Four things we learned at INN Days as journalism interns
By Syedah Asghar and Zoe Mercado
Hi there! Syedah and Zoe here. We’re summer research interns at the Institute for Nonprofit News through the Emma Bowen Foundation, a nonprofit organization that places high-achieving students of color in internships at the nation’s leading media and technology companies.
We attended INN Days back in June and took note of the major themes shared during the sessions, ranging from DEI and audience engagement to revenue and mental health. To more effectively share the conference’s takeaways with the general public, we’ve condensed the information into just four points.
Here are our major takeaways:
Nonprofit news is stable and growing
Total revenue in nonprofit news is steadily growing, according to the INN Index session co-led by Emily Roseman, INN’s research director. Two-thirds of nonprofit news outlets tracked by the Index survey grew total annual revenue from 2018 through 2021, with the median outlet growing total annual revenue by 25%. The nonprofit news field’s total audience and staffing numbers are growing along with this long-term revenue sustainability. (Check out the full Index Report, published yesterday, for more information.)
This upward trend is not by chance. What sets nonprofit journalism apart from its mainstream commercial counterparts is the guiding principle of “impact over profit.” Roseman’s session highlighted civic mission, serving communities of color, and distinct revenue model as promising qualities of local news outlets.
Let’s break down further why these qualities matter in local nonprofit news.
Deana Balinton from El Tímpano talked about the importance of nonprofit revenue sources during the “Solutions for Equitable Funding” session: “We can’t rely on reader revenue or sponsorships because other sponsors are not attracted to who we serve. And if they are, we have to make sure they’re not predatory or pushing misinformation.” Nonprofit news outlets can steer away from sponsors and, instead, earn revenue through services that mutually benefit the organization and its members. By prioritizing these relationships, organizations perform the balancing act of serving their community and earning sustainable revenue.
Serving communities over sponsors also creates more space for quality journalism and diversity to thrive. “When we think of revenue we should think of impact because that’s what we’re trying to do at the end of the day, whether it’s journalism or civic engagement,” Balinton said. After all, the principle of impact over revenue is what makes an organization nonprofit in name. Diversity and equity also grow organically in community-specific news coverage, as community voices guide the sourcing and delivery of news.
Nonprofit news is engaging audiences, old and new
Loyalty and re-engagement
While surviving in the digital age has proven a struggle for many newsrooms, there are many innovations to leverage technology and attract new audiences. In the breakout session “How to Grow Your Audience,” Abbey Gingras from the News Revenue Hub dissected audience strategies that promote member loyalty. “Newsletters are really where we can get people to start developing a habit… become more loyal, more engaged,” she said, “and hopefully at some point that’s where we’re going to see the most conversions for membership or for dollars to your organization.”
But these newsletters and engagement tools are only effective as long as they are novel. Gingras encourages news organizations to change their websites at least every few months to re-engage frequent site visitors. For example, if a pop-up always appears in the same place, regular readers may automatically click through and miss an important marketing initiative.
Large tech companies such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft have also started initiatives to help journalism organizations mobilize their digital tools. For example, the Google News Initiative has launched Audience Development, News Consumer Insights, User Funnel Diagnostic, Google Trends, and a Best Practices Workshop Series to help news organizations visualize, measure and optimize their digital growth.
Technological innovations
QR codes are also a simple and accessible strategy to track community engagement. During the breakout session “Community-Centric Models for Delivering News,” Jesús Del Toro described how his organization, La Raza, uses QR codes in places where everyone can scan them, such as print products, buses, trains and transit stations. La Raza distinguishes each QR code based on its location, tracking how frequently they are used and how efficient they are.
SMS messaging is another technological innovation that could revolutionize community engagement. Text message strategy differs from email and social media strategy because it adds a personal touch, according to Rommel Ojeda from Documented. He characterized SMS as a way for communities to have “a journalist that they can reach from their phone in their pocket.” Equally important, people who engage know that someone will reply to them right away, reinforcing the mutual relationship between readers and journalists.
The downside
However, these initiatives and strategies do not exist in a vacuum. Humans design algorithms, and humans have biases. If the people designing these algorithms live in an unequal world, then the algorithms reflect these inequalities by default.
We saw this fallacy of technology during the “How to Grow Your Audience” session, where audience members pushed back on the effectiveness of audience engagement recommendations. At least three INN Partners spoke up about following the best practices to maximize their Google SEO, but in reality their articles are not showing up.
In the moment, these speakers shared their contact information so that INN members could consult with them. These experiences reveal a larger systemic issue with search engine algorithms that persists beyond optimization strategies. What happens when nonprofit newsrooms check all of the boxes for audience engagement, but their efforts aren’t reflected through the algorithm?
Words matter
One of the most insightful conversations during INN Days was sparked when Balinton started a discussion on terminology. During her time as a financial coach, she said, someone informed her the term ‘“low income” is offensive. Instead, they offered the term “financially struggling,” which is the alternative Balinton personally uses.
While we are learning more about how to appropriately represent communities, it’s crucial to recognize the specific context of various communities. There is no one-size-fits-all terminology; news organizations can better understand how their communities identify by seeking their buy-in and preferences.
This point distinctively stood out to us and sparked a deeper internal conversation within INN on supporting leadership to understand how terminology can reflect a balance of power.
From a journalistic perspective, Robert Chappell6 from Madison365 shared that there is a conflict between wanting to utilize inclusive language and recognizing the style of language that community members and funders respond to.
“Person-centered language is really important to us,” Chappell said. “But in terms of our fundraising and in our journalism, frankly, we typically use a lot of the more standard journalism terms just because we’re trying to operate in a mainstream that recognizes that language.”
El Tímpano learned from Maya Mam leaders to state who they serve explicitly, as they now say they serve “Latino and Mayan” communities. Though many people believe Mayan individuals are Latino, the Maya Mam leaders informed El Tímpano that many indigenous Mayans do not consider themselves Latino.
Innovating to address burnout
As students interested in journalism, we were excited to engage with sessions that expanded on health and well-being in the industry. During INN Days, we heard from various nonprofit news leaders on knowing your capacity to establish boundaries across the organization. During the breakout session “Why We Decided to Start a Local News Organization,” Tasneem Raja from The Oaklandside discussed how important it is for journalists to share their operational struggles.
“We’re journalists, we’re so good at telling other people’s stories,” said Raja. “But we’ve got to tell our own.” By being vulnerable with one another, Raja said, we promote well-being and increase awareness of issues that nonprofit organizations face.
Lisa Heyamoto from LION Publishers expanded upon well-being through the lens of operational resilience, “the unsung hero of journalism.” In the breakout session “Creating an Operationally Sound Organization,” Heyamoto defined sustainability through three pillars: financial health, journalistic impact and operational resilience. She explained how most issues for organizations are a result of how they function.
Heyamoto identified common pain points within most organizations, provided solutions based on where the issues originate and talked about how to move forward. “It’s not about growing — it’s about managing that growth, growing smartly.”
We were fascinated when Heyamoto detailed a team health-tracking initiative at LION. This initiative created an opportunity for reflection, asking staff members to use colors (such as green, yellow and red) to assess their well-being. A colleague checked up on Heyamoto after seeing she had marked her health as “yellow” for almost two months. Heyamoto didn’t notice the pattern herself and convinced herself she was fine, until the colleague brought it to her attention.
Conclusion
Our perspective when approaching these sessions is vastly different, given that we are entirely new to the multifaceted journalism world, as interns and students. We’re still learning about the media industry, and INN Days exposed us to the many challenges that come with engaging in nonprofit news.
INN Days demonstrated how crucial it is for all of us, as deliverers and sources of news, to integrate these takeaways into the flow and structure of our organizations. Initiating these conversations, whether internally within our organizations, or externally with friends and family, is what fosters the creativity and innovation that fuels nonprofit news!
