NPR’s Next Generation Radio project is both a unique professional development opportunity and a talent pipeline for audio journalism and the broader journalism field. It’s an intensive five-day boot camp for aspiring audio storytellers funded by NPR member stations. Not only is it free, but participants receive a stipend to help cover their costs for the week.

The best salespeople have innate talents. They have figured out what brings them to the playing field and what their blind spots are. There are some things at which they don’t excel as well as others, but they don't let this deter them. Instead, they zero in on their areas of excellence so they can perform at high levels.

As local media grapples with the challenges of digital transformation, there may be an overlooked opportunity that bridges the gap between traditional print and modern technology: digital news dailies. These innovative products merge the familiarity of print-style newspapers with the convenience of digital distribution, delivered as PDFs or e-editions designed for easy reading on tablets or simple printouts. By maintaining traditional ad rates and subscription models without the costs of physical printing and distribution, digital news dailies offer a sustainable solution for publishers seeking new revenue streams.

Almost 10 years ago, the combination of Jayne Burns' community spirit and artistic eye caused her to notice the ugly, plain and abandoned news racks on the streets of Sebastopol. She didn’t just want to paint the racks but, as they became obsolete, give them a new life as free little libraries, working on the principle that you take a book and replace it with another.

Many of the journalistic skills we learn are from veteran colleagues we work with, not at home in our jammies batting out tomorrow’s front-page stories. There’s no better way to learn than by listening to those who do it well. And you can’t cover the cops, city hall,  the legislature or almost anything else well that way either.

In the good old days, news products were bundled. Bundled products were how distributors could deliver most things to most people. If there’s one thing digital technology is good at, though, it’s destroying distribution monopolies ... and those distribution oligopolies on which our media businesses were built were blown to smithereens. But like any trend, de-bundling has probably gone too far. Maybe there’s a chance to rebuild some of the bundles of the past.

You can always learn something from a copy editor. In this column, E&P columnist Rob Tornoe seeks knowledge from Bob Yearick, columnist and author of “The War on Words,” and some copy editors about the low-hanging fruit of the English language, which writers often trip over in the mad dash to meet a deadline.

In the current news industry environment, legacy newspapers face two future scenarios. First, they continue to operate with their decades-old business models and experience declining revenue and fewer print days, eventually closing and creating news deserts. Second, they are acquired by new owners with a 21st-century entrepreneurial spirit to build a stronger bond with their communities. The citizens of Pinehurst, Southern Pines and surrounding communities in North Carolina are pleased. The Pilot is following the second path.

News media can be a fast-paced environment, and it’s easy to become overwhelmed, especially when resources are limited and difficult decisions about budget cuts or reallocations must be made. This constant drive to stay ahead often leads to innovation fatigue. To address this challenge, E&P columnist Richard E. Brown developed the S.C.O.R.E. framework — a tool designed to evaluate and communicate strategies and guide the entire innovation process.

For so many local news outlets around the country, the cost of maintaining real estate — especially older, often historic buildings — has become untenable. However, this is a story about the antidote and how two local news publishers, in particular, are reinvesting in real estate. They're taking their brick-and-mortar assets and putting them to work as revenue generators and communal centers.

A surprising last-minute deal between Google and California lawmakers has left the local news industry grappling with mixed emotions and crucial lessons learned. While some view the $250 million agreement as a positive step toward funding journalism, others criticize it for falling short of what was needed and creating divisions among news leaders. The agreement, which bypassed two proposed bills aimed at compelling tech giants to pay local newsrooms for content, highlights the importance of unity and strategy in advocating for fair compensation in an era dominated by digital platforms.​

We are seeking your assistance in recognizing a leader with business acumen, technical savvy and a deep understanding of what needs to be done to stay successful — along with the fortitude and tenacity to implement change. “Publisher of the Year” recognition is open to all news media publishers worldwide.

Disinformation has replaced disintermediation as the word of the day, and many consumers aren’t happy. People are starting to miss being able to reliably get products and information that have been vetted and provided by an intermediary. This leads to an important question: Is the pendulum about to swing the other way?

Over the past few months, news organizations have grappled with changes at Google that have led to a dramatic drop in organic search traffic. Publishers have been forced to navigate what appears to be seismic shifts in how Google doles out traffic, with the integration of artificial intelligence (which remains unintelligent and error-prone) causing panic attacks across the industry.

One of Jin Ding's first actions as CEO of Initium was moving its headquarters from Hong Kong — where it had been since it was founded nine years ago — to Singapore. Despite the move, Initium still reports on Hong Kong and mainland China with a network of trusted freelancers. This Chinese-language digital news site also is seeking to expand its reach and serve the growing number of Millennial and GenZ Chinese who have made their way to the U.S. over the past decade.

Investigative Reporters and Editors recently announced it was creating a tiered fee structure for membership and conferences to lower the financial barrier to journalists who may otherwise be unable to afford to become members and take training sessions with the organization.

CalMatters and tech-driven partners have created a centralized database that improves government transparency and the public's access to materials. Called Digital Democracy, the project launched in April using a combination of AI, publicly available databases and some real-person backups. While available to anyone, the searchable product is a news reporter's dream tool.

In a last-minute, closed-door deal that surprised many, Google secured an agreement late Wednesday with California lawmakers to circumvent two legislative bills that would have required it and other tech companies to compensate local newsrooms in the state for using their content.

Randall Lane, the chief content officer at Forbes Media and editor at Forbes magazine, penned a June 11, 2024 column — “Why Perplexity’s Cynical Theft Represents Everything That Could Go Wrong With AI” — citing a dispute with major AI developer, Perplexity. E&P followed up with Lane to better understand what happened and to seek his advice to other news media publishers grappling with the copyright-AI conflict.

In the generative AI space, primarily dominated by tech developers like OpenAI, Microsoft and Google, Perplexity.ai seeks distinction. E&P spoke with the company’s chief business officer, Dmitry Shevelenko, in late July, a day after the company revealed its new Perplexity Publishers Program.

There is growing angst in the news media community about how their products ­— the journalism they create, at no small expense — are being used to train the Generative AI Large Language Models (LLMs). They wonder whether copyright law will protect them, whether they should sue over copyright violations or agree to license and compensation terms offered by AI developers. E&P sought to understand these dilemmas better, so we asked news media publishers and advocates how they think these relationships will come to pass.

When Alden Global Capital sold The Baltimore Sun to Sinclair Broadcasting Group’s David D. Smith and conservative radio host Armstrong Williams, concerns about the newspaper’s editorial independence quickly emerged. Those fears were realized in June when content from Sinclair’s Baltimore affiliate, Fox45, began appearing on the Sun’s website without clear attribution, raising alarm within the newsroom. The Baltimore Sun Guild responded by demanding transparency and editorial integrity, citing the potential erosion of trust among readers as Sinclair’s content, often criticized for its lack of nuance and journalistic rigor, started to infiltrate the Sun’s storied brand. Despite some concessions from the new owners, the Guild remains vigilant, stressing that the integrity of The Baltimore Sun’s journalism must not be compromised.

Remember when we said more people use VR headsets in the U.S. than subscribe to a newspaper? That number will continue to grow in 2024 and beyond. It’s time to dive deeper into what that means for local media publishers.

With more community newspapers — often weeklies — closing their doors, the publications still surviving are seeking the secret sauce/winning formula to sustain themselves financially and continue to serve their communities. Although there isn’t a universal formula, a recent study co-sponsored by the New Jersey Press Association and the Corporation of New Jersey Local Media revealed the characteristics of successful community newspapers.

Sam Hoisington is a 20-something news entrepreneur who founded Madison (Wisconsin) Minutes in late 2020 and transformed a humble email newsletter into a daily newsletter with 20,000 subscribers. After selling the Madison Minutes in 2023, he returned to his hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas, and launched The Bentonville Bulletin.

Fund for Oregon Rural Journalism (FORJournalism) was organized three years ago to help rural newspapers remain viable. Among its priorities is training young people — some still in high school — the tenets of journalism and journalism literacy and funding paid internships so a new generation of journalists can chip in at small rural newspapers that need help.

I’ve been beating the drum among public media leaders for over a year: You need to understand what’s happening with Press Forward, the $500 million effort to remake local news. So it was heartening — and frustrating — to see dozens of public media leaders show up when three Press Forward leaders appeared at a webinar presented by the consultancy Public Media Company and Current in early July.

On May 24, 2022, nineteen children and two educators were killed when a single shooter opened fire at Robb Elementary in the small town of Uvalde, Texas. No local newsroom can ever fully be prepared to tell the story of a community brought to its knees by a mass murder. Uvalde Leader-News Owner-Publisher Craig Garnett was approached by ABC News about allowing a documentary film team into their lives. “Print It Black” refers to how the newsroom handled the following day’s 1A page.