American Press Institute’s community listening sprint awards $15,000 in grants to five news organizations

The American Press Institute awarded grants to five news organizations participating in the Mobilizing News sprint for alumni of the Table Stakes Local News Transformation Program. Each participating organization received $3,000 to support its community listening efforts.

Since June, the cohort has been learning from industry experts about growing trust with communities and creating workflows that support audience listening. The teams conducted community canvassing and have begun planning listening sessions to help them learn about new opportunities to serve and partner with their communities.

“The teams participating in the Mobilizing News sprint for Table Stakes alumni have discovered new ways to engage their communities by identifying strengths and opportunities for partnership through listening,” said Kamaria Roberts, API’s deputy director of local news transformation. “We are excited to support the teams as they continue this work of deepening their community relationships and growing trust.”

Each organization received funding to support the following community engagement work:

• The Buffalo News will host a moderated discussion about media coverage of communities of color and a roundtable to brainstorm topics.
• The Fayetteville Observer will host a listening session at a Black-owned venue to connect with new key sources.
• The Kansas City Star will host a social mixer for Black business owners participating in their listening series, Star journalists and members of The Star’s Black Community Advisory Board.
• The News Journal a.k.a. Delaware Online will host a listening session at a local coffeehouse focusing on Black Wilmington residents interested in improving their quality of life with better housing, education and income opportunities.
• Texas Metro News will host a listening and engaging activity event at AMF DeSoto to reach the community-based segments of the Dallas-Fort Worth population.

Additionally, each organization will continue to receive coaching from Elma González
Lima Brandão, Najja Parker, Jesse Wright and Carlos Virgen.

“We want to impress the women who attend our event, which will be held at a wine cafe that is Black-owned,” said Myron Pitts, opinion editor at The Fayetteville Observer. “These are leaders and professionals, and they are important to us in our efforts to better reach the community. The American Press Institute grant will help greatly with that.”

The sprint program and grants are funded by The Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund, a joint initiative of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism.

For more information, please contact Kamaria Roberts at kamaria.roberts@pressinstitute.org. If you are interested in potentially participating in a similar program, please fill out this form.