Entrepreneurship
How to tell if your news organization suffers from founder’s syndrome
Stave off founderitis by focusing on the fundamentals.
How being a solopreneur has forced me to reckon with my limitations
Learning to set boundaries while I launch a news organization — amid a pandemic — is as important as learning to market and fundraise.
Founding Four Points
A community centered newsroom on the Crow Indian Reservation, Montana.
Business, journalism competition offers real-world industry solutions to Hearken, AP
A University of Missouri team tasked with finding solutions to help Hearken, an engagement consulting startup, expand the business’s target market and make it more sustainable, won the 12th annual Center for the Digital Globe (CDIG) media symposium.
Saving democracy is a slogan not a strategy
In the past four years, I’ve seen increasingly fervent articles, studies and op-eds declaring journalism’s essential role in a healthy democracy. As we’ve heard many times before, local news is critical to informing communities and promoting civic engagement. The very presence of a local news organization revives democracy, underpins democracy, sustains democracy, and yet these proclamations have been strikingly disconnected from reality.
Narrative change: Designing conversations for an inclusive economy
The sustainability of local journalism is tied to the strength of local business and both have been rocked by a deadly pandemic and roused by nationwide rallies for racial equity. In developing blueprints for an equitable post-pandemic recovery, communities have a critical opportunity to address the role of local media in creating a more accurate … Continued
Journalists must play a vital role in fixing America’s false economic narrative
From the Federal Reserve to the U.S. Economic Development Administration to the American Planning Association, pressure is mounting in policy and planning circles to address the economic consequences of structural racism. In an effort to reboot an economy still impacted by COVID-19, the inherited disparities of a pre-pandemic segregationist society have been laid bare across … Continued
What’s Working: Newsletters may be reaching their limits, but there’s hope beyond the inbox
Email newsletters are thriving, but their ascendancy in today’s media brings with it a certain foreboding: Given how successful the format has been the past few years — and how many writers have turned to newsletter platforms like Substack to build their personal brands and possibly earn some real money — it feels almost inevitable there … Continued
Getting started as an independent journalist
Hannah Yoon, independent visual journalist, Mason Trinca, documentary and editorial photojournalist, Sarah Fritsche, independent food writer and editor, and Maddie McGarvey, independent photographer, joined our discussion on how to succeed as an independent journalist. We talked about healthcare, building your client base, making time for personal projects, invoicing & contracts, how to prepare for slow months … Continued
The Missouri Info Corps COVID-19 widget
What is the COVID-19 widget? And why should I want it on my news site? This widget is a free and easy way for your news organization to display Missouri Info Corps COVID-19 stories on your news site. If your news organization has taken a hit in resources and reporters over the past few months, this … Continued