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: How to Find and Support Trustworthy Journalism 
In an earlier Local Fix we linked to a number of reports about how big newsrooms were seeing a post-election bump in donations and subscriptions. This medium post is designed as a roadmap to help people discover other great smaller, local and niche publications that are also worth supporting. Between the election and fake news people are hungry to know what they can trust and how to support it. Hopefully this guide can help. 

You Should Steal These Engagement Ideas

It’s a time of recalibration for many newsrooms and journalists around the country, many asking themselves how to listen and engage more with their communities. You don’t have to start those conversations from scratch, though. Take a few of these ingredients to start your own recipes for engagement.  😉  It could be as simple as sending out a thank-you note. (Grandma does know best, after all.) 

• How the Tallahassee Democrat is Thanking Each One of its Readers -Adreana Young
• How News Organizations are Trying to Get People to Talk, and Listen, to Each Other after the Election – Kristen Hare
• Creating a Cookbook of Community Experiences for Local Newsrooms – Jeanne Brooks

New Threats to Press Freedom

At home and abroad this week has seen a spike in discussion and stories about threats to the press. ⚠️  A Canadian photojournalist was detained at the US border, questioned for seven hours about his reporting and had his electronics searched. Journalists who worked on the Panama Papers are facing retaliation. And the Student Press Law Center is raising the alarm about press freedom on college campuses. 

• U.S. border agents stopped journalist from entry and took his phones – Washington Post  
• Attention all journalists: US border agents can search your phones – Columbia Journalism Review 
• Panama Papers journalists around the globe are being threatened – Poynter
• Report spotlights threats to college press freedom – Student Press Law Center
   

Important Research on Local News

A few friends of the Local Fix are involved with important journalist research and we encourage our subscribers to take a few minutes to help by filling out these short surveys. 🤓

• A short online survey which aims to capture the thoughts, experiences and ambitions of local newspaper journalists. This research is being conducted by Damian Radcliffe and Chris Ali for the Tow Center for Digital Journalism. The deadline is this Sunday.  
• Journalism ethics questions on personal activities. Via Steve Buttry, “These are questions for journalists and media managers about the ethics of journalists’ ‘off the clock’ activities. The answers will be used in a story for Current and the Editorial Integrity Project, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.” 

 Have a good weekend
Josh and Teresa
@jcstearns, @gteresa

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.