The Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) and the Local News Impact Consortium (LNIC) this week launched Commissioning a Local News Ecosystem Assessment: An Operational Toolkit, a resource to streamline research about the audiences, news organizations, and industry forces that shape local news.
Authored by independent local news strategist Ariel Zirulnick, the toolkit offers practical walkthroughs grounded in real-world experience, aiming to help communities commission credible news ecosystem research that guides better decision making.
“If you’ve been asked to come up with a report about your local news landscape that can translate broad goals like ‘understand our audience’ or ‘support local journalism’ into clear, scoped, and actionable research, this toolkit is for you,” said Randy Picht, executive director of RJI, which is based at the Missouri School of Journalism.
Understanding a local news ecosystem means untangling the complex network of newsrooms, institutions, platforms, and people that communities rely on for news, information, and civic engagement. A quality assessment of such an ecosystem means doing more than mapping the players in that network; it means revealing gaps in coverage, uncovering patterns of collaboration, learning how people actually access and use news, and determining where investments can have the greatest impact.
The toolkit walks users through the real decisions these assessments require to align stakeholders, clarify goals, assess capacity and budget, understand research options, and work productively with vendors.
Those decision points are about more than producing a shiny new report — they ensure that any findings can be reliably used to inform future programs, partnerships, and grantmaking.
“We believe high-quality ecosystem assessments are critical infrastructure for a healthy community,” said Damon Kiesow, chair of the LNIC. “This guide significantly supports and enhances those efforts by simplifying the complex work of organizing and aligning on the needs of a local ecosystem research project.”
The toolkit will be released in two parts. Part One covers six steps:
- Introduction
- Step 1: Organize Your Research Committee
- Step 2: Take Stock of Existing Data and Research
- Step 3: Define Research Goals, Scope, and Constraints
- Step 4: Issue a Request for Proposals (RFP)
- Step 5: Select a Research Vendor
- Step 6: Develop a Strong Statement of Work (SOW)
Taken as a whole or in part, the toolkit can be used as a shared resource for a committee, a reference guide for a project lead, or a checkpoint before engaging with vendors. It includes details and resources to help users establish organizational readiness, assess internal capacity and budget, identify research priorities, and define vendor selection criteria and timelines.
The second installment of the toolkit developed by RJI, which will launch in March, will focus on organizing work with a research vendor after they’ve been selected, the development of community surveys, and the socialization of findings internally and externally within the community. This effort is designed to accompany work by the LNIC, which in the fall of 2025 published its first playbook for local news researchers: the Newsroom Census/Ecosystem Mapping Toolkit.
The toolkit — including Part Two once it is published — can be found here.
