A group of academics at six journalism schools around the country formed the Local News Impact Consortium (LNIC) with the goal of standardizing the methodology for these studies while creating tools that any local researcher could use to generate their own analysis. That would lower the cost for reports, enable apples-to-apples comparisons in different markets, and allow researchers to do the work without having to reinvent the wheel each time.
“The crisis in local news is too large to be studied or solved from afar. Agency must be given to the people and institutions most directly affected by and defined by the unique characteristics of their own communities,” wrote the Consortium. Knight will provide a planning grant while LNIC seeks additional investments.
