Innovation
Finding the sweet spot with the Google Ad Grants Program
A conversation with Tyler Dedrick from Mountain State Spotlight
RJI Student Innovation Fellows unveil tools and strategies for community newsrooms in public webinar
Contact: Kat Duncan, duncank@rjionline.org This summer, four international master’s students at the Missouri School of Journalism each spent 12 weeks stationed in a community newsroom, where they helped bring to life everything from new audience engagement strategies to data visualizations and automated information tracking. As the newest cohort of Student Innovation Fellows from the School’s … Continued
Building a civic information hub
Civic Strata: A shared foundation for data, documents and community reporting.
20th RJI Student Innovation Competition open for entries
The Reynolds Journalism Institute’s (RJI) Student Innovation Competition is open for entries.
![Executive Director of the Columbia Missourian Elizabeth Stephens [left] and Innovation in Focus Editor Eden Dinneen [right] create the Missourian’s first ad campaigns together with Google Ad Grants.](https://rjionline.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/iif26081105.jpg)
Testing Google Ads Grant program to grow local audiences
Exploring how free search advertising may increase readership and newsletter subscriptions
How to build a kindness map for your community
A simple guide for newsrooms that want to map local help, volunteer opportunities and stories of kindness.
We are building a tool to help newsrooms listen to emergency scanners
The Public Safety Scanner Tool, or PSST, sends automated alerts of urgent scanner traffic in real time and will be free for newsrooms.
Vibecoding a pitch evaluator for opinion pieces
Tips and a free no-code tool to build an editorial Gem.
Introducing the Journalism Source of Safety (J-SOS) app
Building the journalist safety app I always needed.
How to get your reporters started with vertical video
Shifting from a word driven to a video-first mindset can feel like an entirely separate, overwhelming challenge. At the Detroit Free Press, we have started working to make producing vertical video more accessible for our reporters.