Our competition is not another news outlet in Philadelphia, it’s the 24 hour clock, it’s Netflix, it’s YouTube, it’s scrolling through Instagram. So how are you going to break through in someone’s day, so that they feel compelled to read your content, and further compelled to pay for that content. We think about this in terms of our content strategy in the newsroom, we strive to be useful, revealing and responsive, that’s the lens that we look through what we produce.

– Lisa Hughes, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Guest: Lisa Hughes, Publisher, The Philadelphia Inquirer

How can magazines and newspapers innovate to attract and keep subscribers in an increasingly competitive landscape? What must news and magazine publishers do to continue to keep their readers engaged over the long-term?

In this episode of News Take, Lisa Hughes, the first female Publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer, joins News/Media Alliance VP, Research & Insights, Rebecca Frank, for an insightful conversation about the evolution of magazine and newspaper media during a time of rapid change. Hughes shares how she’s led with innovation at top magazine and news publications to introduce successful new products and brands that have kept readers and subscribers coming back for more. She talks about her very first experiences working in the magazine publishing business, and how she rose through the ranks to become a top executive at The New Yorker and Condé Nast Traveler before making the transition to Philadelphia’s flagship newspaper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, where four weeks in she found herself brand new and having to adapt and respond amid a nationwide shutdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. She shares how innovative strategies and products, including live blogs, newsletters and gamification have been successful in driving audience engagement, as well as the potential of new platforms such as TikTok for meeting audiences where they are. She also talks about the risks and opportunities that come with new technologies such as generative AI and where she sees the technology having the most potential to optimize the reader experience.

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Speaker bio:

Lisa Hughes is Publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer. As Publisher, Hughes brings to the role an impressive track record, having successfully transitioned an iconic print brand into a multi-platform, profitable business. Hughes is the first woman Publisher and Chief Executive Officer in The Inquirer’s 190-year history. Hughes is known as a skilled business executive who values and respects journalism. Under her nine-year leadership, The New Yorker, owned by Condé Nast, grew from a largely print-only magazine into a multimedia enterprise. Over the past decade, The New Yorker revamped its website and paid digital content strategy and built award-winning mobile apps. Hughes launched the acclaimed New Yorker Radio Hour and Podcast, and restructured The New Yorker Festival into a profitable business. She left the company at the end of 2017. Prior to The New Yorker, Hughes served as VP Publisher of Condé Nast Traveler for 10 years, steering that magazine through the most successful period in its history.

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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 203: Pioneering Innovation at Legacy Magazine and News Media Brands appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

“As a newsroom leader… live on your toes, on the balls of your feet, which makes it a lot easier for you to pivot. When that ideology permeates an entire shop, it becomes very easy to move. Because everybody is basically casting pebbles into the same lake – all of those pebbles ripple, and the ripples connect, and so you’re seeing the transformation spread, which is very exciting because cultural transformation is hard to make it stick. If you don’t do it right, then the movement stops when we leave where we are. And so cultural transformation only happens when people individually decide to commit and you hit a critical mass of those agents of change across one organization.”

– Samantha Ragland, American Press Institute

Guests: Samantha Ragland and Elite Truong, American Press Institute

What is cultural transformation, and how do publishers know if they’re doing it right? How can publishers cultivate real and lasting cultural change in newsrooms? How does cultural transformation in the newsroom translate to the content produced and thereby the relationships newsrooms have with members of their communities? 

In this episode of News Take, News/Media Alliance VP, Research & Insights, Rebecca Frank sits down with Samantha Ragland, Vice President of Journalism Programs and Elite Truong, Vice President of Product Strategy, both at the American Press Institute, for a candid and fascinating conversation about the work API is doing with news publishers to help them look at their organizations with a critical eye and evolve to better reflect the communities they serve and respond to their needs. They talk about their work with newsroom leaders on DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging), promoting and fostering a sustainable news organization from the inside out, and encouraging a culture of experimentation in the newsroom. Finally, they share lessons learned from API’s Table Stakes program and Inclusion Index, as well as their data centric tools for publishers, Metrics for News and Source Matters, and offer tips for how other news publishers can use data and related guidance at their own organizations to spark transformation.

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“We want to encourage folks who understand that if you want to get anything out of working with other folks and learning all of these lessons… you have to put some work in to be able to see some rewards, which is not revolutionary, but … it’s difficult to try to make space for all of the different things when you’re responsible for so much, but I think there’s always a little bit of room to look at ‘What can I let go of so I can invite more modern strategy in, or think about the long-term strategy once in a while.”

– Elite Truong, American Press Institute

Speaker bios

Samantha Ragland is Vice President of Journalism Programs at the American Press Institute. Previously, Ragland was a member of the faculty at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies where she also served as director of the Leadership Academy for Women in Media. As VP of Journalism Programs, Ragland leads API’s efforts to promote cultural transformation and business sustainability in media, helping news organizations serve diverse readers and communities more effectively. She leads API’s journalism programs portfolio, including The Table Stakes Local News Transformation program, Beyond Print, API’s work on diversity and inclusion in newsrooms and change management coaching for news companies of all sizes. While at Poynter, Ragland created custom workshops based on newsroom needs, including trauma and resiliency training developed in collaboration with clinical psychologists. She was also co-director of the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship program for early-career reporters. Ragland previously led digital content strategy at the USA Today Network and managed digital storytelling at The Palm Beach Post. She earned a master’s degree in journalism from Syracuse University and a bachelor’s degree in English from Western Kentucky University. She’s an active member of and coach for digitalwomenleaders.com.

Elite Truong is Vice President of Product Strategy at the American Press Institute. She manages the existing API product portfolio, which includes Metrics for News, an analytics tool that aligns journalism metrics with an organization’s editorial values and business model, and Source Matters, a tool that allows publishers to track and improve the diversity of their organizations. As head of the Product Strategy team, she helps strengthen and expand the product portfolio, while also serving as a product coach and thought leader for the news industry. Elite is also the board secretary of the News Product Alliance, a nascent community of support and practice for news product thinkers. Elite most recently worked as director of strategic initiatives at The Washington Post, where she led the newsroom R&D team to create projects and products driven by emerging technologies, including machine learning, artificial intelligence and 3D and augmented reality. Before joining The Post, Elite spent four years at Vox Media, three as the product manager for off-platform storytelling. Elite has been an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, where she created and taught an entrepreneurship class for journalism students. Elite earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Roosevelt University. She is a member of the Asian-American Journalists Association and the Online News Association, where she taught as guest faculty and coached participants in the Women’s Leadership Accelerator.

Related Links:

Inclusion Index report: Assessing the Pittsburgh news ecosystem’s commitment to DEIB

Metrics for News

Source Matters

Table Stakes Local News Transformation Program

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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 202: How the American Press Institute is Inspiring Cultural Transformation in News Media appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

Guest: Mitra Kalita, co-founder and CEO, URL Media

“From a mission perspective, we did not want Black and Brown audiences to be only charitable endeavors. We see our people as a very important, vital, necessary market.” – Mitra Kalita, URL Media

You know you were meant to be a journalist when, as a pre-teen, you created a newspaper to protest your parents’ decision to move your family from Puerto Rico to New Jersey! That is exactly how Mitra Kalita, co-founder and CEO of URL Media, got her start in journalism.

On this episode of News Take, News Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern and Kalita have a heartfelt discussion about her journey from being a busy CNN Digital executive to starting her own newsletter, Epicenter-NYC, and media company, URL  Media, in Jackson Heights, New York City amidst a pandemic and racial justice movement. During this light-hearted and honest talk, Kalita shares how she and her business partner were able to achieve instant scale, launching the URL Media network with seven million users, and how they’ve embraced a for-profit business model at a time when many similar groups were launching as nonprofits. In addition, she shares advice for improving diversity in content as well as in the newsroom, including ensuring changes to improve DE&I are lasting and become a part of the organization culture.

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Download closed captioning transcript

Speaker bio

Mitra Kalita is a veteran journalist, media executive, commentator and author of two books. She is the co-founder/ CEO of URL Media, a network of Black and Brown community news outlets that share content and revenue. URL Media works with mainstream newsrooms to syndicate content and partner on diversity initiatives in content, staffing and culture. She is co-founder and publisher of Epicenter-NYC, a newsletter designed to help New Yorkers get through the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the newsletters The Unmuted and The Escape Home.

Previously, Mitra was Senior Vice President at CNN Digital, overseeing the national news, breaking news, programming, opinion and features teams. She also worked in leadership roles at the Los Angeles Times and Quartz. She sits on a number of journalism industry boards, most notably, the board of the News Media Alliance.

Related links

URL Media

Epicenter-NYC

Watch the next episode: Protecting Journalists Reporting on Russia’s War in Ukraine 

Watch the previous episode: Leveraging Products to Connect with Your Audience 

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The post News Take Episode 104: Encouraging and Sustaining Diversity in News Media 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.

News Media Alliance President & CEO, David Chavern, stated, “Vernon Jordan made incredible strides in the fight for racial justice and equality in this country, leaving a legacy for us to carry forward. He will continue to be an inspiration to us all as we work to further his achievements in our work to improve diversity and inclusion in the news media industry.”

In addition to his roles as a respected advisor to numerous U.S. presidents, lawyer, businessman, and activist, Jordan also served on the Board of Directors of Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal. According to the WSJ obituary, in 1961, Jordan also won a discrimination case against the University of Georgia, resulting in the court ordering the university to admit Charlayne Hunter, who went on to become a successful journalist (as Charlayne Hunter-Gault) at The New York Times and NPR.

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The post Statement: News Media Alliance Remembers Vernon Jordan appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

The News Media Alliance applauds Rep. Demings and her fellow sponsors and co-sponsors, and joins them in their commitment to improving diversity in the media. News Media Alliance President and CEO, David Chavern, stated, “It is critically important that diverse perspectives are represented in media coverage, especially at the local level. Freedom of speech and the press are vital to preserving a strong democracy, and one role of the press is to be the voice of the community. We commend Representative Demings for her leadership and vision, and we look forward to working with her to help bring about real and positive change in media diversity.”

The post Statement: News Media Alliance Commends Resolution to Increase Diversity in American Media appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

Photo credit: Sharon Farmer/sfphotoworks

On Sunday, September 13, David Chavern, News Media Alliance president and CEO, joined the Journal-isms Roundtable on Zoom and Facebook Live as a guest speaker. Forty-five journalists and leaders in the news industry were on Zoom for the discussion on furthering diversity and inclusion in the news industry, with 263 more on Facebook Live. Joining Chavern was Maribel Perez Wadsworth, publisher of USA Today and president of News for Gannett Co., and Wesley Lowery, correspondent for 60 Minutes’ “60 in 6” on Quibi. He is a former Washington Post reporter best known for reporting on police use of force against citizens. Journal-isms founder and journalist Richard Prince and veteran journalists Paul Delaney, Betty Anne Williams and the late Walt Swanston-NuevaEspana have hosted the Roundtables for more than 20 years. Links to recordings of past roundtables are available on the Journal-isms website and Facebook page.

Watch the full Roundtable recording below, or click here.

The post Journal-isms Roundtable: Maximizing Diversity in the News Media During Our Racial Reckoning appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

Recently, it seems there has been a boom in reports on the number of women in newsrooms and media organizations. Tracking the share of women in these roles is an important first step in establishing equity in representation, and these efforts should be lauded. However, there is more to gender equity than just hiring, and recently-released data from the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) suggests that women and minorities employed in newsrooms earn less than their male and white counterparts.

The report, “Mind the gap: Uncovering pay disparity in the newsroom” was done by student reporters in AAJA’s Voices program, who assessed seven pay studies done by newsroom unions and added interviews with 29 journalists nationwide. All seven studies found that “white men earned the most of any demographic and held most senior high-paying positions in the newsroom. Women of color commonly made the least.”

The study acknowledges the challenge of comparing data from distinct reports, given the unique ways in which each union compiled the information. However, in the aggregate, the pattern holds. The report also investigates why these disparities may continue, suggesting among other reasons that some reporters may not feel comfortable negotiating with new employers when they are hired. In an ideal world, having this information available will prompt news organizations to consider what candidates are experiencing during the hiring process and to work on improving structural issues their employees face.

We at the News Media Alliance believe in equality and improving representation and pay equity in the news industry. We would love to hear from our members on your experiences and what you are doing to better support their staff. Send your input by emailing Alliance Research & Insights Director Rebecca Frank at rebecca@newsmediaalliance.org.

The post AAJA Pay Study Reveals Women and POC Earn Less appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

SheSource is a database of expert sources on every subject under the sun, and all of the sources just happen to be women. They have more than 1,300 experts in their digital Rolodex, which is free for any and all journalists who wish to find some new voices to add to their stories.

The SheSource database is run by Kate McCarthy, the WMC’s director of programs. McCarthy took over the SheSource database in 2011, when there were only a couple hundred experts listed. She’s helped it grow by more than 300 percent, and she’s also made diversity of the database a priority. When she sends out lists of experts who can cover the topics of the day, McCarthy says, “I never send a list that isn’t at least 40 percent women of color.”

Diversity is important because it changes the ideas you hear and the stories you’re told, McCarthy says, and the Women’s Media Center is helping to make sure that those diverse voices get out there.

“We want to make it easier for journalists to do their jobs,” she says. “Unless you ask someone to be a source, they won’t volunteer.” By collecting all these sources in one place, McCarthy and her team are making it easier for journalists who are looking to include diverse sources.

Gloria Steinem, one of the founders of the WMC, has famously said, “you can’t be what you can’t see.” By featuring more women as expert voices, it creates an environment that encourages young women and girls to see themselves in different roles.

Sources aren’t the only places where diversity is lacking, however. According to research conducted by the WMC in 2017, only 34 percent of the stories about U.S. politics were reported by women. Crime and justice stories saw only 32 percent of the stories created by women, while sports bottomed out the list, with only 11 percent of sports reporting done by women. At the wire services, men make up more than 60 percent of the bylines, leaving little room for women’s voices. And even when covering such issues as women’s reproductive health, men took most of the bylines, with women penning a mere 37 percent of the stories at the top 12 news outlets.

“Good journalism reflects the population it’s reporting to,” McCarthy adds. The first step in making change then, she says, is making sure that women’s voices are heard when the stories are about women’s issues. Women journalists and women sources should be tapped first for articles about women’s health issues, for example.

Good journalists and editors need to “do the count,” McCarthy says. Take a close look at just how many women you’re quoting and hiring compared to how many men are getting bylines and quotes, and then work to get those numbers to better reflect the makeup of society. “Change is difficult,” McCarthy says. “People tend to look for people who remind them of themselves. They reach out through their own networks. It takes effort to reach out to women, and especially to women of color.” But, she adds, it’s important to take those steps and add more women’s voices to the media landscape.

To start adding more voices to your reporting, you can check out our list of resources, and make sure to bookmark SheSource and sign up for their weekly newsletter.

The post How SheSource Is Helping Women Be Heard appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

Diverse populations within news organizations help ensure that the final news products will tell the widest possible range of stories that best meet the audience’s needs. A 2015 Nieman report explained, “Journalists often find it difficult to have open, honest conversations about race and ethnicity—even compared to other contentious newsroom issues, like gender imbalances—for fear of damaging relationships with editors or colleagues.” But the same report highlighted some successes at BuzzFeed, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Asbury Park Press, which could inform efforts nationwide.

Another important, often overlooked, form of diversity within news organizations is diversity of viewpoints. In an age of deep political polarization, which can directly impact media, publishing stories reflecting a range of beliefs and experiences may help expand reader trust. As Will Oremus explained in Slate, “The problem is that a homogeneity of viewpoints tends to produce uncritical consensus, leading groups of otherwise intelligent people to collectively overlook or downplay evidence that might counter their preconceptions. That’s true in realms far beyond electoral politics.”

A public statement of commitment to diversity can also bring financial benefit to a news organization. Outside Magazine has made a focused effort to be “a more diverse, inclusive, and at times political publication. That means weekly meetings to ensure that editors of each vertical on the website are running an equal number of stories written by men and by women. It means women and different body types featured in photography and art.” This effort has paid off – digital revenue is projected to grow 20 percent in 2018, and an affiliate revenue program has brought in “six figures” of revenue since its launch.

News organizations have large audiences to serve, including their readers and their own staff. Committing to creating more diverse workplaces can benefit both groups. While making these changes may be difficult, we at the Alliance support all organizations who want to expand their point of view to create better news for readers and more tolerant workplaces for employees.

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