Welcome to the Local Fix. Each week we look at key debates in journalism sustainability and community engagement through the lens of local news.  But first, we always begin with one good idea…

One Good Idea: Let Your Commenters Lead
In the past month the New York Times has prominently featured their readers comments in two really interesting ways. They did a series of wonderful profiles of some of their most active and influential commenters. Then, in the wake of the San Bernardino shooting, the Times asked readers “How often, if ever, do you think about the possibility of a shooting in your daily life?” and featured their comments on the top of their homepage. 

Looking Ahead to 2016

As the year comes to a close and we look ahead to what we want to accomplish next year, we are encouraged and excited that several of the Nieman Lab predictions for 2016 speak directly to the kind of collaborative, community-first journalism that we so deeply value here at the Local Fix. Here are four of our favorites among the many smart and forward-thinking predictions published this week:

• “Engaging means being brave and reaching out, instead of asking audiences to come to you. Build trust and relationships over time” – By Jennifer Choi
• “2016 will be the year the platforms will scale down to local news partners” – By John Clark
• “If users don’t trust journalists, they won’t buy what news outlets are selling.” – By Tracie Powell 
• “At its core, the future will be about rethinking the systems of journalism so that they build on interlocking strengths.” – By Tom Glaisyer
• “In the distributed content ecosystem, we need our hyper-relevant news feeds to include hyper-local news sources, as well.” – By David Skok 
   

Putting Community at the Center of Election Coverage

It’s hard to look ahead at 2016 and not think about the ongoing presidential campaign and how newsrooms are planning to cover it. ProPublica’s Richard Tofel wrote in his Nieman Lab prediction that 2016 will be the year the press has to grapple with demagoguery. More and more we are seeing newsrooms think about how to involve their community in their election coverage. Below are a few new projects worth looking at as well as a few of our favorite links from the past. 

• Engaging local people in local politics – By Hannah Scarbrough 
• Paid to vote: Why a nonprofit news outlet gave away $10,000 in a lottery – By Anna Clark
• Fusion Enlists NYU And Parsons Students To Try And Disrupt Election Coverage – By Michael Calderone
• The Citizens Agenda: A Plan to Make Election Coverage More Useful to People – By Amanda Michel and Jay Rosen
• How Did KPCC Get Voters to Care? They Picked One and Made Him Care – By Melody Kramer

Facts and Figures: New Research Worth Looking At

If you have some down time over the next few weeks you might want to dig into one of the new reports released in recent weeks. One is the podcasting research from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, which we mentioned last week. That is especially useful because of the research on revenue ideas it contains. Here are a few others. 

• There has been a trend of digital-first news organization launching print publications. CUNY’s Tow Knight center surveyed 17 of these publications in the US and found that print products can bring in new advertisers and audiences — but there are a lot of challenges as well. 
• Researchers at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia have released a new report that seeks to “understand the different ways crowdsourcing is being used both inside and outside newsrooms.” If you are thinking about having your community help crowdsource a reporting project this is a good place to start. 
• For those of you who want a glimpse into the future of where media and technology is headed, Amy Webb has released her annual report on trends journalists should be watching. 
• The American Press Institute explored how local newsrooms can find their voice and develop an engaging style across social networks. 

One last link: The Columbia Journalism Review did a nice round-up of their favorite local reporting of 2015. Check out their list here.

Heads up friends — The Local Fix is going to take a few weeks off at the end of the year. But before the year ends, we’d love to hear from you about one thing you learned this year (via this newsletter or anywhere). Just reply or send up a note on Twitter @MollydeAguiar and @jcstearns.

Have a good weekend and a happy New Year,
Molly and Josh 

The Local Fix is a project of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation’s Local News Lab, a website where we are exploring creative experiments in journalism sustainability.