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:  Find Your Top Commenters
Newsrooms should be identifying the super-engaged members of their online communities and cultivating them. In this post Bassey Etim, who runs the Community Desk at The New York Times, describes how they found and featured top commenters last November. (Related: Google said this week that an active community and comments can help your search ranking)   

Designing Better Philanthropy 

In advance of the Knight Foundation’s Media Learning Seminar (May 2-3) the Local Fix’s Molly de Aguiar posted about how design thinking can shift the way we think about funding journalism and supporting communities. You can watch MLS live or follow the #infoneeds hashtag.  Last week we shared new research from the American Press Institute about the ethics of foundation funded reporting. This week we wanted to share a few other posts about debates and experiments in philanthropy and news. 

• What is Philanthropy For? David Sasaki thinks philanthropy is “uniquely suited to support three broad areas of benefit to society that are often neglected by the public and private sectors” (Journalism is one of them). 
• The Patterson Foundation and the Herald-Tribune Media Group announced a new partnership to “create compelling media that inspire, inform and empower communities to take action on relevant social issues.” 
• Skoll, Ford, and BRITDOC Launch Flex Fund to Expand Impact of Storytelling. Funds will support “joint projects by social entrepreneurs and filmmakers.” 

Interesting Revenue Experiments 

The Local Fix is always on the look out for interesting experiments with revenue models. This week a few new efforts caught our attention. Below are links to the articles and a some thoughts about why you should pay attention. 

• Is curation the way forward? A Swiss media group’s take on getting people to pay for regional news – Journalism.co.uk. Why it is interesting: A small news team picks 12 articles for people to read a week and repackages them in a slick app that costs about five dollars. They believe they need 2,200 subscribers to break even.  
• Email Newsletter Startup theSkimm Rolls Out Paid Subscription Product – Wall Street Journal. Why it is interesting: theSkimm’s new app isn’t just a repackaged newsletter, it provides a valuable service by connecting to your calendar and notifying you of hot events. 
• How Vox Media’s New Gadget Blog Circuit Breaker Will Earn Revenue – Ad Age. Why it is interesting: Vox launched the new blog with a primary focus on Facebook’s Instant articles. They hope to make money via e-commerce and product placements in Facebook Live videos.  
• Will readers pay for local news? A digital startup in Tulsa bets that they will – Columbia Journalism Review.  Why it is interesting: So far the team has gotten 500 members to pay $30 a month for in-depth investigative local reporting. 

Make Your Podcasts More Than a Vehicle for Ads

Podcasts could end up being just another channel to sell ads, or perhaps, as newsrooms experiment with new storytelling forms they will also experiment with new advertising ideas as well. For most publishers, the work of doing a podcast isn’t going to be worth it if it’s just another place to stick an ad. However, if publishers can use podcasts to engage audiences in new ways and develop different kinds of products and experiences for communities and companies, then podcasts could pay off in a variety of ways. 

• “People want to see themselves”: Postloudness aims to build a podcast network for diverse voices – NiemanLab 
• Lessons in getting an indie podcast off the ground – CBC 
• The New York Times launches a podcast team to create a new batch of wide-reaching shows – NiemanLab 
• A new podcast from Wyoming is turning hosting on its head – Poynter 
• Pacific Content’s podcasts are all sponsored by companies — but at least there aren’t any ads – NiemanLab 

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.