1. How Policy Organizations Can Leverage the New Media Landscape
Bill Nichols
Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity

2. Everyone hates pitching stories

3. Because this is often the result:

4. There are fewer and fewer reporters to pitch to

5. It’s an all too-familiar story: local media is wasting away
It’s an all too-familiar story: local media is wasting away. In 2000, the Denver Post had 310 employees. Now, it has 70.

6. Or you manage to get a story published and it doesn’t do justice to what you had in mind

7. So why not become your own publisher?

8. There are lots of advantages

9. You control your message
End the anxiety about how the story will be cast and written.
Stop worrying about whether issues and quotes will lack the proper context.
Remove the added stress of wondering how the story will be played: you control display on your website, Medium, or social media.
Stop trying to convince local media to cover the issues you care about; offer resources for a dedicated reporter or special report.

10. You eliminate trying to seduce reporters

11. And – in order to have impact – you don’t need to have the resources to create an entire newsroom

12. What you need

13. • Size doesn’t always matter • Grow in step with your goals—and with your audience.
A team

14. • Creating content isn’t enough • The power to publish is what frees you from the need to pitch
A publishing platform

15. A social media and email strategy
• It’s all about the eyeballs
• Get beyond Twitter
• Don’t need to start from scratch
A social media and strategy

16. Most importantly: a theory of the case. What’s your goal
Most importantly: a theory of the case. What’s your goal? — Change a specific issue? — Build cohesion between grantees? — Drawing attention to your org’s research?

17. In Today’s Journalism, there are no competitors; only partners

18. Help Multiply Resources
Walton Family Foundation saw a dearth of coverage of the precarious state of the Gulf Coast
Stepped in and funded a collaboration between The New York Times and local New Orleans media

19. Nearly one in five American children grow up in poverty
FEW ISSUES ARE MORE IMPORTANT IN TODAY'S AMERICA THAN EXPANDING OPPORTUNITY
5.3 million Americans are entrenched in deep poverty – and are living on just $4 a day
Automation is projected to make up to a third of US jobs obsolete by 2030
Nearly one in five American children grow up in poverty
Sources

20. Local Coverage Is Non-Existent
While the problem is pervasive, there is scant capacity to cover it adequately at the local level, and no resources to do stories about what policy changes will mean
Of the ten states with the highest poverty rates, none have a dedicated poverty reporter at their largest news outlets
I started my career with the Jackson (Ms.) Clarion-Ledger in 1980, when it had just over 100 staffers. As of last year, it has of whom cover sports. The city has a poverty rate of 30.7 percent.

21. Too many crucial issues are left uncovered
Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity study on media coverage of terms “poverty” and “low-income,” Oct. 2017

22. Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity
THE SOURCE FOR NEWS, IDEAS, AND ACTION

23. What is Spotlight?
Non-partisan initiative focused on a range of original content that focuses on solutions for addressing poverty at the federal, state, and local level
As the decline in local media continues and quality content about income inequality grows even more scarce, we generate original journalism, blog posts, briefings, webinars and video series, conferences, and more on important poverty issues
One-stop shop for research, news, data, and commentary; daily news aggregation

24. Original Journalism Project
In-depth exclusive reporting on how national policy affects low-income people at the local level
Offers opportunities to writers from impacted communities
Fills a void in poverty journalism
Hub of network providing content on income inequality issues to news outlets across the country
Chosen as one of 31 participants in Media Transformation Challenge at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center

25. A Fledgling Network Netw NETWORK

26. 45 Stories In Three Years

27. The digital revolution is difficult for all sides of the content ecosystem

28. But it is also creating opportunities
Opportunities for nonprofits, foundations, and think tanks to take control of their own narrative and tell their own story
But it is also creating opportunities

29. Questions?