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How to get your reporters started with vertical video

Muhammad Osama Farooq is a 2026 RJI Student Innovation Fellow partnered with Detroit Free Press. The RJI Student Fellows will be sharing their innovative work throughout the summer in Innovation in Focus. Many newsrooms want to create better vertical videos because they know that their audiences are scrolling on Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. … Continued

A three-panel comic showing a newsroom workflow: Panel 1 depicts stressed journalists facing "Election Night Chaos"; Panel 2 shows a woman generating Python code using an AI coach; Panel 3 displays a "Human Fact-Checked" automated data dashboard.

Bay City News Election Playbook, Part 2: Newsrooms can vibe code their way to automated election night dashboard

Election night is a high-stakes, labor-intensive operation — and not just for the candidates. As voters wait for returns, community journalists fight an uphill battle to make sense of data released in disparate formats from different sources. But a breakthrough experiment at Bay City News provides a new blueprint for success. By leveraging generative artificial … Continued

Rebecca Ritzel | Photo: Nate Brown

Launching the Arts Journalism Initiative

Faced with a declining landscape for traditional arts coverage, shrinking newsroom budgets and an explosive rise in digital influencers filling the vacuum, 2025-2026 Residential RJI Fellow Rebecca Ritzel set out to look for solutions that preserve the quality and integrity of arts and culture journalism. Ritzel, a freelance arts and entertainment reporter and longtime contributor … Continued