About the network

Want practical advice and deep discussions with your peers on best practices for managing your local newsroom? Want the only global network just for you to network and share experiences?

You’re in the right place, here, as part of the Local News & Innovation Network. You identify as an innovator in the publishing industry, are an editor, manager, journalist or other staff in local news media and/or consider yourself a supporter of local news and media innovation.

In the IPI Global Network, we’ve done the research into the challenges for media serving local audiences, working out just what support publishers and innovators need to tackle these challenges. Here’s what we think are the emerging lessons on the conditions and actions that are helping create trusted, sustainable local news organizations. And here’s some of the survival strategies local news worldwide are making work.

We found what you probably know: on the demand side, local communities have been information poor, offering opportunities for digital innovation; on the supply side, digital natives are taking up the challenge by engaging local communities throughout the entire journalistic process.

One of the big ways we figured we could help (alongside better access to training and funding) is a network to cross-pollinate ideas and experiences, and support innovation and sustainability in local newsrooms. Our aim is to develop a global community that can project a strong global voice for independent media when and where it is needed. 

Local News & Innovation Network participation criteria:

1. You identify as a media innovator or local news practitioner. Alongside editors and journalists, our network unites media product managers, funders, experts, media researchers and analysts.

2. You work in or support independent journalism and advocate for press freedom and the free flow of information.

3. You are deeply committed to community-focused collaborative journalism. It is essential for network members to have a strong desire to share their stories, both successes and failures and learn from one another.

Engage in the Local News & Innovation Network 

• Participate in Discussions: Take an active role in the conversations happening within various channels of the Local News & Innovation Network. Share your thoughts, insights, and experiences related to local news, media innovations and public interest media. 

• Offer Peer-to-Peer Support: Share your expertise, provide advice, and offer assistance to the members that seek guidance or have concrete problems to solve. 

• Ask for Feedback. Have you developed a new product in your newsroom? Would you like to hear the thoughts from industry experts? Ask for feedback and receive mentorship support from the community.  

• Share Events and Webinars. Are you organizing or have you come across the events on media innovation, local news, public interest media and other topics that are relevant to the network? Spread the word in the community and encourage others to take part! 

• Explore Funding Opportunities: Stay updated on potential financial resources for your innovative new projects. Collaborate with other network members to explore joint (cross-border) funding applications or partnerships.

• Learn from Country and Thematic Experts. Gain contextual knowledge on media and political developments in different countries by participating in discussions, asking specific questions pertaining to the countries and themes of interest, and receive input from members with diverse backgrounds.

1️⃣ First step: Signing up to the Slack group: 

It’s a network of those doing the journalism, so it’s by invitation. Any existing member can recommend a new network member organization to IPI anytime either by DMing Ryan in the Slack Channel or by emailing [email protected]

• Click on the email invitation.

• Slack will ask you to download (if you do not already have it) and then log in.

• Check your email for a confirmation code from Slack and punch it in. 

• Accept the invitation and click “Join” next to the “Innovation and Local News Network” workspace.  

• Start participating in Slack by introducing yourself in the #introductions channel! 

• Look around some of our popular channels: #business and revenue, #technology, #impact-stories and #audience.

2️⃣ Rules of the road

There are a few self-evident rules of the road: You’ll be polite and respectful of each other’s work and honest about your own. It’s about helping and encouraging each other, so, of course, no harassment in any form. You’ll attribute appropriately and give credit where credit’s due. 

And a few NOs: NO product selling or sales spam. NO irrelevant politics.

Most of all, you’ll contribute thoughtfully: everyone has something useful to share. 

These rules make the network better for all of us. By signing up to the network, you’re agreeing to follow these rules.

3️⃣ What’s next? 

The network is more than a Slack group. Here’s a few other activities coming up:

• Three Virtual Newsroom Visits by members from the network, to get an inside-look at how each newsroom is managed and to better understand how other media are navigating pathways to sustainability 

• Speaker sessions on subjects relevant to the work of the network

• Case studies on best practices in innovation in local newsrooms

IPI’s Local News Network is supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.