At The Dallas Morning News, print moved to a separate desk to let everyone focus on digital. At the Minneapolis Star Tribune, a quick strike team covers digital and print still matters. At the Philadelphia Media Network, the newsroom worked to not just change its approach to digital, but its culture. And at the Houston Chronicle, the work of becoming digital has meant connecting the vision with the strategy.
Now, you can find the processes behind how they started those changes with a new hub that launched Tuesday that offers a path for legacy newsrooms that are ready to become digital. It's called Better News.
The site, launched by The American Press Institute, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, includes a "Table Stakes Manual" with the ideas behind the ongoing work happening at newsrooms around the country. (Disclosure: Lenfest helps fund Poynter, Knight funds my job covering local news and API is partnering with Poynter in guiding 21 newsrooms through the process. Poynter was also a partner in developing Better News.)
Better News offers a pretty easy-to-use approach for change: Learn, plan and do.
Users will find that format for understanding email newsletters, fact-checking, podcasts, video, audience topics, how to make money, and big-picture questions, including ethics and diversity.
The site will update case studies as they change.
“Better News not only compiles in one place proven best practices for transforming publishing, it is organized for people to find exactly the problems they are working on and to add new case studies as they come along,” said American Press Institute executive director Tom Rosenstiel, in a press release. “Built by a diverse and talented team, Better News is a genuinely unique resource that will keep getting better.”
For more, check out Better News here.
