Q&A |
LSU’s Darr: Fight Polarization by Hiring More Local Opinion Editors
Joshua Darr, an Assistant Professor at Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communication, has written a book with Matthew P. Hitt of Colorado State ...
Q&A |
Dave Gehring: Local News Sites Can Become ‘Portals’ for Wider Web Sharing
Dave Gehring is a former Google employee who co-founded Relay Media and then sold it to Google in 2017. Now he’s Co-founder and CEO of ...
trends |
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as a N.C. Weekly Seeks Sustainability Kentucky Professor Buck Ryan Describes His ‘Participatory Case Study’ With the Chatham News + Record
With community newspapers dropping like bad guys in a spaghetti Western, there’s a glimmer of hope in a weekly being transformed deep in the heart ...
trends |
‘The Floor Is Collapsing’ on Local News, but Congress May Be Poised to Help
As the local news crisis deepens, growing awareness and shifting political dynamics in Washington are raising hopes that targeted legislation can pass to help make ...
trends |
How Newsrooms Are Building Better Paywalls News Outlets Apologize Less and Innovate More, With a ‘Freemium’ Model and Dynamic Paywalls
Gannett’s Amalie Nash is tired of journalists apologizing when they charge money for their product. After all, other businesses don’t do that. “It’s not like ...
research |
Nearly Half of Digital Subscribers Are ‘Zombies,’ Medill Analysis Finds
Nearly half of local news outlets’ digital subscribers are “zombie” readers who visit the website less than once a month, according to a data analysis ...
Q&A |
Gannett’s Gupta: ‘You Need a Culture That Thrives in Chaos’ Strategy Chief for Nation’s Biggest Newspaper Chain Puts Laser Focus on Subscriptions
Mayur Gupta, a former executive with Spotify and Freshly, joined the Gannett USA Today Network in September as Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer. He holds ...
research |
Medill Survey Finds News Media’s Money Worries Overwhelming, but Few See Ads as Best Answer
The financial distress threatening the future of the local news industry is now a pervasive concern of those working in the media business, and few ...
research |
How the Medill Media Industry Survey Was Conducted
The Medill Media Industry Survey, conducted online from Nov. 30 to Dec. 28, 2020, measured the opinions of 1,387 people in the U.S. news business. ...
trends |
Daily Yonder Seeks to Cover Rural America Without Stereotyping It Rural Perspective on COVID-19 and Election Brings Attention to Digital News Outlet
Farms, factories, vacation towns — rural can mean a variety of things. And in the midst of a pandemic, during presidential elections and as people ...
research |
‘News Deserts’ Expert Penny Abernathy Joins Medill as Visiting Professor
Penny Abernathy, whose groundbreaking research has shown the growth of the nation’s “news deserts,” will become a visiting professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of ...
trends |
Local News Outlets Boost Digital Subscriptions by About 50% in a Year Newsroom Challenge for 2021: Keep New Customers in the Fold and Find More
The pandemic and other major news events have helped boost digital subscriptions dramatically at local news outlets in 2020, with a new industry analysis putting ...
Q&A |
Media Advocate Nancy Lane: Philanthropy Joins Digital Subscriptions as Key Funding Source
As much of the local news industry hammers away on a financial strategy emphasizing digital subscriptions, Local Media Association CEO Nancy Lane says this approach ...
trends |
How National Digital Networks Are Transforming Local News Axios, ProPublica, The Athletic and Chalkbeat Take Different Approaches to Going Local
National digital news organizations are increasingly entering local media markets, creating a new model for serving local audiences whose traditional news sources have suffered from ...
update |
Two Major Industry Players Join Medill’s New Subscriber Index
Two major news industry organizations, McClatchy and Mather Economics, have signed on to the new Medill Subscriber Engagement Index, a tool designed to give local ...
trends |
8 Reasons Why Email Newsletters Are a Game-Changer for Local News
In the early 2000s, we were supposed to write blogs. Then we weren’t. In the mid-2010s, we pivoted to video. Then we hit pause. So ...
research |
How Is Boise Like a Suburb of Nashville When It Comes to News? Professors Call for Deeper Thinking About Media Markets and Innovation
In a project launched at Northwestern University, researchers are working on sophisticated ways to identify news media markets that are similar to each other. The ...
video |
WATCH Newstown: Medill Professor’s Documentary on the Closing of the Youngstown Vindicator
When Northwestern University professor and video journalist Craig Duff heard that the 150-year-old Youngstown Vindicator was closing, he resolved to go back to the area ...
trends |
Local Heroes and National Solutions Discussed at Medill’s Youngstown Film Event Ohio’s Senator Brown ‘Willing to Vote’ for Exemption to Help Local News Outlets Bargain With Tech Giants
Speaking at a Northwestern University online event to debut a new documentary on the local news crisis, Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio expressed support for ...
update |
Arkansas’ Print-to-iPad Switch Inspires Loyalty, but Some Miss the Rubber Bands
Local news publishers across the country are asking themselves this existential question: How do I convert subscribers from print to pixels? Successfully overseeing that transition ...