, but for yourself.
Adopt a product mindset for news
What if we started looking at our output as a product, not a service? Too often, we think "product" means a fancy app or a new website. But product isn’t about tech. It’s about intention.
Build authentic engagement with student-led reporting
As the program and newsroom expand, Martinez shares how trust built with community listening and authentic engagement can be replicated in other community newsrooms across the country.
Let young people lead the conversation
Giving young people a space to interact with community leaders, and facilitating such gatherings to empower them to lead the conversation, can create a lasting and mutually beneficial feedback loop for newsrooms.
Use history as a rallying point
By connecting generations and harnessing history to tell the story of Baca County, the Plainsman Herald has found new revenue sources, partnerships with community and historical organizations and a path forward to serving its community.
Three frameworks to serve younger audiences
We’ve seen early wins: Our next-gen audience (ages 18–44) grew from 3,900 to 32,500 – a 733% growth in six months. If a small BIPOC-led newsroom like ours can reimagine itself as a dynamic cross-generational platform, others can too.
