News Alchemists #22: "What if the future of local journalism was more playful?"

Hello and welcome back to the News Alchemists newsletter!

And a first welcome to new subscribers from the Boston Globe, Dow Jones, the New York Times, Tactile news, La Voz del Interior, Mastercard, America Amplified, Somedia, Aaj Tak, and all of you brave mavericks working for yourselves. You're among friends 🫂

Last week, I didn't include the customary seven links to focus on one Pew Research study that explored what 'news' means to people (in the US) – TL;DR: it's complicated – and how it makes people feel – TL;DR: not good.

Were you disappointed to not find the usual seven links? Or relieved to have a week's break to maybe catch up with other readings? This is all a big experiment we're doing together, so let me know if you like it when I spice things up or if you prefer a consistent format.

Talking about experiments, a few days ago, I decided to celebrate a rather arbitrary anniversary: 100 days since I sent the first email of this newsletter. I shared some thoughts on LinkedIn about how it's been going and what I learned so far. But I'd love to know:

Not including the seven links for one week had a very practical consequence: a replenished stock of links that I cannot wait to share with you – which in turn made it incredibly hard to pick only seven for this edition. But I made my choices and I think you'll be happy with them.

Enjoy the links, and see you next week! 👋

(Or maybe the week after? This Friday we're gathering some exceptional people here in Chicago for a workshop that is the main touchpoint of the JR3 project I was telling you about a couple of weeks ago – and there's a chance I might not be able to write next week's newsletter as a result of that. We'll see, but I wanted to give you a heads-up so you don't panic if you don't find me in your inbox next Tuesday 🙃)

1. What if the future of local journalism was more playful? 👉 LINK

This post speaks my language. After reading a report published by a toy manufacturing company (Mattel), 🧞Samantha Ragland – VP of journalism programs at the American Press Institute – reflects on how play and playfulness can make journalism more creative, more curious, and ultimately more human: "When we bring play into journalism, we do more than inform. We build trust. We invite joy. We remind our communities—and ourselves—why local stories matter."

(The report by Mattel – 'Shape of Play', great title – is linked in the post. Check it out.)

2. While you still have some runway in front of you, rethink your relationship with your audience 👉 LINK

"If your mission as a newsroom is still 'I'm making more content because more than ever, people need to know what's going on', you're going to find this to be an incredibly dire phase of the internet. If you haven’t figured out what people need and want from you — their intent — you’re out of business." 🧞Alan Soon, co-founder & CEO of Splice, reviews the recent announcements about Search from Google's I/O conference and reminds us: rethink your relationship with your audience, or buckle up for some tough times.

3. Media revenue model hiding in plain sight: How connection could pay media's bills 👉 LINK

🧞Mili Semlani has done it again. After sharing her posts already twice in previous editions (#6 and #10), here I am sharing another excellent piece by Mili – and it's not a coincidence that all three posts include the word 'connection' in their headline.

"There's a psychological shift happening that most media organizations are missing. In our conversation about this phenomenon, we kept returning to a fundamental insight: people are willing to pay premium prices for experiences that content alone cannot provide. [...] it's high time we recognise that the same reporting, analysis, and expertise that goes into your articles can create exponentially more value when delivered through connection experiences."

4. They’re 15. Wait until you read their newspaper. 👉 LINK

A group of young reporters aged 13 to 17 started a local newspaper in Long Island, 🧩 The Ditch Weekly. They sell ads to local businesses. They donate part of their profits to an organisation that facilitates surfing for children with disabilities. And you should go read the rest because this story is so wholesome.

5. Using WhatsApp to foster dialogue: A Q&A with Conecta Arizona 👉 LINK

This is an inspiring interview with 🧞Maritza L. Félix, the founder and director of 🧩 Conecta Arizona, a news organisation that started as a WhatsApp group debunking COVID-19 misinformation for Spanish-speaking communities. Conecta Arizona now also trains community members to become storytellers, and hosts daily interactive chat sessions – Cafecitos – to discuss the most pressing issues facing their members:

"Every afternoon from 2 to 3 p.m., we chat with our community. We talk about politics. We talk about health and money and things that are not necessarily news all the time. And that’s good because we get to know them a little bit better. Once a week, we invite an expert to talk about one of the issues that our community tells us is important. I think around 300 experts have joined us in a Cafecito — from a U.S. ambassador to doctors and therapists to pet sitters and essential oils experts."

6. Almost: Meeting Gen Z where they scroll 👉 LINK

"The idea that young people don’t care about the news is a complete misconception. Young people are incredibly engaged with the news and care deeply about issues affecting the world. The problem is that traditional media isn't meeting them where they are, nor are they presented in formats that feel natural and accessible to them."

Meet 🧩 Almost, an independent social-first news outlet founded in 2020 by🧞Kassy Cho, with the goal of helping young people understand the world and their place in it.

7. Project Push creates an archive of news alerts from around the world 👉 LINK

You might have noticed that sometimes I like to use the 7th spot on this list to share something that is a little out-there, or only loosely tied to the value proposition of the newsletter – whether it's a delightful visual essay exploring how animals sound across languages, an About page that gives me hope, or a campaign calling for businesses in other industries to #hireajournalist.

Today I thought you might like to learn about Project Push: feeling like he was getting too many push notifications from the BBC News app, 🧞Matt Taylor decided to take out an old phone, download 61 news apps onto it (!) and sign up for push notifications on all of them (!!) to see how the BBC compared to other news orgs. He ended up learning a lot and he’s now playing around with the idea of creating tools for publishers to analyse how their push notifications perform.

What is this newsletter?

The relationship between journalism and the people it aims to serve is broken. But we can heal it if we learn to put audiences and communities at the centre of everything we do. The News Alchemists newsletter wants to help you to do just that.

Every week I share seven links to give you some hope and to introduce you to the many smart, kind, and courageous people (🧞) who strive every day to use journalism as a force for good in society – and to the organisations (🧩) that show us that a different journalism is possible, and profitable.

To respond to this newsletter, just hit reply. I love hearing from you and reading your questions, comments, and suggestions.

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