News and Posts
The Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media is proud to host original article series, reports from faculty and researchers, and events promoting collaboration among researchers, journalists and universities. Browse our library of articles, videos, interviews, announcements, upcoming events and more.
Alden acquisition threat includes more than 20 news ecosystems in NC, VA
The news ecosystem in more than 20 North Carolina and Virginia cities would shift under a proposal by Alden Capital to acquire Lee Enterprises.
Q&A with Scalawag’s Cierra Hinton on the future of funding for journalism nonprofits
CISLM Director Erica Beshears Perel spoke with Cierra Hinton to discuss nonprofit journalism funding, the difference between community and audience and what it means to pursue journalism described as “reparative, just and equitable.”
News & Observer’s Managing Editor on adding staff, investing in print
By Erica Perel This week, Raleigh’s News & Observer announced a new investment in its print product: 14 additional pages in “reimagined” Wednesday and Sunday print editions, powered by a larger newsroom, including six new jobs announced in August. The…
Q&A with Justin Smith, incoming publisher of The News Reporter
The News Reporter in Whiteville, North Carolina is a legacy newspaper that punches above its weight. After covering the rise of the Klu Klux Klan, the paper won one of the first Pulitzer Prizes for Public Service in 1953. The…
Nonprofit newsrooms turn rivalry into revenue streams
A recent Better News episode of the It’s all Journalism podcast features Erica Perel, new director of the UNC Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media (UNC CISLM), in a segment examining a UNC Table Stakes-inspired fundraising challenge Perel…
Introducing Project Oasis: New research and strategies for digital news startups
In partnership with the Google News Initiative, LION Publishers and Douglas K. Smith, the UNC Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media (CISLM) has released the results of the most extensive look in a decade at the emerging digital…
UNC Table Stakes participant forms nonprofit journalism center
News ink flows in Les High’s veins — so does thinking progressively. Local news has been the family business since 1938, when his grandfather purchased The News Reporter, located in southeastern North Carolina. But High, the newspaper’s third-generation leader, knows…
Covering COVID-19: UNC Table Stakes participants adapt and innovate
Media organizations across the country have pivoted operations to cover the COVID-19 pandemic, documenting a story unprecedented in recent history that has touched nearly every aspect of human life. Current and past participants in the UNC-Knight Foundation Table Stakes Newsroom…
Carolina Public Press fills gaps left by traditional newsrooms
When reporter Angie Newsome ’03 (M.A.) left the Asheville Citizen-Times in 2011, there wasn’t a single investigative or political reporter working the western side of the state. “There was a fair amount of frustration that traditional newsrooms would say, ‘No…
Laid-off reporter starts own news site, provides critical coverage during 2020 election
Robin Kemp was the only journalist watching Clayton County, Georgia’s tabulation of absentee votes as President-elect Joe Biden overtook President Donald Trump during the November election, turning the state blue for the first time in decades. Votes from Clayton County…
College newsroom collaborative used Table Stakes principles to get students to the polls
With increased numbers at the polls, young voters were pivotal in the 2020 election. According to numbers from the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), 61 percent of people aged 18-29 supported President-elect Joe Biden,…
LISTEN: Growing audience during a pandemic
Growing a diverse audience during a pandemic is not easy, but it can be done. In this Better News podcast, Cierra Hinton, executive director-publisher of Scalawag, talks about how the nonprofit media organization employed Table Stakes principles and used virtual…