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: ‘Digitizing Legacy’
We’ve written before about the importance and value in archives, and a recent partnership between The Obsidian Collection and Google is another great example of that. The Obsidian Collection, a Chicago-based nonprofit, works with historical black media to digitize their archives. Now, images from those archives will be a swipe or two away on Google’s Arts and Culture site for anyone to see. Check out some of the early images here.  

News Fatigue

The pace of the current news cycle is driving new levels of donations and subscriptions to newsrooms as people see evidence of the value of reporting on daily basis, but it is also leading to a very real sense of news fatigue. Pew reported this week that “Almost seven-in-ten Americans have news fatigue, more among Republicans.”  Seven in ten is a huge number already, and the fact that it spikes even higher for those who identify as Republican poses real concerns about the expanding polarization of people’s view of the press in America. Notably, that fatigue is highest amongst those who follow news less and who already have negative feelings towards the press. This sense of fatigue has sparked a few efforts to curate “good news,” stories that provide hope and uplift. Both the New York Times and Mother Jones have started such efforts recently. However, by the nature of those publications and their newsletter delivery approach, chances are they are primarily reaching already passionate news consumers. How might we rethink how we deliver news, construct our stories and engage people outside our primary audiences in ways that build agency and avoid burn out? How might the drive for traffic, eyeballs and attention work against us in the long haul? What is your local newsroom doing to help local communities avoid news fatigue? Who is out there thinking about news that can be rigorous and restorative?

• Research Finds People Want and Engage More with Solutions Oriented Journalism – Center for Media Engagement 
• What are Restorative Narratives? – IVOH 
• The Week in Good News, a weekly newsletter from the NYT, acts as an antidote to the daily news cycle – Journalism.co.uk 
• Introducing Recharge, a weekly roundup of good news. – Mother Jones 
• New Washington Post newsletter delivers optimism to readers’ inboxes – IVOH 

Brag About Yourself

Journalists are great storytellers, but they’re not always the best storytellers about themselves. Highlighting your own work can be uncomfortable, but it can be hugely useful for the rest of the local news community. So, we want to encourage you to cut the humble from the humble brag and use the links below to share the awesome work you’re doing. Still not comfortable with bragging about yourself? How about a colleague or someone you admire? You can always shout people out to us @thelocalnewslab, but don’t miss the opportunities below, too.

• Small newsrooms, share a big project you’re proud of with Local Edition – Poynter 
• Apply for ONA’s MJ Bear Fellowship and the CNN Diversity Fellowship – ONA
• Reporting Grants for Women’s Stories – IWMF

Responsible Reporting on Suicide

A key part of the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics is that journalists should minimize harm. Words matters, stories have power. We know this, and yet sometimes in our rush to cover breaking news we don’t think about the downstream effects of our reporting. Newsrooms can do real harm through their reporting on suicide, especially when certain practices are repeated and amplified over and over again across the media. This week we have seen both good and bad examples of this. Take a moment to review the guidelines below, look for them in the stories you see this week and use them when reporting in your local communities. 

• Can journalists prevent suicide clusters? – Poynter 
• The unintentional consequences of suicide coverage – USA Today 
• Preventing suicide: a resource for media professionals – World Health Organization 
• Recommendations for reporting on suicide 
• How the news media impacts suicide trends: Research roundup – Journalists’ Resource

P.S.

You’ll see a new name added to our sign-off this summer. Rachel Wegner, our new summer intern, is contributing her experience in multimedia reporting, local journalism and social media to the Democracy Fund team this summer. Welcome Rachel!

Have a good weekend,
Josh, Teresa and Rachel
@jcstearns, @gteresa, @rachelannwegner

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.