After months of tinkering behind the scenes, It’s All Journalism is proud to announce that it’s partnering with the American Press Institute to produce a new podcast series focusing on API’s Better News Initiative.
“We are going to be launching a special mini-series that is anchored in some content that we post on BetterNews.org,” said Amy Kovac-Ashley, API’s director of newsroom learning.
Better News is the digital embodiment of the Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative, according to Kovac-Ashley. (Many people in the journalism industry know it as the “Table Stakes Program.”) The website includes the Table Stakes Manual, which is that program’s curriculum, as well as essays and research on a variety of topics of interest to newsrooms looking to transform themselves in a digital environment.
“We also post a lot of original content on Better News out of what the Table Stakes newsrooms have learned,” Kovac-Ashley said. “And that’s what we’re going to be focusing on for the mini-series. We’re going to be looking at specific newsrooms and some of the things that they’ve been doing to transform themselves, to change the way they do their jobs and the way they reach out to audiences.”
To get the latest best practices and case studies from API’s Better News Initiative, sign up for the Better News newsletter.
“One of the reasons we at It’s All Journalism are so excited about our partnership with API is that our missions complement each other so well,” said Michael O’Connell, IAJ producer and podcast host. “Since August 2012, we’ve been interviewing journalism professionals about how they do their jobs. Our goal has been to share skills and lessons through our conversations, making us all better journalists. API does the same thing by talking to newsrooms and conducting trainings. It’s all in the pursuit of good journalism.”
Better News the podcast will debut on Thursday, Aug. 1 as part of It’s All Journalism’s regular weekly podcast posting. Future episodes will appear periodically as special episodes in the IAJ feed.
If you’re already an IAJ subscriber, Better News will automatically pop up in your podcast feed. If you’re not a subscriber, search for “It’s All Journalism” on the podcast app of your mobile device and hit subscribe. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts (iTunes), GooglePlay, PodcastOne, SoundCloud or any place you find podcasts.
The premiere episode of Better News will feature O’Connell’s conversation with Steve Yaeger and Suki Dardarian of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. They discuss how live events have become a lucrative source of revenue for the newspaper.
Future episodes of Better News will highlight other topics from the Better News Initiative.
“Here the focus is really going to be on local news, which I know It’s All Journalism looks at often,” Kovac-Ashley said. “But all of the pieces that we run are about local news, some very small places too. We’re really excited about highlighting what people are doing in smaller places. Maybe with fewer resources people think that they can’t do a lot of interesting things, but they can and they are. We really want to highlight that.”
It’s All Journalism is a weekly podcast about the changing state of digital news. New episodes are posted every Thursday. It’s All Journalism is also produced in partnership with the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, whose mission is to “provide services and leadership that ensure the success of its members; and to strengthen alternative journalism through advocacy and education.” For the latest news about the podcast, sign up for the weekly It’s All Journalism newsletter.
The American Press Institute advances an innovative and sustainable news industry by helping publishers understand and engage audiences, grow revenue, improve public-service journalism, and succeed at organizational change.
Better News is a project of the American Press Institute and the Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. It is designed to serve three purposes: (1) to collect, curate and operate as a central repository of best practices in the craft of journalism and the challenge of journalism sustainability; (2) to provide strategic guidance on the most important issues facing news organizations, particularly local, regional and metropolitan newspapers; and (3) to share important lessons from participants of the Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative.
