Client Consultations

What We Do

The Local News Accelerator program helps participating local news organizations design and conquer a project core to their mission and bottom line. Since 2023, the LNA has assisted dozens of newsrooms with projects ranging from launching new digital products, reassessing distribution maps and building new revenue-generating programs.

In addition to organization selected projects, news organizations work to improve five key pillars: research insights, business strategy, product development, content strategy and leadership.

Our Clients

Each of our clients gains valuable insights into their audience and organization through participating in the Accelerator.

Learn more about their research and initiatives

LNA individually tracks each member’s progression through the Medill Enterprise Sustainability Assessment (MESA). This in-house tool is designed to measure each organization’s mastery of the five key pillars of the Local News Accelerator. Program participants will take this survey three times: once at the beginning of the program, once in the middle and once at the end.

All LNA programs remain cost-free to participating organizations thanks to a generous investment from the McCormick Foundation.

Apply Here!

Does your news organization want to be a part of the LNA? We accept applications on a rolling basis.

Apply Here
Hannah Carroll
Borderless Magazine Chief of Staff Mauricio Peña listens on as his team discusses its project: expanding its field canvasser program to connect with more community members and grow the magazine’s subscriber base.

Proven Process

Medill provides the structure, framework and financial resources proven to help news organizations to achieve transformative performance results.

Our system implements frameworks, including:

  • Business Model Canvas: Addresses key aspects of a successful business, from key partners and activities to customer segments.
  • Value Proposition Canvas: Unique products or services your business can offer that solve a customer’s problem.
  • MOST Framework: Articulates a problem to be solved by outlining a mission, key strategies and supporting tactics to accomplish said mission.
  • From/to: Helps teams clarify the change they are seeking by acknowledging the state you are moving from, to a desired better state, revealing gaps and recommending a path forward.
  • SMART Goals: Creates measurable, specific and time-bound goals.

My advice to other newsrooms is to be open to radical changes, even if they’re radical experiments.

Lisa Miner, Daily Herald Managing Editor / Team Leader for the LNA

Powered by the quantitative and qualitative research capabilities of Northwestern University, partner news organizations receive robust, bespoke research to inform their projects. Workshops and guidance from subject-matter experts on Northwestern faculty and staff allow news organizations to tap into the wealth of knowledge across the University—including our engineering and business schools. Our program also sources subject matter consultants outside of Northwestern faculty so as to provide comprehensive industry knowledge.

Each client chooses their own project timeline that aligns with their workflow and capacities.

Throughout the program, organizations in the Accelerator are paired with a professional coach, who guides the team through the implementation stage of the process, ensuring goals are met and helping push through obstacles.

It felt like a lot of time in a good way. It gave us an opportunity to step back and assess the whole problem, and work through every part of it. Usually, we’re working at the speed of news. The program gave us time and space to think deeply about what we’re doing here.

Elizabeth Couch, Crain’s Chicago Business Director of Audience Engagement

All photos taken by LNA Photographer Hannah Carroll.