Working Groups
Harnessing the research community to strengthen local media ecosystems and democracy
Researchers are working in focused groups toward the development of standards, protocols, playbooks, and tools to establish commonly accepted measures and variables to enable data-sharing across communities and systematic evaluation of changes in ecosystems over time.
The first four LNIC working groups mirror the phases of work involved in local information ecosystem research – from the identification of news and information sources, the collection and analysis of news content, and the study of communities and individual news consumers.
The fifth working group, launched in late 2025, focuses on measuring and defining the economic benefits of local news at the business and community levels.
The newsroom census or database-building working group aims to establish shared data standards and a common codebook around how researchers can coordinate how they structure databases that track what news outlets exist in a given location, who they serve, and other characteristics around ownership and delivery mode.
The working group is developing draft standards and a draft codebook, which it will circulate with working group members and the broader consortium membership for feedback.
Group 2
Computational Methods
Email: matthew.weber@rutgers.edu
Group Co-lead: Damon Kiesow, Missouri School of Journalism
Email: dkiesow@missouri.edu
Ultimately, the working group will publish descriptions of data collection methods and develop recommendations for best practices. The group also aims to make open-source computational tools available for the broader research community to use.
Group 3
Audiences and the Public
This group seeks to identify and consult with key experts who study news audiences in academia and industry, across think tanks, and philanthropy, with the goal of developing a shared resource library, common toolkits, and guides around conducting rigorous local news audience research. These efforts will also highlight important considerations and trade-offs that researchers and funders should weigh when designing such studies of news audiences and the public.
Group 4
Journalism Employment
Additionally, the working group will develop a set of key questions and methodologies to explore rooted in an ongoing review of prior research. Longer term, the group plans to conduct pilot efforts in order to assess differences across these approaches.
Group 5
Economic Impact of Local News
Group Co-lead: Harsh Taneja, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Email: harsht@illinois.edu
Group Co-lead: Benjamin Toff, University of Minnesota
Email: bjtoff@umn.edu
The working group on the economic impact of local news seeks to examine whether a strong local news ecosystem delivers measurable benefits at both the business and community level. The group will develop a comprehensive conceptual framework for defining economic impact, analyze how association with local news compares to platform-based advertising for small businesses and explore how local news contributes to community identity and visibility.
The working group will also identify definitions of economic value that are useful across multiple stakeholders, including nonprofit donors, local governments and advertisers. Longer term, the group plans to connect these metrics to content production and journalism employment trends, with the goal of ensuring that communities are served by strong local journalism that is both sustainably funded and broadly accessible.
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