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.
Annika Sehl: How can public broadcasters become more digitally savvy?
One of a regular series of articles that highlights research in the academy and the profession on the emerging threat of news deserts or changes in media ownership. These are questions with Annika Sehl, a research fellow at Reuters Institute…
UNC Table Stakes participants speak at Knight Media Forum
The Knight Media Forum in Miami Feb. 26-28, 2020, featured participants in the UNC-Knight Foundation Table Stakes Newsroom Initiative on a panel exploring Charlotte, North Carolina’s collaborative media environment. Glenn H. Burkins, founder and publisher of Qcity Metro, an independent,…
Making metrics work for readers
Successful media entrepreneurs know loyal and engaged customers lead to increased growth in customers and profits for their enterprise. Digital metrics offer media organizations unprecedented insights into audience habits, but must be used wisely to avoid publishing dubious content and…
WATCH: Penny Abernathy discusses journalism’s future on ‘Story in the Public Square’
UNC Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics Penny Abernathy recently appeared on the Pell Center’s “Story in the Public Square” program where she discussed her groundbreaking U.S. News Deserts research and her thoughts on journalism’s future. She stressed the need for today’s journalists…
UNC Table Stakes participant wins industry innovation award
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, a Cohort 2 member of the UNC-Knight Foundation Table Stakes Newsroom Initiative, recently won top honors at the Key Executives Mega-Conference in Ft. Worth, Texas. The Democrat-Gazette won the Mega-Innovation Award for an iPad initiative the newspaper refined…
CITAP speaker examines algorithms
Why does YouTube seem to know just what you want to watch? How can Google fill in your search questions before you even finish them? Where does Facebook find out what ads it thinks you’d like? One world: algorithms. They’re…
UNC Table Stakes participants awarded grants for COVID-19 coverage
Several participants of the UNC-Knight Foundation Table Stakes Newsroom Initiative — past and present — are among 400 local news organizations nationwide receiving grants to support coronavirus coverage. The Lenfest Institute, in partnership with the Facebook Journalism Project, Local Media…
Better News profiles UNC Table Stakes participant WFAE’s community podcast competition
This Better News piece profiles how Charlotte NPR station WFAE, a member of Cohort 1 of the UNC-Knight Foundation Table Stakes Newsroom Initiative, used a community podcast competition to diversify its audience. The Queen City PodQuest is an opportunity for people…
Four UNC Table Stakes participants part of N.C. News Collaborative
Kristen Hare of Poynter references the U.S. news deserts research of Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics Penny Abernathy in this article about the North Carolina News Collaborative (NCNC.) Composed of twenty-two North Carolina newspapers, the collaborative formed…
Reese Innovation Lab to help build collaborative local news platform for Google News Initiative project
In the 1970s, when Ju-Don Marshall was 7, her family moved to the South Carolina Low Country from New York. Marshall had maternal roots in the area, deep in the African-American Gullah culture surrounding Charleston, but to a New York…
Dean Susan King on Charlotte Talks: Revitalizing American Journalism
Susan King, the dean of the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, recently joined Report for America’s president and co-founder Steve Waldman, as well as Report for America journalist Alexandra Watts for a discussion about the future of local…
WATCH: Gear Up app gives a virtual tour of UNC System campuses
The UNC System collaborated with the team of Steven King, assistant professor at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, and the SeeBoundless company to produce the Gear Up app. The virtual reality app allows students to remotely tour…