Although sponsored content and its sister format, branded content, are by definition marketing tactics, when they deliver important information, people engage with it gladly. News publishers have traditionally provided the essential part of that information: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. Now they have the opportunity to provide the part today’s consumers and readers also want — lifestyle content about home life, fashion, food, pets, travel and thousands of other topics. more

Small weekly and rural newspapers were already struggling before the pandemic. Many had to close family-operated, decades-old publications, creating news deserts. Once the pandemic hit, more of these newspapers closed — just when residents needed important information about how local government and community organizations were responding to the pandemic. Addressing this crisis and finding a solution have come from what some might consider an unlikely source — academia. more

News is a stressful job — certainly for reporters and editors, but these days, also for anyone who works in the news business. There are formidable stressors associated with doing this work that weigh heavy and can potentially impact your staff's mental health and ability to manage it. Here are some resources to help your journalists strike a healthy work-life balance, recover from burnout — or better yet, prevent it. more

Kimberly Mata-Rubio, a journalist at The Uvalde Leader-News, is one of hundreds of mothers who have buried their children this year because of gun violence. Her daughter, Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, “Lexi,” died in her elementary school on May 24, 2022, one of 21 people to have their lives stolen that morning. None of their families, the community, nor the newsroom will ever be whole again. more

Incidents of gun violence on school grounds may not always get widespread national press attention, but they are, increasingly, the types of crimes that local newsrooms reluctantly find themselves covering. Thrust into these grave moments of community crisis, journalists have to make quick decisions about how to fulfill their duty to inform the public while demonstrating exceptional restraint and caution in how they acquire information, approach sources and communicate with their audiences. more

“We’re holding up a mirror to see how officers treat their own and what that means for the community when police victimize their fellow men and women in blue,” Samantha Max explains to listeners in “Behind the Blue Wall,” which earned the journalist the WBUR 2021 Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. E&P spoke with Max after the award was announced to learn about her professional path in journalism and her award-winning work. more

Helen Ubiñas knows there are voices and perspectives missing in journalism. In 2018, Ubiñas, who writes columns on equity, equality and justice for The Philadelphia Inquirer, experimented with the idea of a pop-up newsroom. The goal was to bridge gaps between local media and community members. While the pop-up newsrooms are on pause because of COVID, more are planned for the future. more

It’s always been tough to convince editors to try a new comic strip, especially when it means killing a feature some segment of the audience has grown to love. That tension has only gotten worse in recent years, as cost-cutting deepened the risk-averse approach most newspapers take with their comics section. Unfortunately, like the newspapers they serve, syndicates feel the impact of journalism's digital transformation from printed pages to pixels on a screen. more

Focusing on its content and the communities it serves is the secret behind the success of The Post and Courier newspaper, says Publisher P.J. Browning. While the COVID-19 pandemic was the death knell for many newspapers across the country, including 10 in South Carolina, The Post and Courier expanded into other parts of the state. Its family-owned business model has given the newspaper the leeway needed to hire more journalists, produce more content and grow its digital audience. more

The nation’s first abolitionist newspaper, The Emancipator, has been reborn as a digital platform to dismantle racist systems. It's using a three-pronged approach to reach its audience. Editorial content will include articles and videos published on the website (and sometimes in the pages of partners, like the Boston Globe). It takes a “social-first” approach, sharing content to encourage conversation, not just sharing links. And it will involve community-based workshops and other events. more

Talented visual journalists take us inside a moment, or a series of them, communicating information and inspiring emotion — whether it’s through a single image or hours of video footage. Top-of-the-field news photographers and videographers are technicians, creative visionaries, astute observers and chroniclers of history. They capture stories frame by frame, appending narratives and scripts with visual complements. This inaugural class of Shooting Stars comes from small publications and large corporate entities. more

Alan Miller is on a mission to save democracy — a mission that led to the founding of the News Literacy Project, a non-profit organization that empowers students to become savvy media consumers. Through the NLP, Miller wants to encourage students to learn how to deal with the deluge of information coming their way from their devices and the world. more

In an era of rampant misinformation, journalists tend to focus on the bad players, like social media companies that care more about their bottom line than the wrong information that washes over their platforms. But we tend to do a lousy job at focusing on our own biases, which can unintentionally lead us to misrepresent facts, provide incorrect or incomplete reporting, and create the perception of misinformation we’re all trying so hard to combat. more

In newsrooms across the country, editors bear heavy responsibilities — leading the newsroom, determining what stories should be told and who is best positioned to tell them, challenging assertions, developing talent, elevating journalism — all while maintaining an unwavering commitment to the public’s interest. Their names may not always be as familiar as bylined reporters or celebrated columnists, but their insight, experience and leadership are indispensable. We hope you enjoy meeting this exemplary group of E&P’s 2022 Editors Extraordinaire. more

Advertising, events, sponsorships, newsletters and paywalls are critical revenue streams for news media. Although not entirely new, philanthropy as a revenue stream is quickly becoming a welcomed funding source for both nonprofit and for-profit news operations. more

The nonprofit Baltimore Banner is taking shape and preparing to launch soon. Its website will come first this summer, followed by the mobile app about three months later. The launch date hasn't been announced yet, but the pricing model for a Banner subscription will be comparable to The Baltimore Sun. And it will draw revenues from three sources: philanthropy, subscriptions and limited advertising. more

Ben August is a serial entrepreneur whose experiences led him to take on the mantle of labor injustice and buy The Chief, a weekly newspaper serving as “A Voice for Workers.” He launched a redesign of the New York City-based publication about six months into his role as its owner and publisher. more

Dozens of surveys have confirmed a lack of trust in the media among middle-aged and older people. When SKEMA PUBLIKA, the think tank of SKEMA Business School, surveyed media posts from 2.8 million people ages 18-24 on five continents, they came to a surprising conclusion — young people also share a deep, widespread distrust in traditional media on a global scale. more

Propaganda abounds, and now it’s easier than ever to create and digitally distribute propaganda, like deep-fake videos — or “deepfakes,” as they’re sometimes called. E&P reached out to Facebook and Twitter to learn how big of a problem deepfakes are on their platforms and what they’re doing to detect them and squash them when they’re used as propaganda, disinformation or to harass. more

In May, Insider won a Pulitzer Prize, joining a small group of digital-only news organizations awarded journalism’s top prize. But like Politico back in 2012, the recognition came in an unlikely category for an online news organization — cartooning. more