Newsrooms aren’t changing fast enough. We’re still too white. We’re still too male. We’re still too deeply tied to legacy products — whether they be print newspapers, TV broadcasts, or magazines — even though we claim to put digital first. Solutions for key issues that were “just around the corner” when I was starting my career are still massive pain points.
It is unsurprising that we’re seeing nonprofit newsrooms spring up on a regular basis. ProPublica and The Texas Tribune have been excellent models for years, and this year we’ve seen the arrival of new players such as The Beacon in Kansas City, The 19th*, and The Markup.
It’s not an entirely new trend. The 2020 INN Index reports that nonprofit newsrooms “have launched at a pace of a dozen or more a year since 2008.” Local and explanatory reporting are two major focus areas for nonprofit news organizations.
Many are responding to holes in coverage. The New York Times reports a PEN America study: “Since 2004, more than 1,800 local print outlets have shuttered in the United States, and at least 200 counties have no newspaper at all.” Other organizations are taking on specific areas of focus that haven’t received enough attention or that have been cut in legacy newsrooms: criminal justice, investigative projects, education reporting, the hunger crisis.
But I believe the rise of new nonprofit organizations will continue for another reason. As anyone who has attempted to be a changemaker in a storied workplace knows, it’s easier to build what you want from the ground up than attempt to change the processes, priorities, and personnel in an existing structure. This can be true for launching new teams or projects or founding an entire company. In listening to several nonprofit news founders this year, it’s clear they are being incredibly intentional about targeting the industry’s major issues: staff diversity, pay inequity, audience community building.
That doesn’t mean it’s easy. These are huge undertakings, and many are putting themselves on the line to create something from scratch. It also doesn’t fully answer the question of why so many have chosen this route over a for-profit model, which some have criticized. But it’s keeping valuable journalists in the industry. I’ve seen so many smart and passionate people — many of whom are women and people of color — leave journalism over the last decade, frustrated by workplaces stuck in the ways things have always been done. I’m cheering for these newsrooms’ success not only because they play a crucial role for their readers and communities, but also because, from what I can tell so far, they are offering journalists a better place to work. And after a year that can only be conservatively described as rough, that’s exactly what we need.
Rachel Schallom is the deputy editor for digital at Fortune.
Newsrooms aren’t changing fast enough. We’re still too white. We’re still too male. We’re still too deeply tied to legacy products — whether they be print newspapers, TV broadcasts, or magazines — even though we claim to put digital first. Solutions for key issues that were “just around the corner” when I was starting my career are still massive pain points.
It is unsurprising that we’re seeing nonprofit newsrooms spring up on a regular basis. ProPublica and The Texas Tribune have been excellent models for years, and this year we’ve seen the arrival of new players such as The Beacon in Kansas City, The 19th*, and The Markup.
It’s not an entirely new trend. The 2020 INN Index reports that nonprofit newsrooms “have launched at a pace of a dozen or more a year since 2008.” Local and explanatory reporting are two major focus areas for nonprofit news organizations.
Many are responding to holes in coverage. The New York Times reports a PEN America study: “Since 2004, more than 1,800 local print outlets have shuttered in the United States, and at least 200 counties have no newspaper at all.” Other organizations are taking on specific areas of focus that haven’t received enough attention or that have been cut in legacy newsrooms: criminal justice, investigative projects, education reporting, the hunger crisis.
But I believe the rise of new nonprofit organizations will continue for another reason. As anyone who has attempted to be a changemaker in a storied workplace knows, it’s easier to build what you want from the ground up than attempt to change the processes, priorities, and personnel in an existing structure. This can be true for launching new teams or projects or founding an entire company. In listening to several nonprofit news founders this year, it’s clear they are being incredibly intentional about targeting the industry’s major issues: staff diversity, pay inequity, audience community building.
That doesn’t mean it’s easy. These are huge undertakings, and many are putting themselves on the line to create something from scratch. It also doesn’t fully answer the question of why so many have chosen this route over a for-profit model, which some have criticized. But it’s keeping valuable journalists in the industry. I’ve seen so many smart and passionate people — many of whom are women and people of color — leave journalism over the last decade, frustrated by workplaces stuck in the ways things have always been done. I’m cheering for these newsrooms’ success not only because they play a crucial role for their readers and communities, but also because, from what I can tell so far, they are offering journalists a better place to work. And after a year that can only be conservatively described as rough, that’s exactly what we need.
Rachel Schallom is the deputy editor for digital at Fortune.
José Zamora Walking the talk on diversity
Kawandeep Virdee Goodbye, doomscroll
Hossein Derakhshan Mass personalization of truth
Ariel Zirulnick Local newsrooms question their paywalls
Joshua P. Darr Legislatures will tackle the local news crisis
Renée Kaplan Falling in love with your subscription
Gonzalo del Peon Collaborations expand from newsrooms to the business side
Errin Haines Let’s normalize women’s leadership
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, a push for pluralism
John Davidow Reflect and repent
Alyssa Zeisler Holistic medicine for journalism
Janet Haven and Sam Hinds Is this an AI newsroom?
Marie Shanahan Journalism schools stop perpetuating the status quo
Rodney Gibbs Zooming beyond talking heads
Sarah Marshall The year audiences need extra cheer
Francesco Zaffarano The year we ask the audience what it needs
Anthony Nadler Journalism struggles to find a new model of legitimacy
Bo Hee Kim Newsrooms create an intentional and collaborative culture
Danielle C. Belton A decimated media rededicates itself to truth
Sam Ford We’ll find better ways to archive our work
Sonali Prasad Making disaster journalism that cuts through the noise
Ben Werdmuller The web blooms again
Mike Caulfield 2021’s misinformation will look a lot like 2020’s (and 2019’s, and…)
Ryan Kellett The bundle gets bundled
M. Scott Havens Traditional pay TV will embrace the disruption
Edward Roussel Tech companies get aggressive in local
Tim Carmody Spotify will make big waves in video
Candis Callison Calling it a crisis isn’t enough (if it ever was)
Jim Friedlich A newspaper renaissance reached by stopping the presses
Cory Bergman The year after a thousand earthquakes
Delia Cai Subscriptions start working for the middle
Anna Nirmala Local news orgs grasp the urgency of community roots
Burt Herman Journalists build post-Facebook digital communities
Alfred Hermida and Oscar Westlund The virus ups data journalism’s game
Victor Pickard The commercial era for local journalism is over
Julia B. Chan and Kim Bui Millennials are ready to run things
Ray Soto The news gets spatial
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Rasmus Kleis Nielsen Stop pretending publishers are a united front
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Kristen Muller Engaged journalism scales
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Ben Collins We need to learn how to talk to (and about) accidental conspiracists
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Pia Frey Building growth through tastemakers and their communities
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Ståle Grut Network analysis enters the journalism toolbox
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists will be kinder to each other — and to themselves
Cherian George Enter the lamb warriors
Rachel Schallom The rise of nonprofit journalism continues
Kate Myers My son will join every Zoom call in our industry
Mark Stenberg The rise of the journalist-influencer
Parker Molloy The press will risk elevating a Shadow President Trump
Ashton Lattimore Remote work helps level the playing field in an insular industry
Joni Deutsch Local arts and music make journalism more joyous
Nico Gendron Ask your readers to help build your products
Charo Henríquez A new path to leadership
Linda Solomon Wood Canada steps up for journalism
Kevin D. Grant Parachute journalism goes away for good
Sumi Aggarwal News literacy programs aren’t child’s play
Gabe Schneider Another year of empty promises on diversity
John Saroff Covid sparks the growth of independent local news sites
Ernie Smith Entrepreneurship on rails
Gordon Crovitz Common law will finally apply to the Internet
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Cassie Haynes A shift from conversation to action
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Ariane Bernard Going solo is still only a path for the few
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Laura E. Davis The focus turns to newsroom leaders for lasting change
John Ketchum More journalists of color become newsroom founders
Rishad Patel From direct-to-consumer to direct-to-believers
Julia Angwin Show your (computational) work
Jennifer Choi What have we done for you lately?
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Sarah Stonbely Videoconferencing brings more geographic diversity
Andrew Ramsammy Stop being polite and start getting real
María Sánchez Díez Traffic will plummet — and it’ll be ok
Michael W. Wagner Fractured democracy, fractured journalism
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Tanya Cordrey Declining trust forces publishers to claim (or disclaim) values
Beena Raghavendran Journalism gets fused with art
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Robert Hernandez Data and shame
Patrick Butler Covid-19 reporting has prepared us for cross-border collaboration
Nabiha Syed Newsrooms quit their toxic relationships
Bill Adair The future of fact-checking is all about structured data
Nonny de la Pena News reaches the third dimension
Joanne McNeil Newsrooms push back against Ivy League cronyism
Whitney Phillips Facts are an insufficient response to falsehoods
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Nisha Chittal The year we stop pivoting
Matt DeRienzo Citizen truth brigades steer us back toward reality
Megan McCarthy Readers embrace a low-information diet
Alicia Bell and Simon Galperin Media reparations now
Jody Brannon People won’t renew
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Zizi Papacharissi The year we rebuild the infrastructure of truth
Logan Jaffe History as a reporting tool
Jessica Clark News becomes plural
Annie Rudd Newsrooms grow less comfortable with the “view from above”
Jennifer Brandel A sneak peak at power mapping, 2073’s top innovation
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Richard Tofel Less on politics, more on how government works (or doesn’t)
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Marcus Mabry News orgs adapt to a post-Trump world (with Trump still in it)
Tonya Mosley True equity means ownership
Steve Henn Has independent podcasting peaked?
Eric Nuzum Podcasting dodged a bullet in 2020, but 2021 will be harder
Celeste Headlee The rise of radical newsroom transparency
Andrew Donohue The rise of the democracy beat
Raney Aronson-Rath To get past information divides, we need to understand them first
Brandy Zadrozny Misinformation fatigue sets in
Imaeyen Ibanga Journalism gets unmasked
An Xiao Mina 2020 isn’t a black swan — it’s a yellow canary
Mike Ananny Toward better tech journalism
Christoph Mergerson Black Americans will demand more from journalism
David Skok A pandemic-prompted wave of consolidation
Don Day Business first, journalism second
Matt Skibinski Misinformation won’t stop unless we stop it
Nikki Usher Don’t expect an antitrust dividend for the media
Garance Franke-Ruta Rebundling content, rebuilding connections
Shaydanay Urbani and Nancy Watzman Local collaboration is key to slowing misinformation
Kerri Hoffman Protecting podcasting’s open ecosystem
Sara M. Watson Return of the RSS reader
Jonas Kaiser Toward a wehrhafte journalism
Chase Davis The year we look beyond The Story
C.W. Anderson Journalism changed under Trump — will it keep changing under Biden?
Taylor Lorenz Journalists will learn influencing isn’t easy
Chicas Poderosas More voices mean better information
Heidi Tworek A year of news mocktails
Catalina Albeanu Publish less, listen more
Aaron Foley Diversity gains haven’t shown up in local news
Amara Aguilar Journalism schools emphasize listening
Loretta Chao Open up the profession
David Chavern Local video finally gets momentum
Jesse Holcomb Genre erosion in nonprofit journalism
Tamar Charney Public radio has a midlife crisis
John Garrett A surprisingly good year
Jeremy Gilbert Human-centered journalism
Colleen Shalby The definition of good journalism shifts
Rick Berke Virtual events are here to stay
Marissa Evans Putting community trauma into context
Masuma Ahuja We’ll remember how interconnected our world is
Mandy Jenkins You build trust by helping your readers
Doris Truong Indigenous issues get long-overdue mainstream coverage
A.J. Bauer The year of MAGAcal thinking
Benjamin Toff Beltway reporting gets normal again, for better and for worse