2021 NC Local News & Information Summit

The first NC Local News Summit is over, but you can still join in: Watch The Power of Many video below and explore resources for learning, connecting, and boosting local news in North Carolina.

• The Power of Many: Opening session video (see program below)
• Big Resource Document: Links, bios, resources, speaker slides, links to breakout workshop videos and notes, all in one handy Google Doc
• NC Music playlist on Spotify, built for the NC Local News Summit by WFAE’s Joni Deutsch, head of on-demand content and community engagement and host of the Amplifier podcast

Thanks to the UNC Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media for support and partnership on this amazing half-day, and also to our speakers and breakout session leaders, special guests, note-takers, chat managers, and all the participants who brought their experience, knowledge, and passion for informing people in North Carolina on public affairs in their state and communities.

Program order:

• Welcome, Dean Rochelle L. Ford, Elon School of Communications, and Dean Susan King, UNC Hussman School of Journalism & Media
• Introducing “The Power of Many” and the NC Local News Workshop, Melanie Sill, interim executive director
• Short talks and conversations, what’s possible for local news in North Carolina?
  • “The Power of Diverse Collaborations” — Ju-Don Marshall, chief content officer and executive vice president of WFAE in Charlotte
  • What we’re learning about nonprofit news success — Fran Scarlett, Institute for Nonprofit News chief knowledge officer and business strategy coach, in conversation with Melanie Sill
  • “Local News and Local News Research” — Philip Napoli, Duke Sanford School of Public Policy professor and journalism researcher, and director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy, with research assistant Asa Royal
  • Local news philanthropy: “Renewed Urgency and Glimmers of Hope,” Lizzy Hazeltine, fund coordinator for the NC Local News Lab Fund
  • “Abolishing the Fourth Estate: What’s possible when we remember we are members of our communities” — Cierra Hinton, co-director of strategy and operations for Press On, publisher and executive director, Scalawag magazine
  • “Transforming the Community Newspaper” — Les High, publisher of the Whiteville News Reporter
  • “A New Push on Local News Entrepreneurship ” — Anika Anand, deputy director of LION Publishers, in conversation with Melanie Sill
• Breakout workshops
• Main session resumes with takeaways from breakout workshops

Breakout workshops and facilitators:

• Meeting your community’s information needs: How do we determine what information communities really need, and how do we know if we’re providing it? (Facilitators: Fiona Morgan and Philip Napoli)
• Building credibility in an age of distrust: How can local news organizations be more successful in gaining community trust in an era of misinformation, fragmentation and belief bubbles? (Facilitator: Cole Goins; with Alicia Bell of Free Press in Charlotte and national guest, Joy Mayer of Trusting News)
• Multiplying your impact: Can we improve and expand crucial reporting through quality collaborations and smart resource-sharing? (Facilitators: Ryan Thornburg and Shannan Bowen; national guest, Stefanie Murray of the Center for Cooperative Media)
• New era, new voices: How will new players change how we think about “local news” in 2021 – and how can we encourage even more experimentation? (Facilitator: Katherine Goldstein; national guest, Tracie Powell of the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund at Borealis Philanthropy)

Hosted by the NC Local News Workshop at Elon University with support from the UNC Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media