Reaching people in ‘different ways’: Nonprofit newsrooms are producing zines

Nonprofit news organizations are constantly asking themselves the big audience question: “how can we better reach our audience and potential audience?” Many are turning to digital spaces: SMS text, WhatsApp and more. But some digital news organizations are finding success with a specific physical product: zines. 

In June, Outlier Media, an INN Network member centering and responding to Detroiters’ needs,  published its first ever zine, “Profits and Losses: What Detroiters Lost in the Foreclosure Crisis.” The zine was born out of reporting from Koby Levin, who found that after the county profited off of foreclosing on homes during the bankruptcy crisis in Detroit, the Supreme Court ruled that they had to return those profits to those homeowners — but the county didn’t publicize that, said Kiran Saini, Outlier Media’s audience manager.  

So, Levin launched an effort to reach thousands of Detroit residents and help them reclaim the money they were owed. The reporting began in 2024 and continued throughout 2025. Over 16 weeks, Outlier Media — along with nonprofit partners and a lot of volunteers — reached hundreds of Detroiters owed a collective $5.9 million.

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