Knight’s ONA23 focus: The infrastructure of journalism
We’ll be busy, thanks to the Knight Lounge, our #lovelocalnews party and lots of strong programming
For us digital graybeards, the annual Online News Association extravaganza is the perfect place to kick off the fall conference season. ONA is known as “digital journalism’s high school reunion” (OK, I admit it, that comes from me). And this year it has extra resonance for me, as ONA23 is taking place in Philadelphia, where I launched Billy Penn in 2014 and which currently has one of the most interesting local news ecosystems in the country, thanks to tremendous efforts such as Resolve Philly and the Lenfest Institute.
As we gather again in person, we have much to celebrate – and much to still do – in our industry. While larger media outlets continue to struggle, there’s a rise in independent online publishers, thanks to the efforts of, among others, the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) and LION Publishers. As Gannett has continued to cut jobs, Vice filed for bankruptcy and Vox Media lost half its value, INN and LION have seen strong growth in membership – and increased sustainability for their newsrooms. And those are just two of the dozens of organizations that have been solidifying journalism’s infrastructure in recent years.
Knight will have a significant presence at ONA, as we showcase our grantees and other industry players making a difference. Our focus this year is on journalism’s infrastructure and the importance of having publishers building atop a stable base so that they can focus on the two things they need to do to succeed: publish journalism that matters to their communities, and generate enough recurring revenue to be able to keep doing so.
Before we get to our infrastructure-focused events, a few reminders: Knight will be co-sponsoring the ONA23 Welcome Party on Thursday from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm on the fourth and fifth floors of the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. Google News Initiative and YouTube are our co-sponsors. And Karen Rundlet, Knight’s senior director of journalism, will be on a panel Thursday morning at 11:30 am titled “‘How Philanthropy is Changing the Journalism Landscape.”
We will also have another terrific Knight Lounge where ONA attendees can cool their heels between sessions and join us for some original programming. The Knight Lounge will be located in Rooms 407-409 at the Marriott.
Here’s the overall schedule (and locations) for Knight’s infrastructure-related events:
Thurs., Aug. 24
Noon - 2:00pm: We’ll kick off events in the Knight Lounge with a session titled, “Transforming Newsroom Infrastructure & Local News Entrepreneurship,” with yours truly, News Revenue Hub CEO Mary Walter-Brown and – the biggest attraction of all – a lunch buffet.
2:30 - 4:30pm: Indiegraf co-founder and CEO Erin Millar will lead a session in the Knight Lounge about her company’s News Startup Fund, and she’ll reflect on opportunities and barriers in local news entrepreneurship. Snacks will be provided.
4:00 - 5:00pm: In Salons C-D on the fifth floor, Knight will sponsor a session titled, “The Transformative Impact of BIPOC Media Collaborations,” featuring URL Media co-founders S. Mitra Kalita and Sara Lomax-Reese; Ricardo Sandoval-Palos, the founding managing editor of palabra; and our own Karen Rundlet.
Fri., Aug. 25
9:30 - 11:30am: In this breakfast session in the Knight Lounge, AP’s Local News AI initiative will lay out five free AI projects for newsrooms. These projects have been in development for the past year, and include public meeting transcription and keyword alerts; automated weather alerts in Spanish; automated police blotter items; email sorting and classification; and video summaries.
11:30am - 12:30pm: This session – in Salon B on the fifth floor – will discuss the true power of collaboration, with a special focus on the Knight x LMA BloomLab. Panelists will include Clyde Jiles, audience engagement manager at the Houston Defender; Paris M. Brown, the associate publisher of the Baltimore Times; Denise Rolark Barnes, the publisher of the Washington Informer; John Celestand, program director for the Knight x LMA BloomLab; and Sonny Messiah Jiles, CEO of the Houston Defender.
1:00 - 2:00pm: This panel will discuss the do’s and don’ts of working with whistleblowers in the digital age, and will feature Duc Luu, Knight’s director of sustainability initiatives; Wendell Potter, a healthcare industry whistleblower; Ali Diercks, a #MeToo whistleblower; and Rebecca Petras, a director at The Signals Network. This session will take place in Salon C-D on the fifth floor.
4:00 - 5:30pm: Knight will host a reception in the Knight Lounge featuring Newspack, a content management system built for publishers and owned and operated by Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.
8:00 - 10:00pm: Our annual Knight Foundation #LoveLocalNews party in the Knight Lounge will honor the late digital media innovator – and ONA legend – Mandy Jenkins.
Sat., Aug. 26
10:00am - Noon: We’ll host a mimosa and bloody mary brunch in the Knight Lounge. This event will feature workshops with the Partnership on AI and Big Local News.
11:30am - 12:30pm: In Franklin 2 on the fourth floor, there will be a session on the California Accountability Project, which is combining cutting-edge AI technology with traditional reporting methods. This session will feature Marc Lavallee, Knight’s director of technology and product strategy; David Lesher, senior editor at CalMatters; and Foaad Khosmood, a professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
11:30am - 12:30pm: In Franklin 7-8 on the fourth floor, “Bridging The Digital Divide: The Power Of Collaborating With Students In Digital Community News,” will feature Richard Watts, the director of the Center for Community News at the University of Vermont; and Sarah Gamard, a former student statehouse reporter at Louisiana State University.
Other news around the horn…
Artificial Intelligence
🤖 LocalLens uses AI for public meetings. A new generative AI project in New Jersey, LocalLens, is creating automated stories based on government records of meetings. While most of the copy reads like straightforward news stories, complete with quotes, there is the ominous disclaimer: “There may be inaccurate information about people, places, or facts.” Not many trusted news sources could get away with that. The site, started by school board members, says it isn’t meant to replace journalists but aid them in coverage. The site’s publishers don’t check stories before they are posted but do fix errors if readers catch anything. Center for Cooperative Media’s Joe Amditis has some questions about what the AI prompts are and the business model for LocalLens. “It’s crucial to remember that the charm and value of local news and community information comes from the human, not the machine,” he concludes.
🗽OpenAI funds ethics initiative at NYU. The maker of ChatGPT, OpenAI, has been making inroads into journalism the old-fashioned way: throwing money around. First came a $5 million deal with the American Journalism Project, and now comes a $395,000 grant to the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University to create a journalism ethics initiative around AI. Former Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen Adler will head the initiative, and he told Axios that it will include “workshops and discussions on existing and emerging journalism ethics issues” covering everything from disinformation during the 2024 U.S. election to better coverage of marginalized communities. With less trust in media, and AI’s disruption to the field, Adler notes that “practicing journalism ethically is more important than it's ever been.”
Research
💸 Small business loans could make a big difference for local news. Wouldn’t it be great if cash-strapped small news publishers could access business loans? Yes, but… a new study from Revson Foundation in New York finds that out of the $1.43 billion in Small Business Administration (SBA) loans to 3,100 New York-based businesses, $0 went to newsrooms. Why? These SBA loans and those from Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) have stringent requirements such as credit scores of more than 680, collateral such as personal homes and high interest rates of 10.75%. Yikes. But the report has solutions, including having philanthropies partner with local and state governments to create funds with lower barriers to entry. Revson’s Martha King, who co-authored the report, told Nieman Lab that these loans could have a transformative effect, with publishers upgrading technology, increasing marketing or audience research that would “allow the local news outlet to reach more readers and capture more advertising revenue.”
📉 Hispanic, Black legacy news outlets struggling. A recent Pew Fact Sheet laid out a stark reality for many legacy news outlets serving Hispanic and Black communities: smaller audiences and less revenue. The largest Spanish-language TV networks in the U.S. are Telemundo and Univision, and both saw decreases in audience last year, with Univision local affiliates losing 7 percent of their audience for evening news and 8 percent for late night news. However, Univision affiliates did gain 17 percent audience for morning shows, and Telemundo’s local affiliates saw a 28 percent gain in audience for morning shows too. For Spanish-language weekly newspapers, Pew found that average circulation dropped from 109,000 in 2020 to 83,000 in 2022. Among the eight newspapers serving Black audiences that provided circulation data, only two saw increases between 2021 and 2022. The revenue outlook isn’t much better, with Univision and Spanish-language news radio stations both seeing drops over the past five-plus years.
🕰️ Local news time up for TV and radio. Everything revolves around a clock when it comes to local radio and TV stations, and that clock is ticking ever longer for local news. A recent study from the Radio Television Digital News Association and Syracuse University found that the average minutes for local news per day was up 18 minutes on TV and 21.2 minutes for radio last year. Larger market TV stations were more likely to add local news, and all of them planned to maintain or increase local news this year. On the radio side, there was surprising strength for commercial radio stations adding local news, especially stations owned by national chains. Let’s hope the quality of the news coverage is boosted along with the minutes.
Impact
🌲How a pop-up newsroom made a difference in Boulder. After a wildfire hit Boulder, Colo., in 2021, the damage wasn’t just from the loss of homes and property. Survivors also suffered from coughs, rashes and nosebleeds related to the contaminated air and water. The Boulder Reporting Lab’s publisher Stacy Feldman explains how they created a collaborative pop-up newsroom to cover those health effects. The collaboration included a graduate class at Colorado University for journalism and science majors. Feldman, now a fellow at the Reynolds Journalism Institute, explains how the pop-up newsroom took its cue from community members and filled a void in coverage. “If your community is anything like mine, the vast expertise and subject matter knowledge among residents is astonishing,” she wrote. “These individuals often serve as sources in our stories but we can do more with their knowledge and enthusiasm beyond just quoting them in articles.” Feldman is working on a guide to help small newsrooms create pop-up newsrooms when big stories break.
Jobs
CEO, Institute for Nonprofit News. Learn more here.
CEO, Indiana Local News Initiative. Learn more and apply here.
Program Coordinator, Oklahoma Media Center. Learn more here.
Director, Local News, MacArthur Foundation. Learn more here.
Program Officer, Local News, MacArthur Foundation. Learn more here.
Associate Director, North Carolina Local News Lab Fund. Learn more here.
Fellowships
Solutions Journalism Network
Projects covering mental health issues for youth
$5,000 stipend
Apply by August 29
New York Times’ Local Investigations Fellowship
Paid by the Times to produce work covering a state or region
Apply by September 1
Upcoming Events 📅
The Nonprofit News Awards @ ONA
Philadelphia
August 23 (tonight!)
Philadelphia
August 23–26
National Press Club Headliners Luncheon: Maria Ressa
Washington, DC
September 5, 12:30 pm ET
NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists
Philadelphia
September 7–10
Everywhere
September 15
Radio Television Digital News Association
Minneapolis
September 20–22
Southeast News Sustainability Meetup
Durham, NC
October 3–4
Military Veterans in Journalism
New York
October 5–7
Tweet of the Week
News @ Knight Credits
Written by Jim Brady, with Mark Glaser
Edited by Jim Brady, Jessica Clark and Kara Pickman