Poynter on Thursday announced a final list of 21 local news organizations that will participate in the Poynter Local News Innovation Project, receiving guidance from the Institute to help them transform their newsrooms into digital-first enterprises.
The program, a project of the Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative, is designed to spur digital transformation in local news organizations and will include tiny, low-circulation newspapers as well as major metros. Here’s the list of news organizations that will participate:
-Alaska Dispatch News (Anchorage, AK)
-Beaver County Times (Beaver, PA)
-The Chronicle-Telegram (Elyria, OH)
-Citrus County Chronicle (Crystal River, FL)
-The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)
-Denver Post (Denver, CO)
-Detroit Free Press (Detroit, MI)
-Durango Herald (Durango, CO)
-Lawrence Journal-World (Lawrence, KS)
-New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester, NH)
-The News-Press​ / Naples Daily News​ (Fort Myers/Naples, FL)
-Newsday (Melville, NY)
-The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
-Quad-City Times (Davenport, IA)
-Reading Eagle (Reading, PA)
-Sandusky Register (Sandusky, OH)
-State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL)
-Statesman Journal (Salem, OR)
-Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, FL)
-Tyler Morning Telegraph (Tyler, TX)
-The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)
Poynter’s Local News Innovation Project is a three-year initiative funded by the Knight Foundation that includes news organizations that span the United States, from Alaska to Florida. It includes in-person conferences, online seminars and personalized coaching for each of the 21 news organizations. To ensure collaboration between newsrooms and their colleagues on the money-making side, the program will include senior representatives from both the news and business teams.
The program will help accelerate change in legacy newsrooms that produce local news, Amy Maestas, senior editor of The Durango Herald in Colorado, said in a statement.
“For some of us, it could be a life-saver,” Maestas said. The Herald is the program’s smallest-market newsroom, with a daily circulation of 5,690.
The project comes as local communities need responsive, credible news sources more than ever, said Butch Ward, who is heading Poynter’s part of the Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative.
“To deliver on that need, news organizations — especially in this very challenging business environment — must dramatically expand their capacity to compete digitally,” Ward said. “This program can help them do that.”
For more on the program, you can read Poynter’s news release.
