Events and Gatherings

The Local News Accelerator hosts multiple events every year to gather Chicago’s journalism industry practitioners and leaders.

Hannah Carroll

Chicago Local News Summit

During the annual Chicago Local News Summit, our team presents a variety of novel and robust industry research, ranging from ways to navigate new state legislation to breakdowns of studies about how people get their news, the future of the news business and the current state of journalism philanthropy.

Attendees have the opportunity to turn Northwestern’s premiere research findings into actionable strategies for engagement, product development, business success and meaningful collaboration.

View the 2024 Chicago Local News Summit booklet

Using AI in The Newsroom

Hannah Carroll

Our shared services initiative launched in the fall of 2025 at Experimental Station in Hyde Park.

Dozens of local Chicago newsrooms joined us to learn about our AI shared service.

By the end of the day, most of our attendees left the day feeling more optimistic about the future of AI in local journalism than when they arrived.

View the program for this event

Peer Learning Community

The Medill Local News Accelerator also coordinates the Peer Learning Community, a cohort focused on revenue building skills and strategies for Press Forward Chicago grant recipients. The cohort began in December 2024 and will conclude in June 2026.

In addition to skill-based workshops, the Peer Learning Community also hosts networking events for these newsrooms.

In February of 2025, the 13 grantees convened for the first time for food and drinks at Bureau Bar and Restaurant. This kickoff event offered grantees the opportunity to network and discuss possible collaboration opportunities.

Hannah Carroll

Gathering 1: Grant Writing Level set

The Peer Learning Community held its first skill-based training focused on strengthening cohort members' grant writing skills. Members have vastly different grant writing skill levels, which allowed skilled grant writers to share their strengths, tips and recommendations while others learned by being vulnerable about their challenges and weaknesses.

Hannah Carroll

Gathering 2 : Revenue diversification

Peer Learning Community members used the training to come up with a solid value proposition for a new or existing revenue stream that needed to be reinforced.

In the spirit of peer learning, Injustice Watch representatives presented a detailed case study on cultivating relationships and drawing strategies with major donors.

They also used the Business Model Canvas to map out the resources needed to achieve said revenue stream and express SMART goals at the end of the session to keep themselves accountable.

View the agenda
Hannah Carroll

Gathering 3 : Revenue collaboration

The 2025 Press Forward Grantees and the Peer Learning Community members gathered at Chicago News Weekly’s headquarters in Humboldt Park. Attendees followed a session led by Borderless Development Officer CJ Ortuno on revenue generation via cross-newsroom collaboration. The day also included a thorough discussion of Chalkbeat’s school board election coverage in Chicago and the publication's collaboration with WBEZ/Sun-Times, which ultimately increased philanthropic funding.