Center for Innovation & Sustainability in Local Media
UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media
We are at the beginning of another revolutionary era in communication. Digital products like streaming videos and e-books seemed like remote possibilities in the 1990s, but consumer habits have shifted dramatically as technology advanced. While successful entrepreneurs can’t always predict…
A new exhibit celebrating two centuries of North Carolina’s local news publications kicked off at the UNC Wilson Special Projects Library Feb. 27 with a talk by Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics Penny Abernathy, who shared her…
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…
In a piece for The Atlantic, Ted C. Fishman examines the COVID-19 pandemic’s devastating economic effects on state and local governments, the threat to democracy and how a loss of local news compounds the problem. “The loss of essential services…
This New York Times opinion piece by Margaret Renkl cites local news research by UNC Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics Penny Abernathy in a look at the prevalence of news deserts in the American South. Framed around…
The United States has lost more than 2,100 newspapers over the past 15 years. The vast majority of those papers were weeklies serving small and mid-sized communities. In order to survive, publishers must lead the way in transforming both the…
The effects of COVID-19 on the media industry are being noticed around the world. Alexis Buisson, New York correspondent of Télérama, the leading French magazine on the media, interviewed Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics Penny Abernathy for…
With newspaper print advertising at historic lows, publishers of local newspapers, regardless of size, have to move quickly and decisively to seek new sources of revenue and income to support their journalism. The Pilot, a twice-weekly paper in the Sandhills…
News Corp is looking to its Australian markets and digital real estate to help drive growth. While the digital real estate division accounts for about 45% of News Corp’s total value, according to Forbes’ estimates, it only accounts for about 14%…
Several of our UNC-Knight Foundation Newsroom Initiative Table Stakes participants — past and present — received funding as part of the Facebook Journalism Project’s $16 million in relief funds for local news. The grants include $10.3 million awarded to 144…