Asking audiences to make a donation to support journalism may not have been something many local news organizations — apart from public media newsrooms, that is — had experience (or comfort) doing. The coronavirus pandemic helped change that. Thrown into severe financial distress at the onset of the pandemic, some news organizations started asking for […]

Editor’s Note: Over the last year or two there has been an increased interest from newsrooms — both corporate-owned and independent — in forming editorial or advisory boards made up of local residents. The boards provide a direct link from the newsrooms to their communities, making their journalism more relevant and inclusive. API recently covered […]

When news organizations face cuts, opinion editors and writers are some of the first on the chopping block: Their work can be replaced by that of national syndicated columnists, saving precious dollars. But new research suggests that the long-term effects of that decision may be detrimental to local news organizations. Local news audiences, treated to […]

Editor’s Note: The American Press Institute is exploring how news organizations are reimagining opinion journalism to support constructive conversations in their communities. This essay by Julie Hart, digital editor for The Laconia Daily Sun in Laconia, New Hampshire, follows a series of 2019 essays and summit. *** Our small, community newspaper in rural New Hampshire has always stuck […]

In the age of social media, cable talk shows and fast-moving news cycles, what value does opinion journalism, including the opinion and editorial pages of newspaper publishing, bring to the lives of people in a community? Modern technology has surely opened up civic debate. Editorials and columns in newspapers, and opinion essays in magazines, suffered […]

Many communities across the country today have unprecedented opportunity to converse with each other, understand one another’s views, and find workable solutions or approaches to the mutual challenges they face. At the same time, we all know this doesn’t always happen. At API, we’re interested in the role opinion journalism can play in facilitating better […]

By endorsing Hillary Clinton for president, publisher Mi-Ai Parrish writes that the Arizona Republic’s staff knew it would be an unpopular choice with readers. What they didn’t expect were violent threats. In a powerful editorial, Parrish responds to those threats, humanizing the Arizona Republic’s staff and their choice: “To those of you who have said […]

You might have heard: The Washington Post’s editorial board called for the prosecution of Edward Snowden, saying that only one of the government programs Snowden revealed was in the public interest (Washington Post) But did you know: Three out of the four news organizations that received NSA documents from Edward Snowden have called for the […]

Medium has a simple pitch for politicians, Nancy Scola writes: “Get your message out with none of the editorial interference that comes with old-school media.” As a result, politicians including Hillary Clinton and John Boehner have used Medium to voice their stances and make announcements. By having a presence in Washington, D.C., Scola writes that […]

The front page of Saturday’s New York Times included an editorial “The Gun Epidemic,” which called to drastically reduce the number of firearms in the U.S. and eliminate “some large categories of weapons and ammunition.” Saturday’s front-page editorial is the first NYT has run since 1920. Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. says NYT chose to place […]