As it has each year for nearly a decade, the Reynolds Journalism Institute’s Potter Digital Ambassadors program sent journalism students to community news organizations all over Missouri in January. There, they worked to create or expand on each newsroom’s digital strategies and provide training on key tools, with particular focus this year on incorporating AI to streamline processes without creating content.

But unlike previous iterations, this year’s program expanded to encompass four additional states through partnerships with universities and press or broadcast associations in Iowa, Kansas, Tennessee and Vermont. With the help of additional training for the ambassadors through AlignSimple, which provides fractional services to news organizations, outlets in each state received resources, guidance and other innovative work from journalism students catered to their needs.

As news deserts, low public trust and tight budgets continue to pose challenges to community newsrooms all over the country, the ambassadors’ contributions are designed to not only provide immediate benefits but establish long-term, sustainable improvements in how participating news organizations reach and engage their audiences.

“The ongoing shifts in audience needs are challenging to keep up with, especially for newsrooms with smaller staffs trying to keep up with the demands of community news,” said Elizabeth Stephens, program director. “Editors, publishers and news directors find a lot of value in the direct support ambassadors provide but also appreciate a fresh perspective and someone to brainstorm with.”

“Jenna and Brayden transformed me from someone with zero social media knowledge into someone capable of producing, posting, tracking, and analyzing content.”

Brent Leonard, digital content manager, Iowa Falls Times-Citizen

This pilot expansion stuck the landing, and while a final accounting of the program’s impacts across five states will take time to tabulate, RJI — which is based at the Missouri School of Journalism — is already hearing good things from the participants. Take the Iowa Falls Times-Citizen, which hosted Iowa State University students Brayden Finley and Jenna Whalen:

“Jenna and Brayden transformed me from someone with zero social media knowledge into someone capable of producing, posting, tracking, and analyzing content,” said Brent Leonard, the newly appointed digital content manager for the twice-weekly newspaper. “They also provided me with the tools I need to continuously improve my content. The guides they created and the videos Jenna shared with us are excellent resources.”

In typical fashion for the program, the benefits ran both ways.

“It was a super rewarding experience for both of us,” wrote Finley and Whalen. “Overall, we learned about the significant impact a community has on local media and the importance of being aware of the culture within each community.”

Walt Potter, MA ’81, an alum of the School of Journalism and the founding donor of the program through his Walt B. Potter Fund for Innovation in Local Journalism, said the success of the expansion is further evidence for the merit of an approach that combines educational benefits for college journalism students with practical support for newsrooms.

“It’s gratifying to see this program continue to grow in new ways to better serve students and news organizations,” Potter said. “Last year added broadcast organizations into the mix, and now there are ambassadors in five states. It’s clear that this model works.”

Show Me the gems

Of course, the expansion did not lessen the program’s impact on the state of Missouri, where student ambassadors went to five newspapers and five radio stations to improve search engine optimization, build newsletters and other news products, optimize content management systems and create effective social media marketing.

From the historic St. Louis American to Carter Media Group in rural Carrollton, Missouri, the ambassadors catered their efforts to the needs of each outlet, often making use of Google Gemini to create “gems” — highly specific AI prompts that provide instant assistance with repetitious tasks like captioning videos, scraping public records data and creating templates and other guidance.

At the Daily American Republic, a newspaper serving the southeastern community of Poplar Bluff, senior Claire Kespohl ensured that the gems she built to help script weekly wrap-up videos for social media served the dual role of training staff members to create their own gems going forward.

“We had not used gems previously, and my hope is to develop this tool further, said Donna Farley, editor of the Daily American Republic and its sister publication, the Dexter Statesman. “We have a particular need for tools that help inexperienced staff grow with guidance from our more veteran staff but enable the more experienced staff to still have time for their own assignments.”

Kespohl added that a key part of the week’s success was willingness from the staff to engage with the ideas and resources she brought with her.

“I truly could not have imagined a better placement for my Potter Ambassador week,” she said. “The staff was more than willing to collaborate with me, and they were extremely receptive to the tools I introduced them to. I can’t recommend this program enough for student journalists looking to expand their knowledge in rural newsrooms.”

Like Kespohl, master’s student Brianna Davis felt that the experience helped her build skills while opening a window into what it’s like to work as a community journalist.

At the St. Louis American, Davis worked on social media banners and a video script promoting its upcoming community event, the Reader’s Choice Awards. She also audited the newspaper’s website to identify opportunities for improvement and offered training and support for the digital team.

“I think what stood out to me the most was how it felt like a true job,” Davis said. “At the beginning, there was the thought of, ‘what can I get done in a week?’ But by the end of the week, it felt like I was coming back Monday morning to finish what I didn’t get done. I got comfortable so quickly, hungry for more because it was such a rewarding space to work in. And that’s key for me when searching for my dream job.”

On the radio side, AMI Radio Group in Joplin gave junior Camden Buehler the opportunity to be on the air in addition to his work on a detailed newsletter plan, social media templates, website automation and a guide to starting from scratch on Instagram.

“He helped us come up with a fantastic social media posting schedule,” said Krystal Albright, AMI’s director of digital marketing. “We loved his ideas and input for our newsletter.”

For Carter Media Group, which recently acquired 15 new stations in Missouri, senior Zoe Saleem created brand kits that preserved each station’s individual identity while allowing staff to easily adapt graphics for use across stations by swapping out color palettes and fonts. She also made additional recommendations to help the stations work together more efficiently and conducted an analysis of social media analytics.

As a student primarily interested in social media and audience strategy, these experiences aligned well with her passions, but one of the most impactful aspects of the experience was the level of insight it gave her into what those strategies support: the production of content in a broadcast newsroom.

“I learned a bunch of new things, like how radio production works and how stations monetize their social platforms,” Saleem said. “… it really helped me build confidence in myself and my work along with helping local news stations.”

About Walter B. Potter, Jr.

In 2010, Walt Potter, MA ’81, established the Missouri School of Journalism’s Walter B. Potter Fund for Innovation in Local Journalism. The endowment supports teaching and research centered on journalism that serves small communities, such as towns in rural areas or individual neighborhoods in larger urban areas. Potter said his gift was in honor of his late father, Walter Sr., and was motivated by his career as a journalist as well as his positive experiences as a graduate student at the Missouri School of Journalism.

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Cite this article

Fitzgerald, Austin (2026, Feb. 24). Potter Digital Ambassadors program expands to five states, helps community news orgs advance digital strategies. Reynolds Journalism Institute. https://rjionline.org/news/potter-digital-ambassadors-program-expands-to-five-states-helps-community-news-orgs-advance-digital-strategies/