Complete Story
08/17/2018
How this Ohio newsroom got the community to contribute nearly $70,000 for journalism
The baby shower was just the beginning.
Last September, Richland Source used a $10,000 grant from the Solutions Journalism Network to build on coverage of infant mortality and safe sleeping and to hold a community baby shower. At that shower, the for-profit site in North Central Ohio promoted safe sleep, created a Listening Post to capture the stories of expectant mothers and gave them gifts including a “baby box” for safe sleeping.
The reporting was the site’s first experience with solutions journalism, and that approach has helped them develop as a company, said Jay Allred, Richland Source’s publisher.
“It’s just a lens through which we see our role as an independent news company.”
It’s also an approach that can come with some different funding opportunities. After the baby shower, the impact and the community reaction, Allred and his staff started to wonder what other topics, audiences and funders were out there.
The eight-person newsroom started to brainstorm what they could do to help community members participate more in seeing their city through the lens of solutions journalism and the impact it could have.
