Hello, journalists and journalism supporters! Hope you’re staying reasonably warm as the January winds blow. With this newsletter, we hope you’ll find something that will help ease the post-holiday doldrums.

This month we’re highlighting

• Our AI and journalism hackathon: A chance to get that dream project off the ground
• The launch of the Nonprofit and Public Journalism Network 
• Links to training opportunities, interesting reading and a whole bunch of job openings 
• Our student programs – are growing!
• Research on trust in news, AI use and source diversity

Scroll down (or click the link at the bottom if you can’t get to all the good parts) to read all about it.

– Ben Toff, research, bjtoff@umn.edu; Gayle (G.G.) Golden, associate director of student educational initiatives, ggolden@umn.edu; Regina McCombs, associate director of outreach and training, rmccombs@umn.edu; and Meg Martin, associate director of pretty much everything, martinme@umn.edu. 

Get your dream project off the ground or explore the possibilities for ethical AI in your newsroom with our Hackathon

Every journalist has that project we’d tackle if we had the time and resources: A tool for planning and slotting stories that connects to existing systems ... a statewide reporting tool that gathers and summarizes data from multiple sources ... an internal way to automatically measure stories' impacts across their lifespan ... a way to gather meeting notes from disparate government organizations... the list is as long as a Monday night city council agenda.

• AI Hackathon: Making Local Civic Information More Accessible in Minnesota Communities

Some of those projects could benefit from responsibly deployed AI tools. And the MJC wants to help you make them a reality. We’re partnering with Hacks/Hackers to host a free hackathon on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, where you can pitch your best ideas, work with programmers to start building them – and potentially even walk away with a tool you can use in your newsroom.

BONUS: Hacks/Hackers will be awarding up to $10,000 in cash prizes to help the winning team (or teams) further develop their ideas and turn them into reality.

How to get involved: Join us solo or bring friends, colleagues or partners who might be interested. Registration is free, but please RSVP so we can plan for space and food. Students, journalists, programmers, policy makers and community members are welcome.

Spend an afternoon workshopping solutions for your newsroom’s most gnawing challenges 

Ahead of the hackathon, we're hosting a workshop to help you frame and refine the newsroom challenges you’d most like to tackle, whether you’re able to join us for the hackathon or not. 

• Designing the Future of Local News: An AI Workshop

This workshop is in conjunction with the Minnesota Newspaper Association's annual convention, but journalists from any type of news organization are welcome. We'll begin by hearing from some local news organizations about how they're using AI -- and if they're not yet using it, how they're beginning to think about it.

Then we'll bring you together to identify opportunities to use AI in your news organizations' operations, reporting and workflows. We'll talk about the types of work that AI is good at, and you’ll develop ideas around applications for AI in your news organizations. It’s an opportunity for entire newsroom teams to workshop their most pressing challenges, or an individual to develop their pitch.

Details: Thursday, Jan. 30 from 1:30 to 5 p.m. at the Minneapolis Marriott Northwest in Brooklyn Park. $25 registration fee; free for journalists who work in nonprofit news and public media (use code Hack130)

Headed to MNA? Come say hello!

The MJC team will be at the MNA convention on Thursday and Friday, Jan. 30 and 31. If you’re headed to the convention, please stop by our table and say hello! 

Bonus: MJC Director Ben Toff will be on a panel with The Poynter Institute’s Alex Mahadevan and Trusting News’ Lynn Walsh on Friday at 9:30 a.m. on centering ethics, equity and audience when using AI in your newsroom. 

Do you work for a public or nonprofit news org in Minnesota? Join our nonprofit news community

The genesis of the new network: McKnight Foundation media and journalism partner gathering on May 3, 2024.

The Nonprofit and Public Journalism Network launches Feb. 26 with a get-together on campus. If you work for a public or non-profit media organization and would like to be part of the monthly training and support sessions, shoot us an email, we’ll add you to the mailing list and send the details. Thanks to a grant from the McKnight Foundation, the MJC will host in-person and virtual events for both education and networking throughout the year. Even if you can’t make it to the metro area regularly, we’re working to build a virtual network around the state and connect people to others who work in similar roles, whether it’s editor, reporter, photographer or manager! Sign up and we’ll keep you up to date. 

You can also find the MJC at: The Institute for Independent Journalism’s 2025 Freelance Conference Feb. 27-28 (virtual).



Other journalism events on the calendar

Looking for training events to share with your team, or develop your own expertise? Want to see how other newsrooms in the state are engaging with their communities? Interested in supporting your Minnesota journalism colleagues in their launches and events? We’ve got a calendar for (all) that. Subscribe to our training calendar or newsroom events calendar -- or email us to share events you'd like added to the calendar or featured in this newsletter. 

A few highlights in the coming weeks: 

• Today: The Star Tribune is launching its first longform podcast, “Ghost of a Chance,” with a community conversation Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Sabathani Community Center in Minneapolis.
• This Thursday at noon: Native Americans in Philanthropy is hosting a virtual roundtable of Indigenous journalists for a conversation on Indigenous representation in journalism. 
• From Hubbard’s Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law: ““High Value Lies: Ethics and Undercover Investigations in the Contemporary News Environment.”.” On Feb. 24, dive into a conversation on the ethics and implications of undercover news investigations.
• Worth knowing: The Loft Literary Center is hosting a series of hour-long online course samplers ($8 each!) on all sorts of writing topics, including creative nonfiction, digital storytelling and writing short. Find them on our training calendar and at The Loft’s website.

– Meg

Investigative Skills

If you’re looking for other investigative tips and tools, Craig Silverman’s Digital Investigations newsletter is always packed full.

Boarding up our houses?

Whether incoming President Trump’s threats to crack down on the media happen or not, large news organizations are taking steps to protect themselves and their sources. Even at smaller media outlets, it’s always good practice to look at your computer and network safety, so here’s The WIRED Guide to Protecting Yourself From Government Surveillance and Digital Hygiene: A Guide to Protecting Yourself Online. 

Interesting reading

Pew took a look at news influencers and there are some potential takeaways for journalists (from November): Influencers Who Often Post About News, and Who Sees Their Content.

Nieman Lab’s predictions for the year ahead are always interesting, even when they feel like wishful thinking or induce flashbacks, and this year’s include three from folks at the Hubbard School – Ben Toff: An Authoritarian Anti-journalism Playbook; Matt Carlson: Maybe we really are done with news? and Valérie Bélair Gagnon: Humanness > authenticity. And there’s more! UMN alum Emma Carew Grovum: Local newsrooms get a boost from data collaborations and the Star Tribune’s Chase Davis: Newsrooms break new ground in AI. Finally, I’m going to throw this one in from Matt Waite, one of the smartest people I know, because I think it’s worth discussion: The year we put everything on the table. 

RQ1, a new newsletter, summarizes academic research on journalism in plain language, and this month’s edition looks at news subscription motivations, how solutions journalism is – and isn’t – working in local newsrooms, and more.

There’s still time to apply for the Knight-Wallace Fellowship program’s new fellowship opportunity focused specifically on local news in the Great Lakes region.

A new book from Springboard for the Arts titled “Heartland, Heartwork: A Field Guide to Place and Possibility,” might be of interest to local news leaders. While not specific to journalism, it’s “designed to empower rural leaders in planning and executing effective place-based projects centered in arts, culture and creativity.” 

Local connections

Longtime Star Tribune political photojournalist Glen Stubbe retired in December. Gov. Walz declared Dec. 3 "Glen Stubbe Day" in Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar stopped by his going-away party, and Almanac did a look back at his career. Special thanks to Glen for how helpful he has been to student photographers over the years.

In another loss to political coverage, John Croman at KARE-TV retired in November. KARE honored his 27 years. We'll miss those behind-the-scenes looks at politics, and the singing videos...

Two TV photojournalists put down their cameras this past month: Ron Stover at KARE-TV said goodbye after 37 years (it was great working with you, Ron!) and Brad Earley at WCCO-TV signed off after more than 40 years.

MinnPost is embarking on a major expansion in 2025. More products, more people.

Suki Dardarian of Minnesota Star Tribune Wins Editor of the Year Award, National Press Foundation

MPR’s Nicole Ki will be part of the 2025 cohort of the Widening the Pipeline fellowship: NPF Names 20 Journalists for Widening the Pipeline 2025 Class - National Press Foundation 

The Sahan Journal received a grant from the American Journalism Project to “leverage AI to tackle critical challenges, specifically generating revenue and uncovering stories buried in civic data.” From experimentation to action: What’s next for AJP’s Product & AI Studio

Job Openings

There are a lot of Minnesota journalism job listings, including top-level jobs like editor of the Star Tribune and Editor/Publisher/GM of The Timberjay.

• The Star Tribune has a bunch of job openings, including editor, investigative editor, editorial writers and head of audience and programming.
• Keep an eye on the MNA jobs board, where there were six Minnesota-based jobs as of this writing.  
• MPR is looking for a digital producer in Moorhead (on the beautiful Concordia College campus, which just happens to be my alma mater).
• Want to run your own newspaper? Marshall Helmberger and Jodi Summit are looking for the right people to take over for them at the Timberjay as they head toward retirement. More on the Timberjay here.
• MinnPost is hiring an audience editor, a key leadership position. And a visual journalist! 
• The Bemidji Pioneer is looking for a reporter. 
• WTIP is hiring a part-time news reporter. 

Send us your local industry news and updates -- and jobs! -- to share with everyone.

– Regina

Legislative coverage for small news outlets

Students are returning from winter break to step into new opportunities to address coverage gaps in the state. Legislative internships with Forum Communications will begin Feb. 3, along with a separate initiative that will offer legislative coverage designed for small news outlets across Minnesota. Report for Minnesota is also expanding the Hubbard School’s micro-internship program to provide opportunities for freelance to suburban and exurban weeklies. More details will follow in the next newsletter, but reach out to G.G. at ggolden@umn.edu if you have any questions or want to know more about any of these programs.  

– G.G.

Trust in news, AI use and source diversity

Over the last month, the research team has been advancing several projects on trust in news, artificial intelligence and source diversity. We published a new study in the International Journal of Press/Politics focusing on the public’s trust in news when outlets disclose their use of Artificial Intelligence, “‘Or They Could Just Not Use It?’: The Dilemma of AI Disclosure for Audience Trust in News.” The study is based on a randomized experiment conducted in partnership with a company that specializes in generating local news stories entirely through AI. 

MJC master’s student Cydney Grannan also received their first paper acceptance on a study outlining approaches to source diversity tracking in newsrooms, a project we previously wrote about for Poynter. The article will soon be online at the academic journal Journalism Practice.

Finally, Nieman Journalism Lab wrote about our 2024 Local News Ecosystem Report in the context of the larger research consortium that we have been helping to spearhead. The article quotes MJC Director Benjamin Toff extensively about the need for greater coordination and standardization in research methods around how local news ecosystems are studied. 

– Ben

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Stay warm and stay in touch!