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:Study Youth and Community Radio Projects for Mission Driven Innovation
Community and youth radio have been pioneers in community driven storytelling for decades and have a lot to teach other newsrooms. Two recent projects caught our attention: 1) Youth Radio’s Oaktown investigation of gentrification in Oakland pairs terrific data and mapping with deep community interviews and videos. 2) WMMT in rural Appalachia has been creatively using media to serve local communities since 1985. It is part of a larger arts, media and community organization called Appalshop (scroll down for more on combining arts and journalism). 

Recalibrating Revenue Strategies

There is a lot to catch up on in terms recent revenue debates. Layoffs and revenue dips at some of the biggest digital newsrooms have sparked questions about the durability and shifting strategies of new digital start-ups. Ken Doctor is clear that this isn’t a “cratering” of the industry but more like a recalibration, and the changes will likely keep coming and we’ll need to keep adapting. Matt Hewzeitlin at BuzzFeed argued “Online audiences have never been larger or easier to reach. But making money off them is proving trickier.” At the local level and in niche publications we continue to see tough challenges but also a lot of interesting experiments and lessons.  

• The Winnipeg Free Press’ Bet on Micropayments will Generate About $100,000 in Revenue This Year – NiemanLab 
• Meet the Man Who Rejected Advertising and Still Runs a Profitable Media Site – Observer 
• Local Media Companies Tout Events for Revenue – Street Fight 
• San Angelo LIVE Innovates to Hold Onto Revenue Amid West Texas Oil Bust – Street Fight 
   

A Big Week for Publishers and Platforms

The last two weeks have seen a flood of news about new possibilities for publishers on various platforms. At times like this it can be hard to keep up with all the announcements and assess what they really mean for local news. Below are a few links that should give you what you need to know about each one. But, Melody Kramer argues “before using third-party tools, publishers should ask themselves these questions.” 

• Here Are the Important Announcements for Publishers at Facebook’s F8 Event – NiemanLab  (See also “How 4 news organizations are using Facebook Live” from Poynter) 
• Making Medium More Powerful for Publishers: Design, Revenue, Memberships and Mobile – Medium  (See also “Medium advances its quest to gentrify the world of Internet publishing” by NiemanLab) 
• Twitter Has Outsized Influence, but It Doesn’t Drive Much Traffic for Most News Orgs – NiemanLab  (See also “How people use Twitter to learn about the world” from API)  
   

Finding Productive Space Between Art and Journalism

An ongoing interest of the Local Fix is how artists and journalists are collaborating to transform news and information into new forms and formats, reaching and engaging people in new ways. This week we’ve got a couple stories that might spark new ideas for local newsrooms regarding how you can combine art and reporting in your community. 

• Journalism and Art: Complementary and Collaborative Storytelling – As journalists use art to bring stories off the page, artists adopt reporting techniques to address social issues. – Nieman Storyboard 
• Redaction art: how secrets are made visible – The artist Jenny Holzer began making “redaction paintings” in 2004, working with military and intelligence documents. – The Intercept
• The “US Department of Arts and Culture” is laughing a Super Participatory Arts Coalition (SuperPAC – get it?) to support “participatory projects” that “activate agency and remind us what democracy actually looks like” – USDAC
• ‘Astro Noise’: When Mass Surveillance Is Art – an exhibit from documentary filmmaker and journalists Laura Poitras – The Atlantic

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.