Innovation in Focus

Innovation in Focus is a series exploring new tech, tools and methods of storytelling for newsrooms worldwide. We interview experts, test ideas and provide our findings on a different topic each month.

Whether you’re a one-man band or a large metro, this series will help you take the next step in innovative journalism.

Email the editor: lytle@rjionline.org

A screenshot of the content template in Airtable that is used to organize the various resources Trusting News creates.

August 1, 2022

How Trusting News organizes their large library of internal resources

Keeping information easily accessible is an essential lesson for newsrooms.

A screenshot of the interactive map commemorating flood survivors includes a headline that says, “Listen to stories of 1972 Black Hills Flood survivors,” an intro that says, “The marked spots on the map are the locations of where the survivors told their stories. Click on the marked spots on the map to read about or hear from survivors of the 1972 Black Hills Flood.” Finally, credits include Annie Jennemann, Regan Mertz and photos by Johnny Sundby Photography.

July 18, 2022

Combining historical and current day journalism in an interactive experience

South Dakota Public Broadcasting used archival maps, audio stories, photos and other content to combine reporting on survivors’ stories

July 5, 2022

How to create and launch an evergreen pop-up newsletter

Sydney Lewis is a 2022 RJI Student Innovation Fellow partnered with NOLA.com in New Orleans. The RJI Student Fellows will be sharing their product work this summer through Innovation in Focus. NOLA.com | The Times Picayune decided to create an evergreen pop-up newsletter. It was my job to research, brainstorm, build, curate, write, promote, and … Continued

Newsroom editors, fact-checkers, graphic designers, copy editors, photographers, digital producers and social media managers are often not credited in news stories for their contributions to the work. Typically, reporters are credited in the byline of a story. Illustration: Mikaela Rodenbaugh

June 27, 2022

Expanding credit for journalists: looking beyond the byline

Changes to traditional workflows reflect the contributions of all folks in the newsroom.

June 21, 2022

Why we should expand who gets credit in journalism

The byline treats some journalists in newsrooms as less important: a discussion with Alex Sujong Laughlin.

A screenshot from the accessible data context toolkit shows the checklists to contextualize data in your reporting more thoroughly.

June 13, 2022

Providing context for data in journalism

One dataset we used for this work was the Missouri Healthnet Applications. Here are takeaways to assist you in making data points easier to understand for readers