Published Writing & Public Speeches
2023
The Roadmap for Local News: An Emergent Approach to Meeting Civic Information Needs
I helped lead a team committed to the development of a set of recommendations – a “roadmap” – to revitalize and reimagine the local news ecosystems in this country so communities get the news and information they need to thrive.
2023
Journalism’s Civic Media Moment Could Be a Movement
(Kettering Foundation / National Civic League)
— the final chapter from the book “Reinventing Journalism to Strengthen Democracy: Insights from innovators”
We live in a time of deep distrust―of each other, the media, and institutions of all kinds. In this volume of essays, innovative journalists from newspapers, public radio, civic media groups, and new media collectives examine how we've reached this point. These essays highlight opportunities that are emerging as old practices give way to the new demands of an engaged, diverse, and restive public. They call on us to create a more inclusive democratic narrative that better captures the rich diversity of our nation and its complicated history | Buy the book here.
2021
Journalism is a public good. Let the public make it.
(Columbia Journalism Review)
Ivory-tower journalism has failed. It’s time we focus on building public infrastructure where everyone can find, factcheck, and produce civic information. I lay out a plan for how to do that in a special report for the Columbia Journalism Review
2020
What Journalism Can Learn from Mutual Aid
(Columbia Journalism Review)
Mutual aid efforts suggest a way forward, a new type of newsroom that serves as the nerve center for local information hubs. In this Columbia Journalism Review special report, I outline why journalists should see their work as part of an ecosystem of social services.
2019
Don’t Just Engage, Equip
(citybureau.org)
To reimagine and repair local news, democratize the journalistic process. In this speech, delivered as the closing keynote of the 2019 Collaborative Journalism Summit in Philadelphia, I apply City Bureau’s “inform, engage, equip” framework to engaged reporting.
Interviewed in
2023
Democracy’s Immune System
(Obama Foundation Democracy Forum)
I sat down with John Palfrey (MacArthur Foundation), Nancy Gibbs (Shorenstein Center), Sonal Shah (Texas Tribune) in a panel moderated by Judy Woodruff.
2022
Developing a New Journalism that Builds Community
(Nonprofit Quarterly)
[VIDEO] I joined Nonprofit Quarterly for their “Remaking the Economy: Information, the Media, and Economic Justice” webinar.
2022
Inviting the Community to Make the News
(Popula)
I joined Mediaquake columnist Kate Harloe in her ongoing interview series about journalism, capitalism, and the future of both.
2022
How Strengthening Democracy Begins With Better Local News
(Forbes / Ashoka)
I sat down with Keith Hammonds of the Solutions Journalism Network to talk about why a truly public local news ecosystem matters.
2019
How Chicago’s ‘J-school of the Streets’ Is Reinventing Local News
(Politico)
City Bureau is training young reporters to improve coverage of underserved communities.
2019
Me, My Shelf and I
(Chicago Tribune)
In this week's Me, My Shelf and I, reporter Darryl Holliday, founder of Chicago's Illustrated Press, shares his book collection and DIY approach to comics