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: Make Your Journalism Sound Good
This week’s good idea comes in two parts and originates from the people behind California Sunday Magazine and live event Pop-up Magazine. California Sunday Magazine recently did an entire print edition all about sound and came up with a clever and simple way to add sound to their magazine. See how they implemented audio footnotes here. Then check out how Pop-up Magazine is using phone calls to deliver short audio stories to people. There are lots of ways you could adapt both of these low-cost ideas for local news. 

New Models for News Beyond Nonprofit or For-Profit

I get asked a lot by journalists starting new news organizations if they should start-up as for-profit or nonprofit. There are a lot of considerations to take into account in that choice, but I often remind people that your tax status isn’t your business model. Regardless of how you structure your organization in the eyes of the IRS you still need to know your market and have a range of revenue strategies. In the articles below, you can see how creative news entrepreneurs are experimenting with new business structures as part of developing new revenue strategies. 

• With a direct public offering, Berkeleyside wants to turn its readers into its newest owners – NiemanLab
• Serving mission, seeking profits through public benefit corporations – Current
• 3 challenges UK media cooperative The Bristol Cable faces as it continues to grow – Journalism.co.uk 
• Stop the press … and make way for the co-op media – The Guardian
   

Highlighting Creative Storytelling

Here at the Local Fix we like to shine a spotlight on creative storytelling formats that help expand people’s understanding and connection to a story. Sometimes these are resource intensive projects from big newsrooms but often we emphasize low-cost, engaging story formats that anyone can adapt to their newsrooms. For example, the youth literacy and arts organization 826 Valencia worked with students to write stories which they put in bottles and hid all over San Francisco, creating a story scavenger hunt for their community. Below are a few examples of how illustrations and comics can bring journalism to life in new ways. 

• Comics and cartoons are coming to life well beyond the printed page – NiemanLab 
• The Boat: Navigating new waters of an online graphic novel – Ochre 
• A graphics journalism project from The New York Times is taking readers inside death row – Poynter

Following Fact-Checking

Fact checking has been in the spotlight in this election like never before. And if you aren’t subscribed to the American Press Institute/Poynter fact checking newsletter you should be. It is a great mix of research, best practices and industry trends for fact-checking and accountability journalism. Below are a few highlights, including tech experiments to bring fact checking to new places, and a few good overviews of the role of fact checking in this election. 

• Google News now has a “Fact Check” tag – Poynter
• Univision’s launches a Spanish-language fact checking Facebook Messenger bot – Univision
• Fact check: This is not really a post-fact election – Washington Post
• NPR’s real-time fact-checking drew millions of readers – Poynter

Have a good weekend,
Josh

The Local Fix is a project of the Democracy Fund’s Public Square Program, which invests in innovations and institutions that are reinventing local media and expanding the public square. Disclosure: Some projects mentioned in this newsletter may be funded by Democracy Fund, you can find a full list of the organizations we support on our website.