Tackling tariffs  

An important role of local news organizations is to help their communities prepare for what’s ahead. But when it comes to the Trump administration’s tariffs, the uncertainty makes that difficult. The economy, wrote The Atlantic’s Annie Lowrey, is in “a state of imminence. And we should be preparing, even if we are not sure what we are preparing for.”

What local journalists can do is help their communities understand what’s at stake, how the tariffs implemented so far are affecting local businesses, and what uncertainty means for their ability to plan for the future. The impact is not limited to big manufacturers.

That means stories like WBUR’s piece on how vinegar and vanilla makers in Massachusetts are affected. Or the Minnesota Star Tribune’s take on the state’s board game makers. CBS Chicago recently looked at the impact on flower growers.

As for preparing consumers, WSYR-TV in Syracuse interviewed a local professor of supply chain management for his advice about what to stock up on. “Your consumers and viewers are going to see bare shelves, and there will be bare shelves in various retail places,” he said.

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

Civic Discourse & Democracy

>> Inside a high school newspaper’s fight for editorial independence (Nieman Lab)

The Alexandria (Va.) City School Board has proposed revising its student publications policy to take greater control over student publications’ content, sparking a fight over editorial independence in the district. The catalyst for this action, writes Laura Hazard Owen, was a story about how buses on the Alexandria High School campuses were routinely late, resulting in missed classes. Under the new policy, the school’s principal would be editor of the paper, a policy that Mike Hiestand, senior legal counsel for the Student Press Law Center, says he hasn’t seen in his 34 years of working with student publications.

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Culture & Inclusion

>> API in the news: Conquering imposter syndrome with Samantha Ragland (National Press Foundation)

Our Sam Ragland sat down with the National Press Foundation’s Rachel Jones to talk about ways to combat imposter syndrome — that “voice inside of your head” that can hold you back and create doubt. From that conversation, which was part of NPF’s Widening the Pipeline fellowship program, Jones came away with three main takeaways, which she outlines here. One of them is to gather receipts disproving “your inner critic,” which can have all kinds of negative repercussions in salary negotiations, meetings and other interactions.

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Community Engagement & Trust

>> Republicans have become more likely since 2024 to trust information from news outlets, social media (Pew Research Center)

Americans are more likely than they were last year to say they trust information from news organizations and social media sites, the Pew Research Center reported. It attributed the shift to an increase in trust among Republicans that coincided with President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Republicans were much less likely, though, than Democrats to trust information from national outlets, and somewhat less likely to trust news from local ones. But the reverse was true for social media, Pew said.

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Revenue & Resilience

>> Join us: Steal this idea: Revenue successes with Table Stakes alumni

Looking for ways to get inspired about revenue? Table Stakes alumni (including employees of companies that have participated in the program) are invited to join our “steal this idea” session Thursday, May 29 at 1 pm ET to share your successes and hear how fellow alumni are innovating revenue tactics and strategies to boost the bottom line for community media and local news organizations. Learn more and register here.

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What else you need to know

💵 Bill Gates pledges his remaining fortune to the Gates Foundation, which will close in 20 years (AP)

🏙️ Bloomberg’s CityLab won a Pulitzer for Criticism. Get to know the site behind the win. (Poynter)

⚖️ The Marshall Project announces $1M challenge grant from board chair Liz Simons to support criminal justice journalism (The Marshall Project)

💔 Documentary identifies Israeli soldier as shooter of Palestinian American journalist (The New York Times)

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Weekend reads

+ Brian from Michigan: Thirteen years ago, I lied to a guy named Brian on national television. So I decided to find him and apologize. (CJR)

+ It was just a rumor on Facebook. Then a militia showed up. (The New York Times)

+ Watch: “The New(s) Influencers: What legacy media and online news content creators can learn from each other” (Stanford Communication)

+ AI isn’t replacing student writing – but it is reshaping it (The Conversation)