How should publishers change their messaging when paywalls aren’t one size fits all?

Optimizing content limits on a user-by-user basis Should publishers communicate content limits to their audiences? The question becomes more pressing as the products that manage paywalls become sophisticated enough to make predictions about who likely subscribers are. We decided to test this idea with the Reynolds Journalism Institute this year in a partnership project where … Continued

From Next City to Next Journalism: Oscar Perry Abello is redefining accountability journalism

Oscar Perry Abello is a New York City-based journalist and senior economics correspondent for Next City, where he covers responses to economic injustice for the non-profit online magazine devoted to inspiring greater economic, environmental, and social justice in cities. I spoke with Abello as part of RJI’s Inclusive Media and Economies project that examines the … Continued

How an idea about local obits became a newsletter

Take that thing you’ve been thinking about doing for awhile now and make it real. A few years ago, I had this idea. I wondered if local, reported obituaries could help local newsrooms build subscribers, and therefore help support the business itself while connecting them with their communities. I talked it out in hallways and … Continued

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.