RJI is the place where good ideas for the news and strategic communications industries come to get sketched out, thought through, tried out and shared as widely as possible. This happens through RJI fellowships, startup investments, student-led projects and rigorous academic research.

To learn more about these and other RJI initiatives, and to learn how you can get involved, check out our 10-year anniversary publication.

In addition, as part of the anniversary celebration, RJI conducted a series of thought leader interviews on a variety of innovative topics (see below). Included on the list were Shailesh Prakash of The Washington Post; Cheryl Thompson, president of IRE (Investigative Reporters and Editors); Michelle Holmes, vice president of Alabama Media Group; and Jim Brady, founder and CEO of Spirited Media, Inc.

Also, be sure to check out our “Salute to Fellows,” a collection of stories about RJI’s fellowship program and how a few of the 80 fellows have helped journalism get stronger.

RJI is excited to be on the scene and is looking forward to the next 10 years of innovation in journalism, and beyond. The future is now!

The 10th anniversary Thought Leader project videos

The RJI 10th Anniversary video series was filmed by Brian Feulner, and edited by Kat Duncan and Travis McMillen.

• Shailesh Prakash, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, The Washington Post
• Randall Rothenberg, President and Chief Executive Officer, Interactive Advertising Bureau
• Rubina Madan Fillion, Audience Engagement Director, The Intercept
• Cheryl Thompson, President, Investigative Reporters and Editors
• Eric Carvin, Social Media Editor, The Associated Press
• Michelle Holmes, Vice President, Alabama Media Group
• Earl Wilkinson, Executive Director and CEO, International News Media Association (INMA)
• John Clark, Executive Director of PILOT, National Association of Broadcasters
• Amanda Wilkins, Audience Development Editor, The Dallas Morning News
• Jonathan Kanter, Attorney
• Jim Brady, Chief Executive Officer, Spirited Media
• Ron Nixon, Homeland Security Correspondent, The New York Times

Our cornerstone: A salute to RJI fellows

Getting engaged. No diamond ring required

Some folks might think it’s a bit unusual for a print design professor to segue to a career researching and improving the relationships journalists have with their communities. Joy Mayer never gave it a second thought.

Where media meets tech

Alisa Cromer started her newspaper career, in the early 1980s, in Las Vegas, home of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the flagship paper of the Donrey Media empire, founded by Donald W. Reynolds.

Brian Gorman on MediaExecsTech.com

iPublish Media Solutions is an example of a technology company that makes running a news operation less expensive. They offer a “do-it-yourself” advertising platform that lets individuals or companies build a print, digital or social ad.

A LION Is born

Dylan Smith was skeptical when, in 2010, he received an invitation to the first Block by Block conference. Leaving his one-person newsroom for a weekend for a conference aimed at local, independent, online news operators seemed like a waste of time.

Why it works

By 2017, it was clear to Janine York that she had to act. “Our newspaper is our core product, but we knew we needed to expand,” says York, the advertising director at the Missourian, a twice-weekly newspaper in the small town of Washington, Missouri.

Putting Mayer’s research to work

Around 2012, Jodi Gersh was traveling to various large Gannett newsrooms and running engagement workshops. She used Joy Mayers’ Community Engagement: A Practical Conversation for Newsrooms as a kind of playbook.

Small-town print goes big-time digital

Mark Nienhueser worked for Service Noodle, an online platform that made it easy for businesses to develop a website and a digital footprint. When he moved to the MPA, in 2013, he realized there were a lot of untapped digital opportunities for newspapers.

Discovering a new news ecosystem

When Michele McLellan dug deep into how local, online journalists were making a living, the result was a three-year series of annual conferences that spawned a national nonprofit organization.

Building trust one idea at a time

“One of the things I appreciated most about the Trusting News project is that Joy takes this big hairy topic of “trust in the media” and breaks it down into actionable steps,” says Sarah Binder.

It’s easier than ever to create a data-driven newsletter

When Tamara Power-Drutis worked at Crosscut Public Media, a non-profit news site in Seattle, she was involved with the site’s email newsletter. She was absolutely sure they were doing it wrong. She just didn’t know in what way.