Articles

update | Jul 25, 2019

Webinar Highlights How Gannett Is Using Medill’s Research Findings

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

A recent webinar for the News Media Alliance highlighted how research by Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative has helped the Gannett news chain come up with new strategies to attract and keep digital subscribers. Gannett’s Indianapolis Star was part of a project last year in which Medill analyzed 13 terabytes of data from the Star, Chicago Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle. The key takeaway: Creating a regular reader habit was paramount in retaining subscribers....

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update | Jul 16, 2019

Medill Going on Road Show to Share Local News Insights Medill will discuss their local news research findings at conferences for Newspaper Association Managers, News Leaders Association, and Online News Association.

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Northwestern University’s Medill Local News initiative, whose data analysis has identified reader habit as vital to retaining online subscribers, is taking its research findings on the road to help the journalism industry navigate a shift in its reliance from advertising dollars to reader revenue. Medill and its partners will discuss the research findings and the paths forward for local news at three major conferences in the next two months – the Newspaper Association Managers on...

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video | Jul 8, 2019

Global Seminar on Local News: Videos of the Sessions Medill and Germany’s Adenauer Foundation Highlight Journalists’ Challenges Worldwide

Here are videos from June 25, 2019, sessions of the Global Seminar on Local News, co-sponsored by Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative and Germany’s Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung USA foundation. The sessions were held at Medill’s facility in downtown Chicago. Part 1: The state of play for local news in the U.S. and abroad, with data on audience behaviors and attitudes. Speakers/panelists: Tim Franklin, Amy Mitchell, Joy Jenkins, Ed Malthouse, Idalmy Carrera-Colucci, Pana Janviroj Part 2: How...

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discussion | Jun 28, 2019

Common Problem for Local Journalists Worldwide: Threats and Intimidation Seminar Hosted by Medill and German Foundation Highlights Dangers to Media

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Joie Chen, a former CNN journalist who is Northwestern University’s Director of Medill Programs/Washington, was talking to the Global Seminar on Local News about how U.S. journalists feel besieged. She cited the murders of five newsroom staffers last year at the Capital Gazette in Maryland. She recalled the physical assault on a reporter by now-Rep. Greg Gianforte of Montana. And she noted President Donald Trump’s denunciations of the media as “the enemy of the people”...

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discussion | Jun 27, 2019

The Local News Crisis Circles the Globe, Seminar Finds Feeling Pressure from Tech Companies, Foreign Journalists Are Scrambling. One Outlet Is Even Buying a Tour Bus Company.

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

The financial pressures on local news are a worldwide problem, according to participants in the Global Seminar on Local News, co-sponsored by Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative and Germany’s Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung USA foundation. At the Chicago seminar June 25, Dapo Olorunyomi, Publisher and CEO of Nigeria’s Premium Times, said his country’s media were dramatically squeezed by competition from tech companies. “The true newsroom in Nigeria is Facebook,” with 25 million people in his country using...

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data | Jun 6, 2019

Sobering Reality for News Outlets: Your Readers May Be Elsewhere 99% of the Time

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

Here’s a question for local news producers: What are your readers doing when they’re not visiting you? That’s the question asked by Northwestern University’s Spiegel Research Center in an eye-opening study of three metro news websites based on data from the media analytics company Comscore. And it’s a particularly relevant question because the study showed that the three news sites commanded less than 1 percent of their desktop users’ total digital time. The study, conducted...

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discussion | May 29, 2019

Medill Teams With German Foundation for Global Seminar on Local News

by Mark Jacob | LocalNewsIni

The Medill Local News Initiative and Germany’s Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung foundation will host the Global Seminar on Local News, a June conference in Chicago to discuss worldwide challenges to local journalism and their impact on democracy. The seminar will feature presentations by news executives from Bulgaria, Nigeria, Mexico and Germany as well as influential U.S.-based voices on the crisis in local news. The June 24-26 event is invitation-only, but video of the main discussions on June 25...

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design | May 9, 2019

Knight Lab’s Class Brings Design Principles to Local News

by Mark Jacob and Elaine Ramirez

A new Northwestern University class called Design for Local News isn’t trying to make minor tweaks in the current media environment. It’s going straight to the question of what information the public needs and starting there to invent new products. “It’s like a Zen beginner’s mind, a ‘first principles’ sort of thing. Pick your metaphor,” said Associate Professor Zach Wise. As local news outlets suffer from a disrupted business model that has led to widespread...

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