21 Tools and Lessons for Local News from the Online News Association and Local Independent Online News Publishers

Over the last week two very different conferences brought together journalists from around the country. In Los Angeles more than 2,000 journalists attended the Online News Association (ONA) conference and a week later just over 100 local newsrooms convened in Chicago for the Local Independent Online News (LION) publishers summit.

For those of you who couldn’t make it to ONA or LION, I’ve collected slides, tips and resources from many of the presentations and workshops.

(A version of this post originally appeared in the weekly Local Fix newsletter, which covers innovation and community engagement in local news.)

Online News Association

• “Community Engagement for More Inclusive Journalism” (including slides, worksheets, links and even a playlist) are here. The session was co-led by me, Jennifer Brandel of Hearken and Laurenellen McCann of New America Foundation.
• For small newsrooms who want to develop a video strategy you’ll want to check out “How Not To Break the Bank with Video” by Angela Pacienza of The Globe and Mail
• Tiffany Campbell, WBUR and Michael O’Connell, It’s All Journalism led a great Podcasting 101 workshop and offer these three resources: Slides, Tips and a Podcast with lots of tips from their session.
• This “Three Part Plan for Audience Engagement” from Greg Emerson, Newsday, Alexandra Smith, Coloradoan, Carla Zanoni, Wall Street Journal touches on online and offline engagement efforts and how to measure them.
• Gannett’s Anjanette Delgado and Rob Gates demystify metrics for small newsrooms in their session “Find the Metrics that Matter.”
• For concrete tips on easy ways to create great images check out “Graphics for the Newsroom Couch Potato” from Julia Chan, Center for Investigative Reporting, Jaeah Lee, Mother Jones, Aaron Williams, San Francisco Chronicle
• Damon Kiesow of McClatchy Interactive reminds us that we need to consider community when we are designing news. Check out “UX = User + Experience”
• If you are making the case for digital work in your newsroom, you’ll want to check out “Perfecting Your Internal Digital Pitch” by Kari Cobham, Cox Media Group

Local Independent Online News Publishers

• Group Notes from Participants: Friday and Saturday
• Round-up of tweets with Slides, Links and Tips from presenters.
• Online news startups explore revenue sources beyond advertising — by Michele McLellan
• I wish I knew: LION Publishers share their best ideas — by Brian Wheeler
• Why local online sites died: a post-mortem with a possible silver lining — by James Warren
• Mobile is still a missing piece for local indie online news publishers — by Laura Hazard Owen
• How independent local news sites can lead the way in investigative reporting — by Brian Wheeler
• Video: Keynote talk by Longtime ad sales leader Eleanor Cippel
• Publishers share lessons learned in crowdfunding — by Brian Wheeler