Editor’s note: The American Press Institute is looking for its next Vice President of Product Strategy. This position has a direct role in setting organizational strategy at API, managing the staff in concert with the CEO/Executive Director and other members of the executive team and bringing thought leadership to API and its partners to develop original news products, tools and training that help journalists serve communities more effectively. Learn more here.

A celebration of collaboration

One aspect of Monday’s Pulitzer Prize announcements that stood out was the power of journalism collaborations. In the Local Reporting category, the startup Baltimore Banner won the top prize for a series it worked on with The New York Times Local Investigations Fellowship about the city’s fentanyl crisis and its disproportionate impact on older Black men. Notably, the Banner has also shared its unique dataset with nine other newsrooms “to help kick-start a national conversation” about the opioid epidemic, it said in a story about the project.

Several finalists were also collaborations. In the Investigative Reporting category, the staffs of the Associated Press and Frontline and the Howard Centers for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland and Arizona State University were finalists for their three-year investigation into deaths of people restrained by police using methods that were supposedly non-lethal.

As this year’s list of Pulitzers reflect, a number of news organizations see that partnerships can produce powerful journalism. If you want to form or join a collaboration, API’s Digital Transformation Guide has a section on how to approach it. Another rich resource is Montclair University’s Center for Cooperative Media, which has a collection of guides, tip sheets, and best practices for collaboration.

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

Civic Discourse & Democracy

>> NPR stations targeted for cuts by Trump have provided lifelines to listeners during disasters (Associated Press) 

Public radio stations have been a “lifeline” for residents during natural disasters when electricity, internet and cell phone service is out, write John Raby and Jamie Stengle. Local public radio, targeted for cuts by the Trump administration, has at times been the only source of information for people hit by disasters in remote or rural communities. Volunteers in the southeastern United States after Hurricane Helene told Raby and Stengle that sometimes these stations were critical for knowing where to get resources like water or food.

>> Deadline tonight: Join us to explore how local media can enable intergenerational problem-solving

The American Press Institute is convening its second Local News Summit of 2025 on June 11-12 in Denver, to address a challenge shared by local and community-based media of all types, commercial or nonprofit, rural or urban, start-up or legacy: How might local media bridge civically-oriented coverage and conversation across generations? Learn more and request an invitation for the remaining spots by tonight at 11:59 p.m. ET.

—

Culture & Inclusion

>> Join us: API’s trauma-informed leadership workshop

Trauma-informed leadership recognizes and respects human experiences. Join API’s Sam Ragland Tuesday, May 27 at 1 p.m. ET for a discussion of how news leaders can re-order our skillset, emphasizing “soft” skills that will help them maintain critical perspectives and pivotal voices – those from journalists of color and women. Participants will contribute anonymously to a set of interactive slides and receive real-time coaching and context as their responses come in. Learn more and register here.

—

Community Engagement & Trust

>> These newsrooms are trying to boost trust through transparency. Is it working? (Reuters Institute)

What does “radical transparency” in journalism look like, and does it help build trust? Gretel Kahn talked to five newsrooms that have experimented with different ways of being transparent about their work, through corrections, their methodologies in investigations or explaining their story selection or reporting processes. At The Markup, for example, editor Sisi Wei explained to Kahn the thinking behind its “Show Your Work” feature: It allows people to see the methodology used and replicate it in their own investigations.

—

Revenue & Resilience

>> Journalism’s super-spenders and the new subscription economy (Substack, Matt Pearce)

The journalist Matt Pearce used his newsletter this week to analyze what he calls “super-spenders” and their role in the subscription business. Pearce, who is the new director of policy at Rebuild Local News, walks through the subscription decision journey he took last year after taking a buyout from the Los Angeles Times to demonstrate who’s subsidizing whom among consumer subscribers. He also examines some key subscription trends and what they might mean for sustainability in the long term.

—

What else you need to know

📚 John S. Knight names 16 journalism fellows for 2025-26 (John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford University)

👀 A student journalist covered a pro-Palestine protest. Soon, her graduation came under threat. (CJR)

📈 The Guardian plots U.S. expansion following record revenue year (Axios)

🏫 ACPS ‘censorship’ of Alexandria City High School’s student newspaper Theogony ignites firestorm of criticism (ALXnow)

This newsletter has been corrected to include Arizona State University’s Howard Center in the collaboration that was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in the Investigative Reporting category.