🔶 News Alchemists #36: "Ten commandments of independent publishing"

Hello and welcome back to the News Alchemists newsletter!

How I missed writing that line...

But I needed the break, and even if I seriously stressed over the decision of pausing this newsletter for a few weeks, I'm happy to report that the world is still spinning and that no angry mob showed up at my place with pitchforks demanding to get their newsletter back. Phew.

(How big we make things in our head, huh?)

All in all, September has been a great month, not only because of the time I got to spend with my partner, family and friends in Italy and Croatia, but also on the work side:

• I started a new project with the Solutions Journalism Network, and one more project is brewing;
• I was invited to give a talk on people-centric journalism by the Earth Journalism Network;
• This newsletter landed its second sponsor (more on that next week);
• And I started studying the generous and incredibly helpful feedback about this newsletter that many of you shared through the reader survey. Next week I'll tell you what I learned.

I have big plans and some funky ideas for this newsletter – the three months left in this 2025 are going to be fun. But my commitment is the same: seven links every seven days to help you reimagine journalism, reconnect with your audience, and meet the people and organisations who are leading the way towards a more equitable, impactful, and sustainable journalism.

Enjoy this week's links. It's good to be back.

P.S.: A very special welcome to new subscribers from BehanBox, Facta, The Examination, de Volkskrant, Deep South Today, Documenters Canada, The Chronicle of Philantropy, Media Forward Fund, the Chaminade University of Honolulu, and all of you brave souls working for yourselves. I hope you will like it around here.

1. The worst threats to journalism come from politicians. The best defence against them is serving the public 👉 LINK

Two days ago was World News Day, a global awareness campaign that told people to "Choose Truth. Choose Facts. Choose Journalism."

I know the initiative is well-intentioned – and, yes, I believe that journalism is important, and that facts matter – but I also know I'm not alone in finding the tone of the campaign a little condescending and out of touch.

We're dealing with low trust, declining engagement, and more and more people deciding that their life is better without journalism. Rather than focusing with humility on what we can do better, we dedicate one day to essentially tell people that we're doing a great job already because we provide the truth and the facts – it's on them to choose us, and only then all will be fine.

I'm opening this week's collection of links with what 🧞Prof. Rasmus Kleis Nielsen wrote exactly one year ago on this occasion:

"Renewing the social contract between journalism and the public will take more than simply insisting that news is great as it is. It will require understanding why so many people increasingly feel that it is not. Maybe that is an idea for next year’s World News Day: to dedicate it to journalists taking time to talk with people rather than at them. Maybe the slogan could be less a command – choose truth! – and more a question posed to the public that the profession ultimately relies on – what can we do for you?"

Sad to see his call went unanswered.

2. One of the OG independent newsletter creators on consistency, platform independence and stamina 👉 LINK

Right before going on holiday, I had a fantastic conversation with 🧞Matt Kiser, the founder/operator/writer of 🧩 WTF Just Happened Today, the daily newsletter he started in January 2017 to help people make sense of the news and navigate "the shock and awe" of US national politics. It was meant to chronicle the first 100 days of the first Trump administration, but it kept going, and now it's at Day 1711 (❗️) and 200,000+ readers (‼️‼️).

Matt is awesome, and I want you to read this interview he gave almost exactly one year ago because you're going to learn a lot from it, especially if you're an independent creator, solopreneur, or whatever else you call yourself. Then, go check his About page (linked above) and the membership page – aptly titled "Who The F*ck Supports This?" – which every reader-funded publication should copy study in depth.

3. Who is journalism for? We talk to journalists who are rethinking how and who they report for 👉 LINK

"If we say that we do journalism that exposes wrongdoing and holds powerful people, institutions and corporations accountable for their actions, but the people who are most affected by what our findings expose can never access what we reported, then who did we do it for?" –– 🧞Cynthia Gichiri

"We wanted to ensure that the people who are reading the journalism were also the people who are affected by the journalism." –– 🧞Mazin Sidahmed

Two quotes from the guests of this excellent podcast episode by 🧩 Lighthouse Reports that illuminate a tension that more organisations are starting to address: how can journalists make sure that their stories reach the people they're about?

(Thanks for the link, Miriam!)

4. Ten commandments of independent publishing 👉 LINK

🧞Alex Kisielewski is the VP of partnerships and business development at Ghost, the platform I use to publish this newsletter. He gave a talk about "the core lessons we’ve learned watching thousands of journalists build real, sustainable publishing businesses of their own", a.k.a. his 10 commandments of independent publishing, which include:

• Thou shalt not build thy house on rented land. (or, Own your distribution.)
• Thou shalt not chase the algorithm. (or, Stop optimising for scale over quality.)
• Thou shalt not forget thy community. (or, Conversation > broadcast.)
• Thou shalt not overcomplicate thy craft. (or, Simplicity wins.)

5. In Uruguay, this newspaper builds journalism with radio, documentaries – and its readers 👉 LINK

I loved reading this profile of 🧩 la diaria, a newspaper from Uruguay that aims to produce a kind of journalism that "fosters a sense of belonging among readers while looking to them for knowledge."

Examples of community engagement mentioned in the article include inviting readers to la diaria's radio show to share their expertise; asking readers to fund specific projects, like a long-form video documentary; surveying readers about their news consumption to offer products that best fit their needs; and even hiring readers to contribute to la diaria's projects: "For the radio station, one subscriber responded that she's a broadcaster and would like to be part of the project—she now narrates the audio."

6. Everyone in the media is talking about the newsroom of the future. But what do we actually mean when we say that? 👉 LINK

"And what are the essential components of tomorrow's newsroom? What is that one crucial thing to get right? Or several?" 🧞Dmitry Shishkin shared these questions on LinkedIn a couple of weeks ago, and I encourage you to explore the conversations that developed in the comments because they're full of wisdom and inspiration.

(I wanted to share some of my favourite answers but, after copy-pasting six of them and realising I was getting closer to a 2,000-words newsletter... I thought I might leave it to you to find your own favourites 😅)

7. A beginning for change 👉 LINK

Remember 'Change-Centric Journalism', the new initiative by 🧞Jazmín Acuña that I sang the praise of in #32? It's now expanding as a monthly newsletter and a series of meet-ups. Sign-up highly recommended.

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.