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: Looking at Local News and Civic Engagement
The Pew Research Center for Journalism and Media released a new study this week that looked at news consumption and civic engagement. The report states: “The civically engaged are […] more likely than the less engaged to use and value local news.” The study found a correlation between news readership and neighborliness, community attachment and voting. This got me thinking about the work of NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg who has written extensively about how building strong local relationships is essential to building more resilient communities. Just last week in Wired he wrote that “social infrastructure is as essential to resilience as the built stuff.” Journalism is part of the social infrastructure that helps create healthy communities. 

Tools for Election Day and Afterward

At the time of this writing the election is just four days away. As newsrooms plan for election night I wanted to highlight a few free tools and resources that any newsroom can put to use. Each of these tools offers journalists ways to connect with their audiences before, during and after November 8. Regardless of the results of this election, we’ll need newsrooms who can help create space for dialogue, connection and problem solving in our communities. We’ll need journalists who can bridge differences, debunk misinformation, and hold our leaders accountable. We’ll need tools and practices that can help us meet the demands of our democracy, at a time of deep division as we face a transition of power. (I’d love to hear how your newsrooms is approaching these issues after the election. Send along your ideas.)

• Before: Engaging News Project’s Quiz Creator – proved to increase online engagement – could be a great way to educate people about issues and candidates before the election.  
• During: ProPublica’s Electionland is promising “real-time information about voting problems in your area on Election Day” Sign up here.   
• After: The Coral Project launches free open source “Tell Our Next President” feature for newsrooms to use. 

Finding Common Ground in Collaboration

If we have beats here at the Local Fix, collaboration is one of them. This week I wanted to highlight a few recent pieces that look at how collaboration is helping newsrooms strengthen journalism and foster newsroom sustainability. The examples below span newsrooms of very different sizes, scopes and structures and illustrate that there is a role for collaboration in very different settings. 

• Built on collaboration, Discourse Media closes in on profit – Mediashift  
• How collaboration helped local Detroit newsrooms cover the bankruptcy story. – Investigative Reporters and Editors 
• Miranda Patrucić on the importance of collaboration in investigative reporting – Images and Voices of Hope 

Lessons from Outside News

Fill in the blank: Newsrooms can learn from… ? I always find it useful to look outside of journalism for lessons and strategies for addressing the challenges we face today. Increasingly, others are doing the same. The authors of the posts below each ask what journalists can learn from other sectors, and the answers are at times practical and at times theoretical. 

• What Newsrooms Can Learn From Nonprofits – Medishift 
• What Newsrooms Can Learn From Libraries – CJR
• What Newsrooms Can Learn From Maker Spaces – NiemanLab 
• What Newsrooms Can Learn From Pokemon Go – Poynter 

Have a good weekend,
Josh

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.