Audience-building projects from nonprofit newsrooms
INN, Dot Connector Studio, Democracy Fund, Institute for Nonprofit News,When City Limits wanted to target civic-minded New Yorkers with a new way to access and learn more about arts in the city, the organization tried to build an audience by encouraging potential readers to submit their own stories and artwork highlighting city experiences. And when the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting wanted to reach citizens interested in a story about anonymous spending on state campaigns, it created a Twitter bot to automatically send a tweet with campaign finance information. These projects are among 28 case studies compiled by the Institute for Nonprofit News to help nonprofit newsrooms borrow ideas that could be adapted to their own communities and audiences.
For nonprofit newsrooms, convening and engaging people around issues that shape public and civic life are increasingly critical parts of journalism as practiced today. They happen alongside journalists’ work to report and distribute information.