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Local Edition is the Poynter Institute’s newsletter for people who care about local news. Written by Kristen Hare, Poynter’s local news faculty member and longtime local news industry reporter, each issue of Local Edition focuses on what’s happening in local news. Sign up now to get Local Edition in your inbox every Wednesday morning.

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Photo courtesy Elizabeth Myong

How one Dallas reporter took on deepfakes

Kristen Hare

The final class of the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship last week in Arlington, Virginia. (Credit: Rose Priebe)

Advice for old(er) journalists

Kristen Hare

Screen shot, Community Aid Network by Kati Kokal

Here’s how to help laid off journalists in Los Angeles

Kristen Hare

A stack of the weekly edition of the Marion County Record sits in the back of the newspaper's building, awaiting unbundling, sorting and distribution, Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023, in Marion, Kan. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

5 local news experts on the best and worst of 2023

Kristen Hare

Donna Kelce, left, mother of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce watched the game with pop superstar Taylor Swift, center, during the first-half on Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023, at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. (Tammy Ljungblad/The Kansas City Star)

How The Kansas City Star is covering the Taylor Swift beat

Kristen Hare

Mike Pride, right, was recognized with a Good Citizenship Award, presented by the Clearwater Civitan Club. (St. Petersburg Times, 1964) Civitan Club:, General, See Also : Camps:, Civitan Civitan Club:, General, See Also : Camps:, Civitan, rpasend2

Remembering Mike Pride, who worked to make local news better

Kristen Hare

Courtesy Linda Lockhart

Walk down newsroom memory lane with these old photos

Kristen Hare

(Shutterstock)

Asian Americans severely underrepresented among on-air TV journalists, report finds

Angela Fu

Image via Street Sense Media

This newsroom covers the homeless crisis. Here’s the guide it built for reporters.

Kristen Hare

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New book is a love letter to local newspapers — and an SOS to the communities they serve

Kristen Hare

Boxes of ballots sit in the Maricopa County Recorder and Elections Department offices after Arizona's primary election Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Here’s how 2 local reporters in battleground states are tackling the midterms

Amaris Castillo

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Take this free crash course and bring better science into your reporting

Kristen Hare

Via Center for Cooperative Media

How is your newsroom covering democracy?

Kristen Hare

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How can local newsrooms retain journalists of color?

Kristen Hare

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These projects are shifting and sharing power in local news

Kristen Hare

Fellows, in the foreground, work at The Texas Tribune office on Jan. 22, 2020. (Photo by Eddie Gaspar)

Here’s the anatomy of an awesome internship program

Amaris Castillo

The Dallas Morning News is one of a handful of newsrooms with labs devoted to covering education. From left on front row: Brayden Garcia (former Ed Lab intern who is now at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram), Emily Donaldson, Talia Richman, Eva-Marie Ayala. Back row: Corbett Smith and Valeria Olivares. (Courtesy Eva-Marie Ayala)

As focus grows on schools, local newsrooms launch education reporting labs

Angela Fu

Image via Shelby Harris, Carolina Public Press

Tips on covering ARPA and infrastructure/environment

Kristen Hare

Tips for covering ARPA and public health

Kristen Hare

From left: Amaris Castillo, then a reporter for The Sun in Lowell, Massachusetts, accompanies Ismael Rodriguez and Margarita Garcia Lozada, on their daily walk for a feature story in 2019. (Julia Malakie/The Sun)

You know that person you always see in your community? Write about them.

Amaris Castillo

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Are you covering the American Rescue Plan Act? ‘It’s a huge deal.’

Kristen Hare

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How a St. Louis anchor turned a racist call into something good

Kristen Hare

Screen shot, Los Angeles Times

How the Los Angeles Times refreshed a newspaper staple

Kristen Hare

Pictured top right to left: Alaina Beautiful Bald Eagle is managing editor of the West River Eagle on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota; Kevin Schnepf worked as sports editor at The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead until his retirement in December; Lori Freeze is news editor at the Stone County Leader in Arkansas; Wes Brown is publisher of The Daily Record in Arkansas. Bottom right to left: Benny Polacca is a senior reporter at Osage News in Oklahoma; Bonita Gooch is editor-in-chief and publisher of The Community Voice in Kansas; Jeremy Waltner is second-generation publisher and editor of the Freeman Courier in South Dakota; Carrie Pitzer, second from the right, is owner and publisher of Pitzer Digital in Nebraska. (Submitted photos)

Edible cicadas, essential workers and other local news stories from 2021

Kristen Hare

WLKY anchor Lauren Adams married into a family that has lived in Mayfield for generations. (Al Tompkins/Poynter)

‘There honestly are just not enough adjectives to describe the totality of the destruction.’

Kristen Hare

Alicia Barnes at home and in the studio. (Courtesy: Kirstin Pellizzaro and Madeleine Liseblad)

How do viewers feel about broadcasters working from home? They don’t hate it, a study finds

Kristen Hare

Image via Shutterstock

The newsroom guide for getting money to hire journalists

Kristen Hare

Image via Shutterstock

The Associated Press wants to help local newsrooms with AI and automation

Kristen Hare

Illustration by Momkai

3 lessons from a project devoted to understanding membership

Kristen Hare

Monica Richardson, right corner, is executive editor of the Miami Herald. She and her daughter recently attended a Marlins game with Herald interns and staffers. (Courtesy Monica Richardson)

Lessons from the Miami Herald’s Monica Richardson

Kristen Hare

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Can J-schools fix news deserts?

Kristen Hare

Screenshot, N.C. Policy Watch

The local reporter who broke the Nikole Hannah-Jones/UNC story also got her latest exclusive

Kristen Hare

Image via WAMU/DCist

For this DC newsroom, cicadas were delicious content

Kristen Hare

Screenshot, Minneapolis Star Tribune

One Minneapolis reporter on the year since George Floyd’s murder

Kristen Hare

Cherry The Party Tomato and friends. (Image: Southern California News Group)

This reporter grew tomatoes with his readers

Kristen Hare

Images from documentaries and short films from Documented, DigBoston and Dustin Cohen. (Screenshots)

Here are some films and short documentaries about local news

Kristen Hare

Image via Adobe

5 reasons to be a little bit optimistic about local news

Kristen Hare

An April 19 March in Minneapolis. (Photo: Jaida Grey Eagle/Sahan Journal)

How journalists in Minnesota covered a story that shook the world

Kristen Hare

Image via Adobe Photostock

We love the flexibility of working from home. We miss the humans.

Kristen Hare

Photojournalist Amanda Rossmann edits video footage for the documentary '2020: The Year That Revealed Us' while working from the Cincinnati Enquirer office. (Photo by Meg Vogel/Cincinnati Enquirer)

How The Cincinnati Enquirer captured the big picture one day at a time in 2020

Kristen Hare

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How to amplify the voices we need the most

Kristen Hare

Image via Adobe Stock

It’s been almost a year since we worked together.

Kristen Hare

Innovation isn’t just about tech and other lessons from journalists in mid-America

Kristen Hare

This summer, journalist Mitra Kalita launched a newsletter, Epicenter-NYC, to serve her neighborhood during the pandemic. Early this year, she co-founded URL Media, a network of Black and Brown media organizations. (Images via Instagram)

How S. Mitra Kalita went from leading coverage of the world at CNN to connecting her neighbors in Queens

Kristen Hare

Damage is visible in the early morning hours of Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021, after protesters stormed the Capitol in Washington, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Journalists around the country are doing their damn jobs. You might be one of them. Thank you.

Kristen Hare

Enrique Limón (Image via Robert Wood Photography)

This local journalist spent most of 2020 unemployed. Here’s how he made it through.

Kristen Hare

Phua (left) and Blia Thao harvested rhubarb on their farm in Spring Valley, WI. (JIM GEHRZ/STAR TRIBUNE)

After 40 years writing about food, this editor retires next week

Kristen Hare

Pauly Denetclaw covers Indigenous affairs for the Texas Observer. She's pictured here in photos by Nate Lemuel, left, and Zachariah Ben, right.

This Texas newsroom has a new Indigenous affairs reporter who never planned to work for mainstream news

Kristen Hare

Image via Shutterstock

Here are even more books by journalists you should read

Kristen Hare

Belle, Superman and Batman play with children at the Silke Field evacuation site in Springfield, Oregon on Sept. 10. (Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian)

This Portland photojournalist found a little hope in the haze

Kristen Hare

From a pre-pandemic photo shoot. Photo by Scott Keeler, Tampa Bay Times

How to be funny in a pandemic

Kristen Hare

Staff of Mountain State Spotlight gathered for the first time at the capital for socially distanced group photos. Both Ken Ward Jr., and Eric Eyre spoke about the talented, eager reporters they’re now working with, several who are West Virginia natives. (Photo by F. Brian Ferguson)

Sustained outrage has a new home in West Virginia

Kristen Hare

Screen shot, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

Missing the state fair? Here’s the link.

Kristen Hare

A makeshift beer garden in the parking lot of Craft House in Dana Point (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A restaurant critic’s new job? Reviewing ‘Covid comfort’ levels.

Kristen Hare

Gazette editors work in a corridor at the printing press, plugged directly into the server to produce the newspaper on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020. (Liz Martin/The Gazette)

Covering Cedar Rapids’ derecho in the middle of a pandemic

Kristen Hare

Kara Meyberg Guzman is figuring out how to keep podcasting in a pandemic. (Photo by Will Duncan/Santa Cruz Local)

This local newsroom is growing during the pandemic

Kristen Hare

Screen shot, Anchorage Daily News

How do you follow a Pulitzer-winning project? By listening.

Kristen Hare

Screen shots via CalMatters, Tampa Bay Times and The Boston Globe

What’s the infection rate where I live? How many people are in hospitals? What is there even to do? These projects offer answers.

Kristen Hare

Image via Forum Communications’ “A State of Crisis: 19 Hours in Minnesota.”

How 18 newsrooms captured one pandemic day in Minnesota

Kristen Hare

Thái Thanh was a world famous Vietnamese pop diva who died in California. A reporter at the Los Angeles Times reported on the memorial service by watching it on Facebook Live and traveling to Little Saigon in Orange County. (Screenshot, Facebook Live)

When a diva died, this Los Angeles Times reporter captured a story of grief and community in a pandemic

Kristen Hare

Image via Shutterstock

What work are you excited about right now?

Kristen Hare

Top left: Screenshot, the Seattle Times; right: Screenshot, the Baltimore Sun; bottom left: Screenshot, the Anchorage Daily News.

This year’s Pulitzers are a reminder why local news matters all the time, not just in a crisis

Kristen Hare

From top: Someone has been setting up a table of free bagged lunches for those in need outside the Arundel Beach Road traffic circle in Severna Park.(Selene San Felice/Capital Gazette) Bottom right: Sydney Hoover covers schools in Eudora, Kansas from her home in De Soto, Kansas. (Image courtesy Sydney Hoover) Bottom middle: Arlene Van Dyk is a critical care nurse at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck. (Photo: Jeff Rhode Holy Name Hospital/Special to NorthJersey.com) Bottom left: Storytellers project founder and director, Megan Finnerty. (Photo: Jeremiah Toller)

Looking for the helpers? Look at local news.

Kristen Hare

Arlene Van Dyk is a critical care nurse at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck. (Photo: Jeff Rhode Holy Name Hospital/Special to NorthJersey.com)

People are dying alone because of the coronavirus. This journalist told the story of a nurse trying to help families stay connected.

Kristen Hare

The Dryes in a living room concert for WGHP (Screenshot, Facebook Live)

How can local newsrooms cover the coronavirus and offer a break from it? Like this.

Kristen Hare

WGBH’s Arun Rath hosts the new nightly news program, ‘In It Together.’ (Photo courtesy WGBH)

We’re all in this together, and the work of local news shows it

Kristen Hare

Image via Shutterstock

Here’s how newsrooms are preparing for the coronavirus

Kristen Hare

Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph operators during the Spanish influenza epidemic in Jacksonville, Florida. Nearly one-third of the city's residents contracted influenza, according to historian Gary Mormino. [State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory (1918)]

It’s been a long week already. Here’s how local news has covered it.

Kristen Hare

Image via Shutterstock

How do I…? Guides for writing, reporting, funding and more

Kristen Hare

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This Valentine’s Day, here are 4 ways to show your love for local news

Kristen Hare

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What are your CMS horror stories?

Kristen Hare

Screenshot from a Tampa Bay Times front page

5 tips for finding work that leads to change

Kristen Hare

Image via Shutterstock

Let’s read/share great local news

Kristen Hare

Image via SCNG

‘Cover what makes your area unique’ and other lessons from Southern California

Kristen Hare

Image via Durango Herald

Your newsroom might be small. You should still think big.

Kristen Hare

A couple chats near the Pineapple Fountain in the Waterfront Park in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2013. (AP Photo/Bruce Smith)

In Charleston, local ownership means fewer layoffs

Kristen Hare

We asked Malick Mercier, a young journalist who was there to share his thoughts. (Screen shot, Instagram)

What worked and what didn’t from Facebook’s local news summit

Kristen Hare

Screenshot, Dallas Morning News

What isn’t your newsroom covering that your audience wants more of?

Kristen Hare

Screenshot, Facebook Live

When local news does what it can do best

Kristen Hare

Image via Shutterstock

Use these 4 questions to help you think through ethics issues

Kristen Hare

Image via Shutterstock

How do you cover what matters to your community? ‘Change your thinking.’

Kristen Hare

Image via Shutterstock

Grieve, but don’t give up (and other lessons from layoffs)

Kristen Hare

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The funnel, saying no and other things we tried to figure out in 2018

Kristen Hare

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Midterm coverage ideas worth borrowing for 2020

Kristen Hare

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3 cool ideas to steal from local news

Kristen Hare

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This series is traveling the country to show why local news matters

Kristen Hare

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Notebooks are magic and other lessons from working with kid journalists

Kristen Hare

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Lessons from a 25-year-old local ‘startup’

Kristen Hare

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Want to keep up with Florence coverage? Follow these local newsrooms

Kristen Hare

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She knew how to cover Flint. Now she’s figuring out how to make that coverage sustainable.

Kristen Hare

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Where can you find funding for that local journalism project? Here’s a quick guide

Kristen Hare

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How The Seattle Times brought in more than $4 million to fund critical coverage

Kristen Hare

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How this Ohio newsroom got the community to contribute nearly $70,000 for journalism

Kristen Hare

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This Connecticut publisher got 5 major foundations to support local journalism

Kristen Hare

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Play well with others and other tips on growing audience

Kristen Hare

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Lessons on reaching new people from a sold-out storytelling series

Kristen Hare

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How has your newsroom reached new audiences?

Kristen Hare

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When local journalists come under attack

Kristen Hare

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5 ways these small newsrooms did big projects

Kristen Hare

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How can small newsrooms do big work? Like this, part 2

Kristen Hare

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How can small newsrooms do big work? Like this.

Kristen Hare

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5 ways your small newsroom can make big projects manageable

Kristen Hare

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This 18-year-old asked for an AJC subscription for Christmas

Kristen Hare

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Heres how the subscriber funnel, or whatever you want to call it, works

Kristen Hare

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Is funnel even the right concept for building audiences?

Kristen Hare

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Dont hard sell potential members. Just make it easy.

Kristen Hare

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3 questions to ask before starting that membership program

Kristen Hare

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4 lessons for local journalists from this years Pulitzer Prize winners

Kristen Hare

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Membership doesn’t just have to be a transaction. It can be meaningful.

Kristen Hare

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Let’s stop talking about how we value local journalism and do something

Kristen Hare

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“I dont want to be a drop-in journalist.”

Kristen Hare

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Local Edition: How to create events with your community, not for them

Kristen Hare

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Local Edition: Without a strategy, newsroom events don’t work

Kristen Hare

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Local Edition: How cleaning off your desk can help you figure out what to say no to

Kristen Hare

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Local Edition: Want to get better at saying no? Prioritize, collaborate and think long term

Kristen Hare

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Local Edition: These three things will make it easier to say no

Kristen Hare

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Local Edition: It’s a new year, let’s make some changes

Kristen Hare

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Local Edition: ‘Journalism is evolving and so is my thinking on it’

Kristen Hare

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Local Edition: 6 lessons for journalism from people who aren’t journalists

Kristen Hare

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Local Edition: Heres what we’ve figured out about the future of local news (so far)

Kristen Hare

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Local Edition: It is possible to shift to digital and not be clickbait

Kristen Hare

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Local Edition: How do you keep up when ‘everything is on fast forward?’

Kristen Hare

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In newsrooms, ‘we don’t have assembly lines anymore, and theyre not coming back’

Kristen Hare

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‘More like never stop’ and other ways digital has changed how we work

Kristen Hare

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How has digital journalism changed your work day?

Kristen Hare

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Is your journalism valuable?

Kristen Hare

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Local Edition: What’s your work worth? Here’s one way to find out.

Kristen Hare

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Local Edition: The business is your business

Kristen Hare

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Local Edition: Does ‘the business side’ have to be a separate side?

Kristen Hare

A man walks among fallen trees left in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017, in Victoria, Tex. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Local Edition: Inside a small Texas newsroom that lost power and kept covering the storm

Kristen Hare

Taylor Moxey is 11 and probably doing way more than you. (Photo courtesy taylorthechef.com)

This 11-year-old has some pretty great advice on learning new things

Kristen Hare

Photo by Chris Blakeley via Flickr

Local Edition: Journalism is changing fast. What do you need to learn to get ahead?

Kristen Hare

Photo by Trevor Huxham via Flickr

Local Edition: ‘Newsrooms cannot do this alone’

Kristen Hare

Photo courtesy Civic Dinners.

Local Edition: Here’s what journalists can learn from a dinner party project

Kristen Hare

Photo by Mirandala via Flickr

Local Edition: How a tiny nonprofit is listening to and working with the community (including the lawn bowlers)

Kristen Hare

Photo by vic xia via Flickr

Local Edition: Postcards, game nights and other real ways journalists can connect with their communities

Kristen Hare

Photo by Faruk Ateş/Flickr

Local Edition: It’s not the ping pong tables. Or the office beer. Or the cake.

Kristen Hare

San Francisco Chronicle Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper pours champagne in the newsroom as the newspaper celebrates 150 years of operation on Friday January 16, 2015 in San Francisco, California. (Photo courtesy San Francisco Chronicle)

Local Edition: Want to change work culture? ‘You can’t just write it on a memo and think that everybody gets it.’

Kristen Hare

This was the scene in the newsroom of The New York Times, in New York City on Sunday, Nov. 5, 1978 as editorial staffs worked feverishly to prepare a edition on Monday. Staffs reported to work after the papers reached tentative agreements with all striking unions. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm )

Local Edition: How can newsrooms keep good culture and fix bad culture?

Kristen Hare

Photo via Flickr by Scott Beale /Laughing Squid

Local Edition: Stop waiting for your newsroom culture to change itself

Kristen Hare

A list of words no longer allowed in the news meetings at Philadelphia Media Network. (Photo by Kristen Hare/Poynter)

Local Edition: Thinking in print is holding you back from digital

Kristen Hare

Photo by Open Grid Scheduler/Flickr (http://bit.ly/2qSJ3ta)

Local Edition: What newsrooms can learn from schoolrooms

Kristen Hare

Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Local Edition: Mónica Guzmán on running a business, unlearning AP Style and why you have to read the comments

Kristen Hare

Photo by Chris Pirillo/Flickr (http://bit.ly/2pYtnrJ)

Local Edition: Journalists need to unlearn ‘we are the authority.’ ‘We are not.’

Kristen Hare

The new and old Amelia Earhart Memorial Bridges in Atchison, Kansas in 2013. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

Local Edition: Journalists, it’s time to catch up

Kristen Hare

In this Feb. 27, 2007 file photo, the Belo Corp. headquarters building is seen behind The Dallas Morning News building in downtown Dallas. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum,)

Local Edition: What Mike Wilson learned at FiveThirtyEight and The Dallas Morning News

Kristen Hare

Photo by Matt Gibson/Flickr

Local edition: What skills do journalists need? Thick skin, vision, patience, all the basics

Kristen Hare

This is a general view of the Associated Press Washington D.C. bureau during a quiet night shift, with teletype machines at left, 1972. (AP Photo)

Local Edition: What skills do you need to stay in journalism?

Kristen Hare

Image by Amiee via Flickr.

Local Edition: Take your vacation, invest in your staff, acknowledge good work and other tips for avoiding burnout

Kristen Hare

Tony Elkins, deputy managing editor, Sarasota Herald-Tribune. (Submitted photo)

Local Edition: ‘…Local journalism scares the sh*t out of me right now’

Kristen Hare

(Craig Pittman, right, talks with Florida Governor Rick Scott. Photo by Atoyia Deans/Tampa Bay Times)

Local Edition: Here’s why journalists stay in the business

Kristen Hare

Local Edition Header Final

We’re launching a newsletter conversation about the future of local news

Kristen Hare