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.
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.
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.
When Detroit Tigers pitcher Matt Boyd and his wife Ashley started a charity, Kingdom House, to help young girls in Uganda avoid sex slavery, it was news. But the Detroit Free Press story about the Boyds’ efforts overseas did more than tell a story — it drove donations and support for the new foundation.
Golddigger stadium had been a landmark in Idaho Springs since 1958, also being recognized nationally on the high school football stage. When Michael Hicks, executive editor for Evergreen Newspapers and the local newspaper, the Clear Creek Courant, learned the stadium would be sold to help curb the school’s financial woes, he knew that the community would mourn the loss and that it was up to the Courant to memorialize the stadium’s sixty-plus years as a cherished landmark, and bid it a fitting farewell.
In 2017, a nearly 20-year-old DNA kit was finally tested for a 1997 rape. James Clay was arrested, tried and convicted of the crime and sentenced to 25-50 years in prison. But Detroit Free Press journalist Elisha Anderson’s reporting on the conviction, including interviews with the victim’s family and the victim – who no longer believed Clay was the perpetrator – revealed that there may have been some mistakes made and Clay might not be the guilty party.
Most journalists get into the business to help make a difference in their communities, whether that means reporting on the local school board or the president of the United States. But how many of us actually discuss the differences our reporting makes with our readers? It’s a practice that more publishers and journalists should tackle.
