Mission and Strategy

The United States has more than 250 nonprofit news organizations, and while they all share a mission of serving the public good, they do so in diverse ways: At some, specialized journalists cover a single topic, in-depth. Others are devoted to covering local news or investigative journalism. This section has resources to help you find, achieve and explain your mission and measure your impact.

Achieving Mission and Impact

• INN Town Hall: Possibilities in Nonprofit News (2019 video)
• Finding Your Nonprofit Mission (from Startup Guide)

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

• INN Index 2020: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
• Vision 25: Building Racial Equity in Newsrooms
• The Missing Perspectives of Women in News (International Women’s Media Foundation, 2020)

Assessing Information Needs

• • • Product-centered News Organizations (from Startup Guide)

Planning Product around Mission

• • • Balance of Important and Popular*
    • Design Thinking in News*
    • News Product Development
      Steps to Building R&D in the Newsroom (2012)
    • Value Propositions
      Idea Generation and Value Proposition (From Startup Guide)
      

Managing Your Brand

• • • Developing Your Brand (From Startup Guide)
      
    • What You Stand For
      Managing Brand Around Mission (Wisconsin Watch case study, 2019)
    • Editorial Independence
    • Your Public Narrative
      • How Independent News Organizations Can Build Sales (2013)
      • Crafting an Elevator Pitch (Video short course, 2014)
      • The Elevator Pitch for Mission-Driven News Nonprofits (2012)
        

Engaging Your Community

 Other sites already have excellent resources on how media organizations can engage their communities:

• • • The University of Texas Center for Media Engagement 
    • Gather, a collaborative project led by the Agora Journalism Center at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism & Communication
    • American Press Institute

Measuring Your Impact

• • • Measuring Impact Will Increase Audience Trust – NiemanLab report
    • INN Index – the most comprehensive study of the nonprofit news sector’s size and reach
      
    • Center for Investigative Reporting’s Open Source Impact Tracker
    • Chalkbeat’s Open Source Platform for Measuring Impact
      
    • Meltwater Impact Tool
      
    • How to Remove the Anxiety of ‘Impact’ Reports (2015)

* Check back later for this section.