We’ll be creating new templates, tools and resources for local journalists to use and adapt for their newsrooms and communities. But there are also a number of important resources that we rely on regularly or have shaped our thinking about these issues.

Be sure to explore the great resources from our partners:

• NJ News Commons – New Jersey focused links to open records laws, small business resources, legal aid, professional organizations and more.
• Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism – see in particular their in-depth templates for various local news business models, complete with sample business place and budgets.

Community Engagement

• How to Engage Readers in Acts of Journalism – a slide deck by Amanda Zamora, ProPublica’s Engagement Editor
• The Engagement Metric – Identifying and measuring audience engagement efforts, a report by Joy Mayer at the Reynolds Journalism Institute
• Journalism isn’t what we should try to save – In this blog post Christopher Wink argues “Journalism is a tool to make better communities.”
• Fix Local News or Die – A conversation in blog posts from John Robinson, Steve Buttry, Jen Conic and John Robinson again.

Measuring Impact

• Nonprofit Journalism: Issues Around Impact – a white paper from ProPublica’s founding editor and president, Richard Tofel.
• What We Talk About When We Talk About Impact: One News Organization’s Approach to Practicing Journalism with a Purpose By Elizabeth Green, Philissa Cramer, and Anika Anand of Chalkbeat
• The art, science and mystery of nonprofit news assessment – By Charles Lewis and Hilary Niles of the Investigative Reporting Workshop
• How can journalists measure the impact of their work? Notes toward a model of measurement – by Lindsay Green-Barber at The Center for Investigative Reporting
• What You Think You Know About the Web Is Wrong – by the CEO of web analytics firm Chartbeat, Tony Haile
• Good Metrics, Bad Metrics – by Jeff Jarvis
• Metrics for civic impacts of journalism – by Ethan Zuckerman, who writes “What we measure, we become.”
• Metrics, metrics everywhere: How do we measure the impact of journalism? – by Jonathan Stray
• Two posts by Jessica Clark and Tracy Van Slyke based on a series of “Impact Summits:” Part 1 and Part 2

Building a News Business

• How to Become a Local Publisher – A guide for great writers who are looking to start their own hyperlocal news website.
• Business, Legal, Marketing and other Guides – Compiled by the Investigative News Network
• Videos and Slides from Block by Block 2012 – The Business of Online Community News: Some very good concrete tips for managing your newsroom and selling ads.
• Indie Online Local Publishing: A Primer – a quick guide by the executive director of the Local Independent Online News publishers.
• 11 revenue sources for digital news organizations – A good overview with lots of examples and links from James Breiner (See also this list of subsidies for journalism from Jay Rosen)
• To win in mobile: It’s a situation, not a news channel – some thoughts on new revenue streams for mobile, by Steve Gray