Join us for our News Founders Workshop! This is a limited seat, off-the-record, workshop that will provide the space, guidance and resources for news founders to figure out the next step for their organizations and themselves.

Dates: November 13-14, 2026

Location: Reynolds Journalism Institute, Columbia, Missouri

This experience is two days of hands-on sessions and collaborative activities to workshop a path for founders to the next steps for their org and themselves. Sessions will include succession planning, transitioning to a new role (inside or outside your org), founders syndrome & burnout, financial readiness, merging with another org that aligns with your values & mission, and more.

Have a question I can answer? RJI Director of Innovation, Kat Duncan Duncank@rjionline.org

RJI will provide:

• A local hotel room for November 12-15, 2026
• A limited number of flight scholarships to help those most in need attend this workshop
• Breakfast and lunch each day of the workshop, plus a welcome reception with Mizzou faculty and students
• Facilitation of support from RJI and your cohort of founders following the workshop

Session Leaders:

Sessions:

Don’t Take It With You: Building a Revenue Infrastructure That Survives Your Departure, Facilitated by Kimberly Griffin

When a founder leaves, the revenue often wobbles not because the mission changed but because the knowledge walked out the door with them. Grant language lives in someone’s head. Funder relationships have no second point of contact. Proposal templates don’t exist. The new leader inherits a budget with no map. This session helps founders audit what they know, document what matters, and build the revenue infrastructure that makes a transition possible. By the end of this session, each participant will have identified the gaps in their revenue documentation, assessed the vulnerability of their key funder relationships, and left with a prioritized list of what to build before they go.

What Comes After Founder: Reinvention, Relevance, and the Second Act, Facilitated by Garry Pierre-Pierre 

For many news founders, succession planning ends with a single question: Who takes over? But a more difficult—and often unspoken—question follows: What happens to the founder?

This panel explores the “second act” after stepping aside. Drawing from firsthand experience, panelists will examine how founders redefine purpose, maintain relevance without overshadowing new leadership, and navigate the financial and emotional realities of life after the top role. The conversation will move beyond theory to address practical decisions: whether to stay involved as an advisor or fully exit, how to build new ventures or initiatives, and how to leverage credibility and networks in meaningful ways.

At a time when many independent news organizations are maturing, this discussion reframes succession as not just an organizational transition, but a personal reinvention. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of how to design a next chapter that is both sustainable and impactful.