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: Experiment With Video
Four of the local sites we are working with at the Local News Lab have been experimenting with video in really interesting ways. These are mostly small 1 and 2 person newsrooms who are exploring low-stakes ways to test how video can be done on a shoe-string budget in local news. Check out how they are using video to engage their audience, reach Spanish speaking residents and expand government transparency. If you want to try some quick videos yourself, apps like Replay and Legend make it easy to mix images and text for dynamic social videos. 

Foundations Talk About Funding Journalism 

If finding and keeping foundation funding seems like a mystery to you, you’re not alone. Getting grants is a combination of building relationships, doing your homework, and having a great story to tell about the impact of your work. But funders have different reasons and methods for funding journalism – whether it’s to fund a specific beat or community, or to test new ideas in digital journalism – and it’s critical to understand the differences. One of the better ways to understand what foundations care about is hearing directly from foundations themselves. Here are three interviews with foundation staff to check out:

• In 10 Years: Philanthropy funds journalism – Philanthropy Northwest interview with Anne Martens of the Gates Foundation and Cassandra Stalzer of the Rasmuson Foundation 
• Fundamentally, our work is about building relationships and trust – Watershed Media Project interview with Molly
• “Helping expand and build and nourish that community will be a key to our success.” Jennifer Preston on leaving The New York Times, joining the Knight Foundation, and spurring innovation in newsrooms

The Roots of Engagement

We’ve heard it said that the term “community engagement” is so overused that it risks losing its meaning. So it is worth looking back at the etymology of engagement, to remember the roots of the word. The word is commonly traced back to the french “engager” which means “to pledge oneself.” So engagement is not just about creating opportunities for community participation in the reporting process, its about making a commitment, building a relationship. The etymology reminds us that engagement is the first step towards marriage. We believe that’s the kind of deep connection newsrooms need to cultivate with their communities. 

• We love this illustration from the new City Bureau in Chicago on “What Community Journalism Is” 
• Audience Engagement is an Iterative Process, Generosity over Genius, Risk Taking, and Making People Feel the News – a terrific interview with Jennifer Brandel and Miranda July 
• Renewed Hope for Journalism Creates Shifts – how communities and journalists can thrive together igniting new connections, possibilities.
• Listen to those who care: News Voices New Jersey connects journalists with engaged members of their communities  (Be sure to check out the chart in this post from our partners at Free Press)

How To Take Advantage of Mobile

The incredibly fast adoption of mobile in recent years often inspired handwringing within newsrooms. Most publishers don’t feel prepared to fully serve mobile audiences, leverage mobile technology, and monetize mobile traffic. However, a series of recent articles eschews the doom and gloom and instead focuses on some of the amazing possibilities of what mobile makes possible for newsrooms and readers. Cory Bergman sets the tone with a piece that began in his Mobile Media Memo newsletter about the “surprising value of a mobile user.” The idea that print dollars would turn into digital dimes and mobile pennies hasn’t proven to be true, Bergman writes. “The faster we recalibrate our beliefs, the more we’ll invest in mobile. The more we’ll focus on new opportunities instead of just trying to repurpose and protect what we currently do.” 

• Five proposed areas of focus for mobile innovation in news – Guardian Mobile Innovation Lab
• Small screens, full art, can’t lose: Despite their size, phones open up new opportunities for interactives – NiemanLab
• WNYC’s Note to Self sent 300,000 texts to 15,000 people; here’s how they did it and what they learned – NiemanLab
• Steller and the art of mobile storytelling – Storybench

Have a good weekend,
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.