Serving local news: Erica Beshears Perel named new director of CISLM
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…
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…
UNC Table Stakes participants detail wins in diversity, audience and revenue
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…
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…
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…
Senators introduce bill proposing commission on local news
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,…
UNC Table Stakes participant uses events (virtual and in-person) to grow membership
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? Start with newcomers
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,…
Whiteville’s The News Reporter adopts UNC Table Stakes’ digital-first mindset for successful transition
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.…
Penny Abernathy’s research referenced in piece about recent UNC Hussman lecture
Penny Abernathy’s research on news deserts has influenced the national conversation over the future of journalism, writes Ferrel Guillory in a column for EducationNC, in which he offers commentary on a recent lecture by Martin “Marty” Baron, executive editor at The…
Q&A with Penny Abernathy
The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) featured a Q&A with Penny Abernathy, Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, where she covers everything from the impetus behind her U.S. News Deserts…