Dana Coester is the editor in chief for 100 Days in Appalachia and Ashton Marra is the newsroom’s executive editor.

Since the 2016 election, 100 Days in Appalachia has been working with local voices to apply a cultural lens to national stories about the the Appalachian region. The 100 Days team’s reporting, which covers 13 states, earned it a 2021 Edward R. Murrow Award.

Although 100 Days originated as a university-incubated collaborative media project, the newsroom recognized it needed to identify new streams of revenue beyond grants in order to become fully self-sustaining.

Editor In Chief Dana Coester and Executive Editor Ashton Marra recently wrote a report for Better News on how 100 Days began experimenting with reader revenue and community membership to move beyond philanthropy. Read the Report.

The Better News podcast is a partnership between It’s All Journalism and the American Press Institute to a) showcase innovative/experimental ideas that emerge from the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund and b) share replicable strategies and tactics that benefit the news industry as a whole. Sign up for the Better News newsletter to receive news about the latest resources, case studies, and insights. For more news about the It’s All Journalism podcast and future episodes of Better News, sign up for the weekly IAJ newsletter.