LION Digital Media launched LIONshare, a media planning tool powered by a first-of-its-kind database of more than 7,000 news websites, from the largest news organizations to the smallest. News outlets can participate for free and local outlets will have the opportunity to reap digital revenue previously given to national media brands. Ad agencies can use the planning tool for free to access market media data in minutes that previously was unavailable to them or took days to research.

As a 2014-2015 Reynolds Fellow, Mary Grigsby will qualitatively examine young adult (18-29) careerists’ changing media behaviors and how their motivations and preferences will affect the products and services news organizations should be thinking about. Her research will explore how perceptions, motivations and opportunities come together in shaping more than just adoption but transformation in the purposes, places and ways this cohort are using media.

During The Texas Tribune’s institutional fellowship, project leader Tim Griggs, now former publisher and chief operating officer, and his team piloted “growth hacking” (using a rapid test-and-learn technology approach to marketing) to spur digital audience growth. A growth hacker — part engineer, part marketer — focuses on low-cost, innovative alternatives to traditional marketing. According to Griggs, this is particularly important for organizations like the Tribune, that have little or no marketing budget.

Jeanne Brooks’ nonresidential fellowship supported the growth and sustainability of Hacks/Hackers, an international grassroots organization of journalists and technologists who use technology to visualize information and find and tell stories.

As a Reynolds Fellow, Bimal Balakrishan, director of the Immersive Visualization Lab at the University of Missouri, is exploring the potential applications (and challenges) of 3-D technology for the journalism and advertising industries. Balakrishnan says various 3-D technologies could enable visual content to be presented in a more innovative, interactive and immersive manner for news and advertising.

Dan Archer of Aptos, California, explored transmedia storytelling (publishing different parts of news stories across multiple digital platforms) through the creation of a visual news consultancy, Empathetic Media, that will provide production services to newsrooms without the in-house expertise or budget to do so for themselves. Platforms included the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset and Unity game engine (for VR and web apps), as well as interactive webdocs, multimedia graphic journalism pieces and data visualizations produced in HTML5.

Stacey Woelfel’s project adds a richer experience to traditional linear television news consumption by allowing second screen engagement for TV news viewers. Second screen viewing means audience members are using a mobile device to view content while watching news broadcasts on TV. The project also allows local broadcasters to make use of unused content that would otherwise go unseen by traditional viewers, including full interviews, interactive graphics and maps, archival footage and reporting documents.

Yong Volz’s oral history website, Herstory, which launched in April 2015, shares women’s voices, experiences and perspectives about their professional careers, achievements and associational life as they fought for gender equality in the newsroom.

Scott Swafford’s project was designed to instill the importance of local election news coverage through a workshop curriculum offered to small town newsrooms in Missouri. A two-day workshop at the Reynolds Journalism Institute provided journalists with advice, tools and resources needed to more adequately cover local elections.

Chris Shipley is intrigued by the relationship between the abundance and anonymity of social media creators and the reader’s role as consumer, curator, and amplifier of digital information. During her fellowship, she explored the challenges of identifying credible sources and reporting breaking news in real-time through social media channels. Working with students from the Missouri School of Journalism, she developed best practice guidelines to enhance real-time social journalism.