Center for Innovation & Sustainability in Local Media
UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media
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…
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…
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,…
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…
In September, three U.S. senators introduced a bill called the Future of Local News Commission Act, citing news deserts research from UNC Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics Penny Abernathy. Lauren Harris writes about the bill for the Columbia Journalism Review,…
Who says you can’t grow membership during a pandemic? Scalawag, a participant of the 2017-18 cohort of the UNC-Knight Foundation Table Stakes Newsroom Initiative, is using virtual and in-person events to diversify audience and grow membership. Better News profiles how…
Want to build audience? Take an idea from The Pilot, a participant in the 2017-18 UNC-Knight Foundation Table Stakes Newsroom Initiative — start with newcomers. This Nieman Lab piece outlines how the 100-year-old newspaper based in Southern Pines, North Carolina,…
Several participants of the UNC-Knight Foundation Table Stakes Newsroom Initiative — past and present — were recognized at the recent North Carolina Press Association (NCPA) awards, in categories ranging from website excellence to best headline writing. Many of the media…
With the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media (CISLM) now in the fourth cohort of our UNC-Knight Foundation Table Stakes Newsroom Initiative, we take a look back at a selection of past participants, who give us their thoughts…
This Editor & Publisher piece profiles the digital success of The News Reporter in applying lessons learned from the UNC-Knight Foundation Table Stakes Newsroom Initiative. The 124-year-old newspaper in Whiteville, NC, took part in the 2018-19 cohort of the initiative.…