For the first time, students at the Missouri School of Journalism trained both newspapers and broadcast media organizations

For one week in mid-January, students from the Missouri School of Journalism were once again embedded in newsrooms across Missouri as part of the Reynolds Journalism Institute’s Potter Digital Ambassadors program.

The student ambassadors helped 10 news organizations strengthen their audience engagement efforts by developing and monetizing newsletters, refining social media strategies and training staff on a variety of helpful tools. In a first for the program, the ambassadors assisted not only newspapers but also broadcast news organizations, broadening the scope of the program funded by Walt Potter, MA ’81, through the Walter B. Potter Fund for Innovation in Journalism.

“This program has been extremely successful for Missouri Press newspapers, and it was exciting to bring it to broadcast outlets,” said Elizabeth Stephens, program coordinator and Missouri Community Newspaper Management Chair at the School of Journalism. “We learned more about the needs of broadcast news outlets while applying the same approach of meeting newsrooms where they are and helping them move forward digitally in a sustainable way.”

MissouriNet, a division of the Learfield radio network, asked senior Elise Newman to help the state news outlet reach a younger audience that is typically less likely to listen to radio.

“We need to let the people on Instagram and Facebook know who we are and that we’re really good at what we do,” said Ashley Byrd, director of news services at Learfield. “Social media is a bigger beast than it’s ever been, so this is one of the best ways to reach the Gen Z’s and broaden our audience.”

Newman helped the newsroom take advantage of some of Instagram’s more advanced features, especially when turning video footage into social media-optimized reels, and she introduced strategies to improve MissouriNet’s social reach more broadly. But the experience wasn’t one-sided; for every insight she brought to the table, she also absorbed the kind of knowledge and experience that can only come from hands-on immersion in a newsroom.

“I’ve been able to do such cool things, like attending the governor’s inauguration and helping interview two senators,” Newman said. “I’ve also learned a lot more about my own video editing skills and how to transform videos into more of a social media style.”

Byrd added that student journalists’ eagerness to learn as much as they teach is part of the appeal of participating in the Potter Ambassador’s program.

“We’ve been out of college a little while,” Byrd said with a wry smile. “We need to know the latest and greatest, and the only way to do that is to engage students, to engage people who are learning.”

Byrd is far from the only news professional who embraces the student perspective. Trevor Vernon, publisher of six newspapers serving small communities in mid-Missouri under the Vernon Publishing umbrella, has participated in the program three times and has learned to embrace the ambassadors’ tendency to — in his words — “push the envelope.”

“I used to fight back a little bit, but I don’t fight back anymore,” said Vernon, who is also the mayor of Eldon, Missouri, home of The Advertiser. “I’m just like, ‘let’s try it, let’s see what happens.’ It’s been fun.”

He said junior Genevieve Smith has supercharged his newspapers’ ability to reach readers with newsletters.

“If I tried to do what she did in one day, it would take me three months because I would get pulled in a thousand different directions,” Vernon added. “She’s moved us ahead light years from where we would have been.”

For the Lake Sun in Osage Beach, Smith was able to import email addresses that the paper had previously collected from community members but had not used, bringing its newsletter from 300 subscribers to nearly 3,000.

While the newsletter had maintained a stellar 55% open rate with its smaller audience, Smith and Vernon were prepared for that percentage to dip given the influx of new subscribers. Instead, the open rate remained at 55%, not only demonstrating the paper’s connection to its community but giving Vernon a highly read product that is more likely to attract advertisers.

For another newsletter from The Advertiser, Smith’s approach was all about embracing a small-town perspective.

“I really tried to lean into the more personal, community aspect of it — Eldon is in general very small, very close knit, a care-about-your-neighbors vibe,” Smith said. “Before, the newsletter was just kind of a stack of headlines, so I wanted to add a voice. Now we have one of the general assignment reporters actually writing a little column in the newsletter. It still links to all the headlines, but it’s like, ‘here’s what’s happening in town, and here’s why you should care.’”

Training the trainers

Though the ambassadors knew they would be working on audience engagement projects like newsletters and social media, there was plenty of room for flexibility — Smith’s work, for example, stretched across all six Vernon Publishing outlets. This meant the ambassadors needed to be prepared for a wide variety of issues and contingencies.

That was where AlignSimple, a media consultant for small and medium-sized news organizations, came in. For the second year in a row, AlignSimple helped prepare the students for the trainings they would provide and also offered support throughout their time in the newsrooms, holding daily Zoom meetings to help work through any emerging issues or sticking points.

“To be able to have the Potter Ambassadors just call or text with a question and giving them a link or resources, it was about infusing some knowledge capital with the students and also the papers,” said Kyle Rickhoff, founder and local media operations strategist for AlignSimple. “The relationship is really between the student and the property. We’re there to get them confident and be a resource. If they felt less alone when they were sent out to the properties, then we did the right thing.”

On the daily Zoom calls with students, Rickhoff was joined by experts in audience, social media and email. A key part of their contribution was helping the ambassadors ensure their efforts were successful not only journalistically but from a business perspective, as monetization was an important focus.

“When we talked about product development, whether it was a beat they were going into or expanding social and email, it was, ‘how does this make me money today?’” Rickhoff said. “We just talked to the Potters about how this leads to future revenue. The discussions were very product-launch based.”

Still, the foundations of a good relationship between a news organization and its local community are immersion and engagement, and the program’s goal is to not only assist newsrooms but open students’ eyes to what it’s like to work in community news.

Ambassadors like Cayli Yanagida, who worked with the Houston Herald, quickly realized why it was so important that they physically work in their assigned newsrooms — a concept firmly rooted in the Missouri School of Journalism’s Missouri Method philosophy of hands-on education.

“Although I was only here for a week, I was able to connect with each member of the newsroom,” Yanagida wrote after reflecting on the experience. “They were all kind and welcomed me. I am very lucky to have worked with a group that was so willing to learn and be more involved in digital media.”

The ambassadors and their newsrooms

• Elise Newman – MissouriNet, Jefferson City
• Genevieve Smith – Eldon Advertiser and Vernon Publishing, Eldon
• Cayli Yanagida – Houston Herald, Houston
• Ella Holt – Cash-Book Journal, Jackson
• Riley Gearhart – KOAM, Pittsburg, Kansas
• Owen Newland – Gasconade County Republican and Warden Publishing, Owensville
• Kalyn Laire – KMZU and Carter Media Group, Carrollton
• Haven Dager – Odle Media Group, Park Hills
• Averi Norris – Benne Media, Lake of the Ozarks
• Maggie Bunch – Chariton Marquee, Salisbury

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 (2025, Jan. 27). Building a sponsored content program with intentionality and trust. Reynolds Journalism Institute. Retrieved from: https://rjionline.org/news/building-a-sponsored-content-program-with-intentionality-and-trust/