A boost for journalists seeking to develop solutions stories

When journalists set off to develop a solutions journalism story — an in-depth, investigative piece that studies a problem, but also goes a step further to analyze a response that has been implemented—they often need support. 

Even with solutions journalism training available, it can be time consuming to develop the rigorous investigative elements that a solutions story demands.

That’s why we’re pleased to announce that the Reynolds Journalism Institute is partnering with El Colectivo 506 to build a free, publicly available, training tool that will allow journalists to get personalized feedback on pitches in English, Spanish and Portuguese. This chatbot trained in the solutions journalism pillars will also guide journalists towards additional training resources depending on their needs.

The new tool will allow community journalists to learn about solutions journalism; generate and receive useful feedback on their first solutions pitches and proposals; and complete interactive exercises that ensure they end up with concrete ideas for how they can use a solutions approach to improve audience engagement, identify new sources for funding, and write better pitches, sales materials, and grant proposals. 

I, along with my co-founder of El Colectivo 506 Mónica Quesada Cordero, earned our solutions journalism trainer certification from the Solutions Journalism Network and used those skills to develop training and pitch feedback materials during our  past five years training and mentoring solutions journalists in Costa Rica and across Latin America. 

Now, with the support of the Reynolds Journalism Institute, we will be able to make these resources accessible to all journalists.

Applying lessons learned

El Colectivo 506 was launched in 2020 and became Central America’s first national media outlet to focus on solutions journalism. Our outlet publishes digital, multimedia, bilingual (Spanish-English) stories that study responses to social problems; evidence of impact; insight and lessons learned from a response; and limitations. 

Over more than 42 bilingual editions, we created a training and funding pipeline that has helped more than 400 journalists learn about solutions journalism, and more than 72 receive journalism fellowships to create stories. This included a live pitch feedback activity that helps journalists refine their solutions ideas before approaching an editor. We learned that for journalists, getting feedback on real pitch ideas was key to help deepen understanding of the solutions journalism methodology and its components, and to avoid common misconceptions and pitfalls.

However, we found that demand has consistently exceeded our capacity. As journalists ourselves, and as editors to dozens of journalists throughout the region, carving out time for live training is a challenge—and a journalist often needs feedback in real time, at odd hours, to meet fast-moving deadlines and other pressures of the job. Particularly in overworked, under-resourced community newsrooms, journalists need tools that help them stand up from the computer with useful results already in hand, including their next proposal or pitch.

In conversation with the RJI Innovation team, the idea was born to create a free, publicly available and interactive training tool that would help journalists navigate already existing training resources, such as the Solutions Journalism Network’s extensive offerings, while also getting quick feedback on solutions story ideas.

What we’re building

The centerpiece of the tool will be a pitch bot that guides journalists through the process of identifying and refining a story idea, taking it through the four pillars of solutions journalism, and finding ways to overcome challenges with the story. At every step, the bot will connect journalists with relevant training materials and other resources if they need more help or want to go deeper.

This tool will be an integral part of the training process of El Colectivo 506 and its Latin American Solutions Journalism Fund; journalists can access training and develop a pitch idea using the tool, and then, after completing all the training components, sign up for the Fund so they can apply for reporting fellowships. Whenever the Fund holds a call for proposals, applicants will be encouraged to use the bot to fine-tune their story idea before applying.

And the tool will be available to all journalists to utilize in Spanish, Portuguese, and English—as well as grantmakers, media organizations and educational institutions. This resource will be freely accessible to all, keeping with our practice of providing free educational and training resources to the journalism community for almost 15 years; and RJI’s mission to build practical, free and innovative resources for journalists. 

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Cite this article

Stanley, Katherine  (2025, Oct. 13). We’re building a new bilingual solutions journalism tool. Reynolds Journalism Institute. Retrieved from: https://rjionline.org/news/were-building-a-new-bilingual-solutions-journalism-tool/