Bob Miller

It’s no secret that the decades-long deterioration of the local journalism business model is tightly knitted to the burgeoning evolution of Big Tech search and social media platforms.

A University of Missouri study shows that humanity and resilience are readers’ focus

I chuckled about the egg trade for heater repair. Several years ago when I wrote “Deep Stepping Stones” and we lived in Arlington, WA I had an agreement with a local restaurant owner that for every book they sold I would receive a percentage of the sale in food credit. They had great food so the many dinners my wife and I had there, were most enjoyable.

From climate change that looms silently in the skies to the roles that flea-infested pesky prairie dogs play in the desert dirt, the journalists who write and capture photos for High Country News consider a panorama of stories to bring to their readers. In recent years, the magazine has concentrated on telling those stories from the perspective of its Indigenous population, who often have a different outlook on land management and use than colonial practices.

Local newsrooms are stretched thin—but what if reporters could instantly harness powerful, hyperlocal data to uncover compelling stories in minutes, not hours? USC-Annenberg’s Gabriel Kahn has cracked the code, creating game-changing tools that transform public data into engaging narratives, driving readership and revitalizing community journalism.

Journalists and philanthropists have joined forces to infuse more storytelling and accountability resources into Tulsa, Oklahoma. After talking to hundreds of people in the community to identify journalism gaps in the Tulsa and Tulsa County area, forming a board and formulating a strategy to fill those gaps, a nonprofit was formed.

A 41-page report, “Homegrown Advertising: How small publishers want to build revenue programs that reflect their communities,” examines small local publishers’ revenue strategies and challenges. The findings articulate the challenges small publishers face, while outlining different ways they have found ways to make advertising work.

Brady Teufel, the department chair and professor in the journalism program at California Polytechnic State University, says he is really proud that they have their eye on the future. The department just introduced a new concentration in media innovation and he says it is “one of the only schools in the nation leaning into media innovation as a field of study for journalism and PR students.” The expectation, he says, is that “we will be able to graduate students prepared for jobs that don't exist yet.”

A new task force aims to bridge 12 newsrooms that focus on climate journalism. Not all the entities involved in the task force exclusively cover climate content. Some branch out into other areas of journalism, but all of them produce and share climate content.

If you work as a journalist in the U.S., you are at least tangentially aware of Mizzou’s impact on journalism. The clout is not just in the school’s brand and reputation as one of the most prestigious J-schools in the country but also in the names of its alums. But, Mizzou is involved in much more than producing an army of journalists. It’s also connected with research and institutional groups that support the industry behind the scenes.