How content creators are influencing journalism
In the wake of the 2024 election, journalists are becoming more aware of just how influential news influencers can be, especially with younger Americans. Mollie Muchna at Trusting News writes that while not all news influencers uphold the standards of traditional journalism, there is still a lot for journalists to learn from them. Most importantly, journalists can connect better with audiences by talking more openly about who they are, focusing more on authentic feelings rather than detached polish and explaining why the work they do provides value.
The impact of news content creators is already making its way into newsrooms. In Nieman Lab, Hanaa’ Tameez writes that publishers are including more short vertical video in their news stories in hopes of moving views away from social media and onto their own sites. This has meant building video carousels for their homepages and apps, and embedding videos within stories.
And as API’s Samantha Ragland and Kevin Loker wrote in October, collaborations between influencers and media can be mutually beneficial while improving the communities they together serve.
News In Focus
Headlines, resources and events aligned with API’s four areas of focus.
Civic Discourse & Democracy
>> What Election Day taught us about the Sun-Times’ audience (LinkedIn, The Chicago Sun-Times)
Voter guides ended up being the primary entry point for donors to The Chicago Sun-Times in the run-up to the election, according to senior data analyst Aditi Mukund. They also found that covering different races in separate stories helped users follow races they cared about.
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Culture & Inclusion
>> How nonprofit startup the Mississippi Free Press built an inclusive newsroom to connect with a statewide audience (Poynter)
Nonprofit news site Mississippi Free Press has taken an unconventional approach to hiring, sometimes even lobbying nonjournalists to make the switch. Their goal is to build a newsroom that is truly representative of the state.
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Community Engagement & Trust
>> Audience engagement: Two words, both matter (One Man and His Blog)
Adam Tinworth argues that too many people focused on “audience” in journalism are concerned with metrics and revenue rather than the people who make up that audience. “Audience engagement is the skill of taking a reader, and making them more than a subscriber. It’s the art of making an engaged member, and keeping them,” he writes.
>> As journalists think of leaving X for Bluesky and Threads, media experts see pros and cons (Poynter)
Bluesky’s partnerships and growth team is actively welcoming of journalists, emphasizing that the social network does not demote links — a practice at X since Elon Musk took over.
+ Dig Deeper: Journalists flock to Bluesky as X becomes increasingly ‘toxic’ (NBC News); Bluesky already delivering more referral traffic than X for some publishers (Press Gazette); How Twitter turning to X changed journalism (Columbia Journalism Review)
>> Join us: Simplify and contextualize your audience data with Metrics for News (ONA)
Join this session to hear from newsrooms from the U.S. and Canada that use API’s Metrics for News to launch new products, present journalism in new formats, stop producing what isn’t working and improve reader experiences. The webinar will be held on Thursday, Dec. 5 at 12:30 pm ET.
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Revenue & Resilience
>> New from API: Apply for the Table Stakes Revenue Experiments Cohort Grant
The American Press Institute would like to award $5,000 to up to eight U.S. Table Stakes Alumni news organizations to support experiments that further develop a revenue stream for their organization. Fill out this form by Dec. 13. This opportunity is funded by The Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund.
+ For Table Stakes Alumni: The Table Stakes team will be answering questions about revenue experiment grant applications from 2 to 3 p.m. EST today, Dec. 4. Alumni can register here to join.
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What else you need to know
🗞️ The strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is now the longest in the nation. And it’s not over. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
🇨🇦 Canada’s major news organizations band together to sue ChatGPT creator OpenAI (Toronto.com)
🪧 Forbes editorial staffers walk off the job the same day as release of the company’s ’30 Under 30′ list (Fox News)
🔊 Amazon eyes news partners for revamped AI Alexa voice assistant (Axios)
