Developing resources to help non-traditional newsrooms thrive

The news industry loves to innovate. In the past decade, news organizations have overhauled their journalism, built better audience engagement and product strategies, and learned how to fund this work by diversifying revenue. These newsroom and business innovations have helped the industry adapt during a time of rapid change.

But we’ve barely touched a huge piece of the innovation puzzle: the structure of news organizations themselves. Who is it that decides where resources are spent? And how are decisions made? 

The good news is that not only is it possible to build newsrooms with innovative structures — where journalists are empowered to make critical business decisions — these newsrooms are on the rise. 

Since 2020, national and local launches have included Defector Media, The Appeal, Hell Gate, The 51st, Canopy Atlanta, RANGE, and Athens County Independent, to name a few. Just this year, Autonomy News, The Southlander, and Coyote Media Collective have all entered the scene.

My RJI project will identify non-traditional newsrooms, explore their needs, and create practical resources for both established teams and start-ups. With more non-traditional news startups than ever before, it is a critical time to identify, elevate, and support their work as sustainable models within the news ecosystem — because even newsrooms can struggle to be what they cannot see.

Supporting non-traditional newsrooms

I’ll expand on a clear definition of non-traditional newsrooms in an upcoming RJI article. For now, I define these newsrooms as those with unique formal and/or legal internal structures and policies that are rethinking how they operate from the ground up. Think worker-owned co-ops, worker-led nonprofits, non-hierarchical structures, and newsrooms with co-leadership. 

These newsrooms center their journalists. They give journalists a voice and a choice over their current work and long-term future. Through collaboration and consensus, journalists are empowered to make organizational decisions that better align editorial and revenue strategies with audiences and create healthier working environments. Together, these foster greater sustainability.

But these newsrooms are not easy to launch and grow and they’ve lacked broad industry guidance and resources.

My RJI project strives to change this. I’m building the first national landscape survey to identify non-traditional newsrooms in the U.S. 

A public database will cultivate community between non-traditional newsrooms, educate the media industry about various models, and raise the profile of these nascent newsrooms to attract greater investment. 

I will also develop three key resources. First, I’ll create a questionnaire to help news entrepreneurs identify the best non-traditional model for their startup or restructure. Second, I’ll build a directory of professionals — including lawyers, accountants, and consultants — who have experience assisting non-traditional newsrooms. And third, I’ll compile a resource guide to help non-traditional newsrooms adapt and troubleshoot best practice policies and procedures — which more traditional newsrooms can also learn from and adapt.

My interest in this work

In 2021 I co-founded The Appeal, one of the first worker-led nonprofit newsrooms in the U.S. Within a year, we had nearly $1 million in annual revenue, 8 staff, and dozens of freelance writers. We won countless awards for impactful journalism covering the criminal legal system and spurred federal investigations, improved jail and prison conditions, and helped reform extreme sentencing laws.

I’m deeply interested in building healthy, successful newsroom cultures and organizations. At The Appeal, I led the introduction of a 4-day workweek, an equitable and transparent compensation model, and a democratic decision-making model. In 2024, I co-created The Appeal’s Care & Collaboration Toolkit with RJI to equip news leaders with our worker-led practices. 

Earlier this year I researched care in newsrooms and developed For All We Care, a practical framework for developing newsroom cultures that balance care and accountability.

How you can get involved

Help me these questions during my fellowship:

• What non-traditional newsrooms and organizational models currently exist?
• What resources do new and existing non-traditional newsrooms need to thrive?
• How can we support one another?

If you work at or are considering launching a non-traditional newsroom, or are simply interested in this work, I would love to talk to you. 

I’m interested in understanding where the hardest challenges lay – and what resources I can build to help. I’m also eager to hear about the intricacies of different newsroom models and how non-traditional policies and practices have been tested, adapted, and implemented.

Please fill out the interest survey below:

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Cite this article

Chan, Tara Francis (2025, Aug. 7). Journalists are building the newsrooms they want to work for. Reynolds Journalism Institute. Retrieved from: https://rjionline.org/news/journalists-are-building-the-newsrooms-they-want-to-work-for/