Arlington, VA – Eighty-four participants representing news publishers in 25 states across the country will meet with Senators and Representatives on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. today as part of a Support Journalism Fly-In hosted by the News/Media Alliance, a nonprofit trade association representing more than 2,000 print and digital news and magazine publishers in the U.S. The Fly-In is being held to advocate for the importance of quality journalistic and creative content and the need for legislative action in the United States.

“Our members are here in Washington today because they are passionate about quality journalism, and right now its future is at risk,” stated News/Media Alliance President & CEO Danielle Coffey. “Current marketplace imbalances and economic headwinds have created an environment where quality is no longer rewarded, and intermediaries benefit at the expense of those who invest in the creative process.  If we allow this to continue, we will lose the invaluable benefits of a free press, which is critical to an informed society and a functional democracy.”

In their meetings with Members of Congress, publishers will discuss the need for fair compensation from the Big Tech platforms in the form of the bipartisan Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA, S. 1094); protection from unlawful scraping of content by artificial intelligence systems; tax credits such as those stipulated in the Community News and Small Business Support Act (H.R. 4756); and privacy legislation.

Executives representing news publishers of all sizes will be in attendance.

Chris Argentieri, President of California Times, which includes the Los Angeles Times stated, “In times of crisis, in times of curiosity, and in times of concern, people turn to news organizations they trust to provide guidance and information on the news of the day.”

Debby Krenek, Publisher, Newsday Media Group, LLC stated, “Newsday’s reporters are the lifeblood of our communities on Long Island and help establish the bedrock of a healthy democracy by informing and empowering all Long Islanders. Local journalism is not a luxury. It’s a necessity and it is under existential threat.”

Grant Moise, CEO of DallasNews Corporation and President & Publisher of The Dallas Morning News stated, “The Dallas Morning News employs over 600 people, and these colleagues’ dedication and hard work helps keep North Texans informed and empowered daily. In the digital age, journalism faces many threats. We are here to ask you to support our industry, not just for us, but for all Americans.”

Last night the Alliance recognized Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) for her contributions to preserving quality journalism at a “Support Local Journalism” reception held at the Washington Post ‘s headquarters. Senator John Thune (R-SD) will also accept an award for his contributions to sustaining quality journalism at a meeting with publishers today.

Coffey added, “We appreciate the hard work and dedication of Senators Klobuchar, Kennedy and Thune, and we look forward to working with them to save local journalism so that future generations can rely on timely, vetted news and information that impact their daily lives.”

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Media Contact:
Lindsey Loving
Director, Communications
lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org

The News/Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,000 news and magazine media organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and globally. Alliance members include print and digital publishers of original journalism. Headquartered just outside Washington, D.C., the association focuses on ensuring the future of journalism through communication, research, advocacy, and innovation. Information about the News/Media Alliance can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.

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Guests: Jim Bernard, Star Tribune and Mike Orren, The Dallas Morning News

Is there such a thing as a typical reader or subscriber? What role does the e-Paper play in the transition to digital (and why did our speakers initially despise the product)? Do new storytelling formats such as podcasts and social media present viable business models, and how can news publishers successfully venture into this space? What are news publishers getting right on the tech side, and where do they still need to improve?

In this episode of News Take, News Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern sits down with Jim Bernard, Senior Vice President for Digital at the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune and Mike Orren, Chief Product Officer at The Dallas Morning News for a candid conversation about the challenges and opportunities that arise from understanding your readers and subscribers and how to give them what they want (and when, where and how they want it) – all while prioritizing revenue (because at the end of the day, newspapers need to sell subscriptions). From the differences between print and digital subscribers and their desires, preferences, and behaviors, to why the e-Edition is a valuable product, to approaches to experimenting with new forms of storytelling (including audio and video), to their most exciting plans for 2022, Orren and Bernard draw from their leadership experience to offer insights on navigating the constantly changing news consumption landscape.

Listen now or download the audio file to listen offline:

Don’t forget to subscribe to the News Take podcast by clicking “Follow” and selecting your preferred podcasting platform, or click on your preferred platform: Spotify, Apple, Google.

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Speaker bios

Mike Orren is the Chief Product Officer at The Dallas Morning News, leading the teams responsible for all digital products, marketing, business intelligence, and digital audience. Prior to that, he was President at Belo Business Intelligence, where he leads marketing, analytics, product development, strategy and sales infrastructure for A.H. Belo Corporation, publisher of The Dallas Morning News. He founded Pegasus News, the largest single-market digital news pure-play in the US in 2005, eventually selling it to a publicly-traded broadcast company. Mike has served in senior roles at American Lawyer Media and D Magazine (where he launched the first city magazine website). His work has been recognized with awards from Editor & Publisher, The Dallas Press Club, the North Carolina Press Association and The Dallas Business Journal. Mike is a graduate of Duke University.

Jim Bernard is Star Tribune’s senior vice president for digital with responsibility for the company’s portfolio of digital properties and operations, including StarTribune.com – the state’s most-visited website with 7 million unique visitors each month. He also oversees dozens of other digital products, including Star Tribune mobile apps, print “replica” edition, CityPages.com and 19 Minnesota high school sports websites. Jim joined Star Tribune in 2010 from Dow Jones MarketWatch and prior to MarketWatch, he held a series of executive positions with Dow Jones. Jim earned his MBA from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Iowa.

Watch the next episode: Tech Trends: What Publishers Need to Know

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Send us your suggestions

Send your suggestions for future News Take guests to Alliance VP, Research & Insights Rebecca Frank at rebecca@newsmediaalliance.org.

News Take Production Team:

Host and Executive Producer: Rebecca Frank, VP, Research & Insights, News/Media Alliance

Production Support, Editing & Distribution:

Georgi-Ann Clarke, Social Media & Content Manager, News/Media Alliance
Rachel Fox, Manager, Membership & Events, News/Media Alliance
Lindsey Loving, Director, Communications, News/Media Alliance

Audio & Video Engineer: Current Media Group

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The post News Take Episode 101: Local News: Understanding What Readers Want and How to Deliver it to Them appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

With many local newsrooms trying to do more with less these days, looking outside your newsroom to partner with other local news publications can have the effect of having a larger, more diverse staff that can cover more topics, more areas of your region, and be more representative of your community.

In this guide, we will walk you through key questions to ask when considering a partnership, as well as ideas and tips for success and best practices for cross-newsroom collaboration.

We will also profile a successful partnership between the newsrooms at The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News, outlining how they did it, from the formal arrangement to working together on stories, events and more.

Download Now

How you can use the Guide:

This Guide provides practical tips and advice to help ensure a successful news publishing partnership, from identifying potential partners, to getting to know your partner, to leveraging your partnership outside the newsroom and over the long-term.

Throughout the Guide, there are helpful worksheets for you to fill in as you go, prompting you to think about key questions you should ask yourself as you are exploring and navigating a new partnership. Tips and ideas are sprinkled throughout the Guide to help build and strengthen the partnership and resulting coverage.

The case study with The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News provides a model for a successful partnership that is respectful, strategic and utilizes effective communications. Their journey provides a useful road map for other newsrooms who are looking to expand their coverage, as well as ensure their reporting is more inclusive and representative of their community. Insightful commentary from both publishers offers the keys to their success.

What you’ll find in the Guide:

• Key questions to ask yourself as you are thinking about a partner (e.g., What gaps in your coverage could a partner help fill?)
• Tips and ideas to try as you explore a potential partnership and when working with a partner
• Ways to deepen your understanding of and relationship with your partner across the organization
• Interactive worksheets to organize your thoughts and priorities; brainstorm potential partners; think about collaboration opportunities outside of the newsroom; consider potential challenges and responses; etc.
• Handling breaking news coverage
• Communicating publicly about your partnership
• What has made The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News partnership successful and how to apply the learnings
• Key takeaways to help ensure your partnership is a success

Download Guide

Sneak Peek:

Click on the thumbnails below to view select pages of the Guide. (Click the Back button in your browser to return to this page.)

Additional Resources:

News Media Alliance: 

• How Two Texas News Outlets are Taking Collaboration to the Next Level 

Center for Cooperative Media:

• Research and Reports about Collaborative Journalism
• A Collection of Guides, tip Sheets, and Best Practices for Collaboration
  • Building News Partnerships for Journalism Collaborations
  • Building Equity in Journalism Collaborations
  • Collaborative Journalism Workbook

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The post Tips for Successful News Publishing Partnerships appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

Photo by FreshSplash via E+/Getty Images

“Collaboration” became a buzzword in journalism in 2020, but the Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News were thinking about how they could partner up to better serve communities in and around Dallas before everyone else started talking about it.

For Jamie Hancock, the North Texas editor at The Dallas Morning News, and Cheryl Smith, the publisher of Texas Metro News, collaboration was an obvious next step when they spoke in 2019. Both women saw holes in coverage from their outlets that they knew their counterparts could help fill. Not to mention, they saw a great opportunity for their teams to learn from each other, helping to shore-up any gaps in their coverage and build a community with their readers.

How It Started

Hancock, who leads coverage of suburban Dallas, noticed a lack of Southern Dallas coverage from Dallas Morning News. “We felt like we couldn’t just start covering that area after really not paying enough attention to the needs of readers in those communities,” Hancock said. So, she and her team met with leaders from the communities to figure out the best way forward, and one of them happened to mention Cheryl Smith.

Hancock was familiar with Smith and the Texas Metro News, so it was a no-brainer that she would reach out to her about a potential collaboration. Their first meeting was exploratory, with a lot of questions and answers from both publications, but Smith said she felt like the collaboration was a good fit from the start.

“This is not seen as a ‘little sister, big sister’ type venture, but equals,” Smith explained.

Hancock agreed, noting, “It was really important to us that The Dallas Morning News [wasn’t] coming in and trying to Bigfoot or tell anybody what to do, or say, ‘Hey, we’re doing this thing and you guys are along for the ride.’”

“I’m big on collaborations,” Smith added. “This isn’t something that just hit me this year.”

Smith was slightly concerned that people, upon hearing about the collaboration, might think the Dallas Morning News was trying to take over Texas Metro News, which has been growing and receiving more local acclaim. With Texas Metro News being a Black-owned publication, she knew people would be watching, especially as more Black-led publications have been sold to white-owned companies in recent years. One industry leader went so far as to tell Smith that “the leaders of the Black press would be turning over in their graves” because of the collaboration. But after getting to know Hancock and the Dallas Morning News team, Smith knew she didn’t have to worry. “We were doing good journalism before, and it’s only getting better,” Smith said. Now, when asked about the collaboration, Smith said, “I tell people, ‘Oh no, to the contrary, I bought The Dallas Morning News,’” Smith joked with a hearty laugh.

Another concern was that people would think this collaboration came about after the civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. However, both Smith and Hancock are clear that this partnership is not an effort by the Dallas Morning News to reach out to the Black community because of recent events – the two publications discussed the partnership at the start of 2020 and, although it wasn’t formally put into place until June, they had been building the framework for months beforehand.

What the Partnership Entails

The partnership kicked off with staff development trainings for reporters from both publications on a variety of topics, from how to cover certain types of stories to finding new sources and covering the current news events like COVID and the new civil rights movement.

“I’m really happy that we have Cheryl’s voice and the voices of her team members in the room when we have these training sessions, because it really matters to us that we get it (coverage of the Black community) right,” Hancock said. “We don’t want there to be issues with our coverage. We want to speak to the community and hear from them before we even cover a thing. So that’s part of why we’re in this partnership. I think it’s going to strengthen the coverage of the Black community in Dallas. And that’s something that’s really important for us going forward.”

“We’re having some really good conversations,” Smith added. “When we get out of these sessions, we’re talking about what we learned, what we need help with, and we’re sharing different perspectives.”

The partnership also involves content-sharing, which has only recently launched. Texas Metro News has a “DMN Stories” tab on their homepage with short blurbs about and links to recent Dallas Morning News stories that may interest them. Meanwhile, Dallas Morning News has worked with Texas Metro News to source stories and has cited their reporters on some of their local news.

Collaboration in Action

One prime example of how this collaboration works was a piece about the recent death of the mayor of DeSoto, a Dallas suburb. Hancock heard the news of the mayor’s death directly from Smith. Hancock said, “That allowed us to have a story up much, much sooner than we would have otherwise. And it would not have been as well-sourced if not for Cheryl.” Dallas Morning News published a story that night, while Texas Metro News published their own story the next morning.

It never occurred to Smith to keep the news of the mayor’s passing to herself so that she could “break” the story.

“I want to be respectful and not take something that Cheryl wouldn’t want us to,” Hancock explained. “I wouldn’t post anything from Texas Metro News if I wasn’t sure it was okay to put on our site first, and I think she would be the same way. She wouldn’t tweet out a tip that we gave her … without knowing it was okay.”

The partnership is still in its infancy, but Hancock is certain that even when the relationship is tested by breaking news, their positive working relationship with Texas Metro News will keep things from getting competitive.

“There are just fewer journalists on the street these days than we used to have. It’s a basic fact and an unfortunate fact. But that means … that we all work together to collaborate and get the best stories out there and tell the best stories to our audience to help them help them live better lives and know about their communities,” Hancock explained. “And if the best way to do that is to collaborate with each other … rather than compete with each other, than that’s what we do.”

Smith wants her staff to form relationships with the Dallas Morning News staff, as well as to help them. She wants to make sure that she leads by example, so she checks in with Hancock and her team whenever she can to make sure they’re offering as much help as they can.

“If The [Dallas] Morning News suffers, journalism suffers,” Smith added. “We’re in the business together.”

An aerial view of Dallas, Texas by RoschetzkyIstockPhoto via iStock/Getty Images Plus

The Partnership at Work in the Community

The two newsrooms have also held events for the community together. Their main event this year was called “Vote About It,” a voter-registration drive. Thanks to their partnership, they were able to reach more members of the community.

The event also ended up being much more diverse – and much more representative of the community – because of their partnership. Smith pointed out to the Dallas Morning News marketing department a lack of diversity on a panel they were arranging for the event. In this instance, Smith especially wanted to see some younger people on the panel, because, as she put it, “I don’t want to hear from all these [old] folks!”

“I’m proud to say that the panel we ended up with [thanks to Cheryl] looked really great,” Hancock said. “It was very representative of what I think Dallas looks like.”

What the Future Holds

“When I think about other cities trying to do this, [I think] ‘every city needs a Cheryl,’” Hancock said with a laugh. “If your city doesn’t have a ‘Cheryl’ leading a Black-owned newspaper, then I think it’s going to be a tougher lift, because she’s somebody who has a deep commitment to journalism and to getting things right.

“She has the connections in the city to make it happen and the foresight to think about [others],” Hancock added. “I hope that other cities have that type of person.”

The ease of the relationship between Hancock and Smith has certainly made the partnership easier to maintain, both admit, though the commitment from their newsrooms also helps.

While their formal partnership launched amidst the pandemic, neither publisher has “sat around idly waiting for this to be over,” Smith said. Both newsrooms have taken active roles in the workshops they’ve attended (virtually) together, and both have worked to make sure they’re offering real value to their new partners.

During their weekly meetings, Hancock and Smith discuss their individual coverage, chat about new ways to enhance their partnership, and catch up with each other, as both colleagues and new friends.  They also plan for the future of their partnership. Smith is looking forward to doing more community events with the Dallas Morning News, while Hancock is looking forward to collaborating on more community-focused journalism. Hancock has even asked Smith to be part of the team at the Dallas Morning News to help them better focus their reporting efforts in South Dallas and in the suburbs that Texas Metro News serves.

“I’m really looking forward to doing [stories] that will benefit the community and to involving Cheryl and her team in that process,” Hancock said.

“We often talk about the stories we go into other communities to tell, and all the negative stories about these [communities], but we don’t seek them out when we have a regular story to tell, and that’s what we want to be doing,” Hancock added. “We’re doing that more and more now. A lot of our journalists are now committed to getting diverse sources and people of color in their stories and not just [for stories like] ‘your community is a food desert.’ We want to tell stories that resonate with those communities. I’m really looking forward to that.”

“Dallas is so diverse, and there are so many stories to tell,” Smith said. “And I’ve come to the realization that I can’t [cover them all] on my own. But guess what? Between the two of us, we can do a whole lot more.”

The partnership so far has been incredibly beneficial to both newsrooms. “In a short amount of time, I think we’ve done a lot, but there’s still so much that we haven’t done and so much under the surface that we haven’t scratched yet,” Hancock said. “I’m excited for the future.”

“I am so optimistic about it,” Smith agreed. “I get giddy just thinking about the possibilities because there are no limitations.”

Keep reading: The Dallas Morning News/Texas Metro News collaboration is featured as a case study in the News Media Alliance’s Collaboration Guide, Tips for Successful News Publishing Partnerships

The post How Two Texas News Outlets Are Taking Collaboration to the Next Level appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

As part of the News Impact Project, we’re happy to share a few select blogs from our friends at the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center’s Media Impact Project and guest blogger Anjanette Delgado, senior news director for digital at the Detroit Free Press.

One of the first things you see when you Google Karisa King is her bio, which ends like this: “Her stories have led to stronger patient protections and uncovered the mishandling of sexual assault cases in the U.S. military.”

I knew I’d like her right away. With just four sentences summing up her 20-year career as an investigative reporter and editor, she used one of them to talk about the impact her work has had on society.

Why?

“When I think of investigative reporting and the impact of what we do…I think it’s important to signal to readers in that way that we place a lot of emphasis in terms of social value,” King told me. “Impact can come in many forms, but it usually involves some change for the greater good.”

King now runs the investigations team at the Dallas Morning News. Before that she ran investigations for the Las Vegas Review-Journal for three years, and before that she was an investigative reporter in Chicago and San Antonio.

“Investigative reporting is at the core of our mission as a newspaper,” she said. “We can’t afford to do investigative reporting as a luxury. We have a responsibility to provide a check on power and shine a light on abuse. (The) audience expects to see those stories.”

When one of their stories is a catalyst for change, a reporter will write about it as a follow-up story to the original investigation.

“Again, that goes back to letting readers know we view that as a core part of our mission,” King said. That includes law changes or even bill filings — “anything that is more of a concrete step toward reform or even calls for reform, we write about it.”

John Hancock works with King and runs a team of computational journalists. He’s also hiring for one, and this is listed in the job posting as an essential function of a computational journalist: “Create or monitor metrics reports and other feedback loops to measure project impact.”

I needed to talk to him to know what that means, because as soon as you ask someone other than an investigative journalist what they mean by impact you can run into a wide range of answers. For a guy like Hancock who straddles the worlds of tech and journalism, impact means at least two things:

First, it’s real-world change, like “Pain & Profit,” a 2018 investigation into Texas’ managed care system. On that project, a computational journalist worked with investigative reporters to bring system abuses to light, and now bills to overhaul Medicaid await Gov. Greg Abbott’s signature.

Their timing was fortunate, he said. The series published in the months leading up to the biennial session of the Texas Legislature, making it top of mind for lawmakers.

Second, you have his team’s effect on the company business.

“There’s also the impact we have in terms of our newsroom goal of increasing digital subscriptions,” he said. “That’s the metrics side of it. Things that play into that are how many people are using a tool we’ve built or a site that we’ve built.”

Time on site, returning visitors, page views.

“It’s really two sides,” Hancock said.

Computational journalists at the Dallas Morning News work most closely work with the investigative team. They build web apps and data visualizations, and they develop tools to help journalists work faster and more efficiently.

“There’s a real inherent expectation that what you’re working on is going to have some sort of impact on somebody,” he said. “The expectation as a computational journalist working with the investigative team is you’re going to have your hands on something that’s really going to matter.”

Impact can be surprising and unpredictable, and we can debate the extent to which reporters have any control over outcomes.

Nonetheless, the opportunity for real-world change is a factor in green-lighting projects at my newsroom, the Detroit Free Press, and on King’s team.

“The potential for impact is absolutely part of that calculus on the front end for me as an editor,” she said.

—

Try it:

“What’s your why? Share it with your audience to sustain your future,” by Jennifer Hefty. Reporters at the Fort Collins Coloradoan take a crack at convincing readers why they should become subscribers and fund journalism with their own bios. It reminds me a little of Karisa King’s impact statement.

And an impact story:

The City, the new nonprofit digital news source designed to fill a gap in local coverage of New York City, has notched another early win. From the May 30 newsletter: “You might remember last week how we revealed that a Brooklyn community board bought a $26,000 SUV. The story gained some attention – including from Mayor de Blasio, who called for an investigation.” You can support The City here.

Anjanette Delgado is the senior news director for digital at the Detroit Free Press and freep.com, part of the USA Today Network. Twitter: @anjdelgado.

This story was originally published by the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center’s Media Impact Project on June 11, 2019, and is republished here with permission.

The post Why We Talk About Impact With Readers appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

The Dallas Morning News has earned the prestigious “Grand Slam” award from the Associated Press Sports Editors’ (APSE) annual contest, in the over-175,000 circulation division. The “Grand Slam” is a Top 10 finish in four categories including, website/mobile platforms, daily section, Sunday section and special section.

The Morning News has been awarded the “Triple Crown” from APSE 23 times, winning in all three section categories. With the recent redesign to SportsDayDFW.com, the sports department was honored as a Top 10 website, catapulting the Morning News to a “Grand Slam” winner for the first time.

“It is truly an honor for our sports department to be recognized as a ‘Grand Slam’ winner by the Associated Press Sports Editors,” said Garry Leavell, assistant managing editor/sports. “Our team works tirelessly to raise the bar and provide readers with timely, interactive and quality news. I couldn’t be more proud.”

He says they’re always optimistic about the contest because they consistently do good work each day. The challenge comes in what to submit to APSE. “We have a tremendous amount of talented people, whether it is our writers, copy editors or assigning editors,” he said. “They prove over and over again that they do high level work.”

Many of the writers pitch ideas, but Leavell credits the entire team with creating the award-winning packages. He stresses the importance of getting photographers and designers in on the ground level. “That’s a key thing for us, having as many people involved as we can from the start,” he said.

As the industry evolves, he says they’re cognizant that the future is in the digital space. “At the same time, we want to preserve high quality in the paper for our loyal print readers,” he said.

He’s been with the paper for 24 years. “We already had a really high-achieving culture before I got here,” he says. “[Editors] established high expectations and high standards. It feeds on itself, people want to keep having that.”

The APSE contest is an annual competition that selects the best in sports journalism from newspapers and websites across the United States. Judging of work published in 2016 by sports editors and journalists took place Feb. 22 – 26 in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. APSE judges initially recognize 10 winners per writing category and a second panel will meet this spring to rank the finalists.

The post Dallas Morning News Earns Grand Slam appeared first on News/Media Alliance.