What can grow in the desert?

We are awash with studies and white papers about the demise of local newsrooms as a threat to our democracy. But what if, instead of asking what we’ve lost, we ask what can actually grow in these deserts? 

How to implement community listening

Eight steps to begin incorporating field canvassers into your newsroom’s work Borderless Magazine is a small (but mighty!) nonprofit news outlet based in Chicago. We cover immigration and immigrant communities, and about half of our online audience reads our work in Spanish. In order to stretch our modest resources and better serve our audiences, we … Continued

Five takeaways from a new study of local digital news publishers

For-profit news startups are more likely to succeed than other small businesses, but many owners aren’t getting rich. I’ve been tracking these local, independent, digital news outlets for more than a decade and started Michele’s List in 2010. Now, with an assist from the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, I updated my database and surveyed … Continued