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: Calling All Collaborators

Back in January, The Center for Cooperative Media launched a database tracking collaborative journalism projects, both past and present. It now includes more than 160 collaborations across more than 1500 newsrooms spanning the globe. It includes everything from local newsrooms in Texas exchanging content to large scale collaborations like ProPublica’s ballot access and voting issues project called Electionland. A recent blog post by the center made a call for more submissions to the database, saying its purpose is to “glean as much wisdom as possible from what’s worked and not worked when newsrooms come together.” See something amiss or want to add your own collaborative journalism project to the database? Here’s where to start.

One Year After Charlottesville

This weekend marks the one year anniversary of the white supremacist rally and counter-protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. There has been a wave of coverage looking back at the hate and racism at the heart of that event and the growing nativism and xenophobia in our national discourse since. An example of that is the PBS Frontline documentary released this week with ProPublica called “Documenting Hate: Charlottesville,” that investigates the white supremacists and neo-Nazis behind the original Unite the Right rally in 2017. This weekend, white supremacists are expected to rally in Washington, DC and counter-protesters are planning a series of events in response. We have gathered resources for newsrooms and journalists covering these issues and protests in your community.

• Using the Power of the Crowd to Document Hate – ProPublica 
• What the news media often get wrong about white supremacists, and what those errors expose about the challenge of confronting racism in America. – On The Media 
• Getting it right: the best reporting on white supremacists and neo-Nazis – Guardian US 
• Lessons on covering race and racism after Charlottesville – Columbia Journalism Review 
• How journalists should handle racist words, images and violence in Charlottesville (2017) – Poynter

No One Will Save Local News, but Together We All Might

At the Local Fix, we don’t put much stock in the idea that any one person will save local news. We do, however, believe that around the country there are people working tirelessly and effectively to build a brighter future for journalism — and when they work together, we see sparks that light the way forward. Those builders and makers, those connectors and collaborators, know well that the labor of serving communities, developing new revenue models, and changing industries is long, hard, good work. Big donors, celebrities, and companies have a role to play, but it isn’t as “savior,” it is as a partner that is willing to listen and support the people on the ground who have ideas, solutions, and strategies that are working. The links below lift up some of those voices and ideas.

• There are actual solutions to the local news crisis: Forget billionaires — this is how we meet our community information needs. – Joe Amditis 
• Billionaires Can’t Build the News We Need: It’s time to build it for ourselves. – Darryl Holliday 
• Help Wanted:  The West Virginia Press Association and West Virginia University are launching a new effort to replenish the shrinking pool of independent community news publishers – Nieman Reports 
• Journalism’s Broken Business Model Won’t Be Solved by Billionaires – The New Yorker
• Local Media Needs Security. What Chance the Rapper’s Purchase of Chicagoist Means. – The New York Times 

New Lessons for News Revenue

It’s not every week that a flood of articles tackles concrete ideas and solutions for news revenue, so we wanted to round up some of the lessons learned, case studies, and advice recently published on the topic. The News Revenue Hub is publishing a great series of research from their first two years of helping newsrooms build and expand membership programs (they have a newsletter, too). The Associated Press released a new report on the many models for converting readers to paying supporters. Both the Facebook Subscription Accelerator and the Single Topic News Site project published resources based on their cohorts of for and nonprofit newsrooms. We know that just having PDFs full of good ideas isn’t enough, so tell us what you and your newsroom need to put some of these ideas into action. How might we ensure that the ideas that are working get adopted and adapted by local newsrooms who need them? Drop us a line or find us on Twitter to respond.

• Setting up an automated welcome email series earned organizations $10,000 more per month, on average, compared to clients who didn’t. – Hub Learning Laboratory/News Revenue Hub
• New ways for publishers to capture digital revenue – AP
• Lessons from the Local News Subscriptions Accelerator – Facebook
• How local news outlets can build an online audience and revenue – Single Subject News Project at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy

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.