How building a local creator map can lead to stronger community connections

This is a series on Better News highlighting replicable strategies from the American Press Institute’s 2025 Influencers Learning Cohort, designed to help local and community media deepen engagement with the communities they serve through new experiments with creators and trusted messengers.

This win comes from Halle Stockton, co-executive director, editor-in-chief; Natasha Khan Vicens, creative director; and Jennie Ewing Liska, co-executive director, revenue and operations, at Pittsburgh’s Public Source.

More on creator collaborations:

• API’s guide to influencer collaborations
• Countering disinformation by training Latino content creators

Pittsburgh’s Public Source informs and inspires the Pittsburgh region through the power of deep, independent journalism. 

We pursued this project to both expand our audience reach and deepen engagement within communities where awareness of our work varies widely. In some neighborhoods, we are a trusted news source for those seeking in-depth local reporting; in others, we’re less familiar, even to people poised to become loyal followers. We see an opportunity to change that.

By building a diverse, regionally representative map of creators and trusted messengers — spanning those with large followings and those with smaller, deeply engaged audiences — we aimed to strengthen connections and identify authentic opportunities for collaboration. For our community, this means new and relevant entry points into journalism that’s rooted in place and passion. For our newsroom, it means building relationships that reflect our values, diversify our reach and position Public Source as a hub for innovative, community-driven storytelling and experiences powered by journalism.

The problem we were looking to solve

Many newsrooms struggle to find local creators and trusted messengers, and don’t understand the full scope of talent in their region. The most visible creators with huge followings are easy to find, but they’re not the only ones with influence. There’s a segment on the cusp of broader recognition, with smaller but highly committed audiences, who can be just as valuable in connecting communities and journalism.

Public Source had done previous work with trusted messengers through our first-person essay program and with creators to provide a signal boost to specific Public Source content. It was through these efforts that we saw a path to more creative collaborations. But we lacked a clear, consistent way to discover creators across the region, assess their work and determine where there was alignment for collaboration.

We built a database of roughly 70 area creators, but we sought to discover additional ones who represent diverse communities and who may be on the cusp of growth, rather than already having amassed large followings. 

Working with Adriana Lacy of Influencer Journalism and  Adriana Lacy Consulting, we mapped more than 40 Pittsburgh-based creators who use Instagram. As Lacy put it, “Pittsburgh’s creator ecosystem is vibrant and hyperlocal, with independent voices that hold real community trust.” The analysis surfaced gaps and opportunities — especially youth-friendly civic explainers and outreach to immigrant and multilingual communities, reinforcing the need for a structured, repeatable way to find and vet partners across niches. 

We also wanted to go beyond transactional relationships. Our goal was to start conversations rooted in mutual understanding — to learn from creators about their work, their audiences and their experiences, even if we never pursued a formal partnership. This positive engagement can lead to organic interaction, stronger brand recognition and new ideas that benefit both our newsroom and our community.

How we did it

We designed the project to be intentional, systematic and collaborative across our team and consultants. We:

• Partnered with Adriana Lacy of Influencer Journalism and Adriana Lacy Consulting: The firm helped shape the process, pressure-test criteria and expand our list into a living map Public Source can maintain. The starting cost to have Influencer Journalism map your local influencer landscape is $1,500.
• Built on what we already had: We shared our existing creator database so consultants could avoid duplication and build from our work instead of starting from scratch.
• Documented the landscape: More than 40 creators were analyzed and tagged with themes like mental health, city pride and history, food and local experiences, humor and activism, plus audience focus and engagement style.
• Focused tightly on Instagram: It’s a priority platform for us where our following has grown significantly. A narrow scope kept the work fast and clear.
• Defined consistent fields and a vetting workflow. The shared, linked database tracks handle, follower count, audience location, topics, sample links, potential collaboration ideas and an alignment assessment.
• Used team-based vetting to avoid single-viewer bias: Multiple staff members and the consultants followed the same accounts so different feeds and perspectives surfaced a fuller view of each creator’s content over time.
• Balanced micro and macro: We prioritized local relevance over raw counts, using micro-creators for depth in specific communities and macro-creators for lift when aligned.
• Prioritized outreach for learning first, not just deals: We scheduled discovery calls to introduce Public Source, understand the creator’s work and audience, and talk about overlap. Partnerships are seen as a result, not a precondition.
• Moved promising fits forward: We kept notes on alignment and next steps, then advanced matches to brainstorms, scoped pilots and contracts.

Make your own influencer map: Make a copy of this spreadsheet from Influencer Journalism to get started

Screenshots from an Instagram video by Dean Bog show different faces from across Pittsburgh. Bog produced 21 episodes of his “Neighborhoods” series, and he reflected on this work as he prepared to move to Portland, Oregon. (Screen captures of a video by Dean Bog created in collaboration with Pittsburgh’s Public Source)

Our impact

Relationship pipeline: We conducted eight new conversations, completed one partnership (which garnered a powerful discussion of 80-plus comments and the creator suggesting a topical event), signed one additional partnership contract and have more brainstorms underway, with several other conversations in the scheduling phase.

Platform momentum: Our Instagram following has more than doubled in the past 18 months, with most growth in recent months. Several creators we spoke with began engaging with our brand online, strengthening visibility and trust before formal collaborations. 

Examples of collaborations in spring 2025 that helped fuel the growth:

• A farewell to Pittsburgh from Dean Bog, a filmmaker who created 21 episodes of his “Neighborhoods” series that highlight his hometown
• A collaboration between visuals intern Anastasia Busby and nature enthusiast Ash Andrews, featuring Andrews’ poetry inspired by Pittsburgh’s three rivers
• An adaptation of a first-person essay by Emma Riva, reflecting on being a “passenger princess”
• An adaptation of a first-person essay by multimedia artist and storyteller Njaimeh Njie about the East Liberty Neighborhood

 

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A post shared by Pittsburgh’s Public Source (@publicsource)

Better regional coverage of creators: The map reflects neighborhoods, interests and audience sizes across the city and Allegheny County, helping us look beyond the most obvious mainstream accounts.

Repeatable process: The database and vetting workflow give us a faster, clearer path to identify, assess and advance potential collaborations and to keep institutional memory.

Editorial and engagement upside: Early conversations surfaced practical partnership ideas and new entry points into community-centered storytelling that feel relevant and are sometimes lighter fare for our audiences while aligning with our standards. 

Read more: How Public Source made community-centered journalism a newsroom-wide effort

How to put this into practice for yourself

These steps translate our process into a repeatable playbook any local newsroom can run. Start focused, learn fast, then scale what works.

• Mobilize your whole network. Ask staff, interns and your audience to suggest creators. Use newsletter polls. Funnel everything into one shared database with notes, ideas and links.
• Define scope and criteria early. Start with one priority platform. Think about what “creator” and “trusted messenger” mean for your market so the team vets consistently.
• Build on what exists. If you have lists or past partners, import them. Improving beats reinventing.
• Follow before you pitch. Have multiple team members follow the same accounts for a few weeks to see different content and get a real read on alignment.
• Lead with learning, not deals. Reach out for a conversation about their work, audience and past partnerships. There’s no pressure to close, but don’t be shy about asking for rates, especially if they are experienced in partnerships. If they’re early in their journey, offer a fair proposal and leave the door open if timing isn’t right.
• Remember, they’re your neighbors. Learn where they are, what they care about and how they interact with news. You’ll surface sources, story ideas and smarter ways to show up.
• Centralize your notes. Log every conversation, alignment takeaways and next steps in one place that the whole team uses.
• Think beyond posts. Partnerships can span brand awareness, storytelling, co-created explainers, events and IRL activities that fit your mission.
• Balance depth and reach. Pair micro-creators for community trust with macro-creators for scale when the audience fit is local.
• Prioritize local fit. Ask where a creator’s audience lives and how they engage. Geographic alignment beats raw numbers.
• Pilot small, then expand. Test a low-lift idea with clear roles and success measures. Each effort provides an opportunity to learn and gain confidence in this space.
• Measure what matters. Track the relationship pipeline, engagement lifts, audience growth and creator feedback so you can prove value and iterate.