Center for Innovation & Sustainability in Local Media
UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media
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…
During Erica Beshears Perel’s two decades in the news industry — as a reporter, educator and executive — change has been the constant, as news has become increasingly digital and traditional revenue sources have shifted. The changes motivate Perel, a 1998…
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…
Increased revenue. Innovative engagement with communities of color. Audience-driven product launches. These were just some of the wins detailed at a recent meeting by the 14 media organizations participating in the UNC-Knight Foundation Table Stakes Newsroom Initiative, currently in its…
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…