As we mark the first anniversary of the News Impact Project, we wanted to have some fun. And what better way to mark this occasion than with a quiz all about the impact of local news!
Today, the News Impact Project celebrates its one-year anniversary. Thanks to this program, we’ve highlighted hundreds of news stories from our members and other local news publishers showcasing the amazing impact local news has on their communities.
The past nine months have been uniquely trying for us all; yet as we enter the holiday season, I am reminded of all that we have to be thankful for – yes, even in 2020. It may not be the year we envisioned back on January 1, but there have been some bright, shining moments for the news industry and for the Alliance in this strange, dark year.
Election news coverage is often considered horse-race coverage, but news outlets across the country have focused on something far more impactful in 2020 — how Americans are being affected by changes to voting procedure amidst the ongoing public health crisis, as well as what voters need to know to ensure that their votes count.
Our high-quality journalism offers brand safe environments for advertising. Yet news publishers are facing greater challenges than ever due to decreasing advertising revenue resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
While impactful news can be many things, we often think of it as being investigative in nature and shining a light into a dark corner that others want kept hidden. For The Nevada Independent, that dark corner involved a questionably run water district, and the flashlight belonged to reporter Daniel Rothberg.
As part of our News Impact Project, we are compiling a list of local news stories from around the country on the COVID-19 health crisis that have made a positive impact on their local communities, through motivating changes that help make the community safer, allowing community members to engage on important issues, and providing community members with important information they need to know to keep themselves and their families safe and well.
In a webinar with the American Press Institute’s Metrics for News team, we discussed which measures of engagement to focus on (hint: not just pageviews) and how to define success. Through a series of 11 lessons on using metrics for newsroom change (gathered from the Metrics for News team’s work with 100+ newsroom partners), participants learned how to prioritize which metrics they track and tips for leveraging the data-collection tool(s) they already use.
A 2018 study found that when communities lose their local newspapers, city finances are dealt a major blow. This is why the work done by the Jackson (Tenn.) Sun is especially important and impactful. A series of investigative news stories published in late 2019 follow reporter Adam Friedman as he explored the city’s revenue and expenses, as well as the loans it was taking out to maintain the city, revealing a situation he calls “absurd.”
Thousands of untested sexual assault kits that could have solved at least 500 sexual crimes in Portland over the last decade were left on storage shelves. Detectives vowed to fix the issue after the homicide and sexual assault of a 14-year old girl named Melissa Bittler in 2001. However, an investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive reporter Maxine Bernstein showed that Portland police failed on the promise to send the untested kits to the state crime lab.
