Meet the first nonprofit news organizations to use Medill’s subscriber engagement tool

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Block Club Chicago, the Salt Lake Tribune, Civil Eats, 100 Days in Appalachia and the Red Hook Daily will be the first nonprofit news organizations to participate in the Subscriber Engagement Index. Photo from Northwestern University

INN Network news organizations become first nonprofit news publishers to use Medill’s subscriber engagement tool

Five members of the INN Network are the first nonprofit news organizations to participate in the Subscriber Engagement Index, a project of Northwestern University's Medill Spiegel Research Center and Mather Economics. The tool uses data science to study how news audiences build long-term relationships with news organizations.

The first nonprofit news organizations to participate will be Block Club Chicago, the Salt Lake Tribune, Civil Eats, 100 Days in Appalachia and the Red Hook Daily Catch.

“Building direct audience has never been more important for news organizations, so we’re enthused to be working with Northwestern University and Mather Economics to bring more of the cutting-edge tools available to for-profit news organizations to INN members,” Sam Cholke, INN’s manager of distribution and audience growth, said. “We look forward to having the mission and approach of our newsrooms included in research about what meaningful relationships look like for news consumers now.”

INN will work with Northwestern to open the initiative to more members and release new findings on how news audiences’ relationships with nonprofit news organizations may differ from their for-profit peers.

STORY OF THE WEEK

Bobby “AJ” Everson was killed at the U.S. penitentiary in Thomson, Illinois in December 2021. Everson had been writing letters to his family for months describing dangerous conditions. Credit: Aaron Marin for The Marshall Project

Prison unit closes following investigation prompted by reporting from The Marshall Project

Our Story of the Week comes from The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that focuses on coverage of the U.S. criminal justice system.

In May 2022, The Marshall Project and NPR partnered on an investigation on a new Illinois prison unit that quickly became one of the deadliest. Immediately following the investigation, federal lawmakers called on the Inspector General to investigate the prison, citing the story.

On Tuesday, the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced the closure of the Special Management Unit due to “recently identified significant concerns with respect to institutional culture and compliance with BOP policies.”

Read an excerpt of the original investigation below.

Excerpt:

Bobby Everson was nearing the end of his decade-long federal prison sentence, but he feared he wouldn’t make it home alive.

In July 2021, he was sent to the Special Management Unit at the new U.S. penitentiary in Thomson, Illinois — a program meant for some of the most violent and disruptive prisoners, though many have ended up there who don’t fit that description. Everson, who was serving time for drug and weapon charges, had recently been written up for “threatening bodily harm” and “assault without serious injury,” but prison records don’t provide details. After his transfer, his letters home to his family in New York state grew more desperate with each passing week.

Everson, who the family called AJ, told them he was locked down nearly 24 hours a day with a cellmate, in cells so small that the toilet was crammed next to the bottom bunk. He was let out only for occasional medical appointments, showers or an hour of exercise in an outdoor cage. He could hear guards in riot gear blasting men on his tier with pepper spray and locking them in hard restraints. His own wrists, ankles and abdomen were scarred from these shackles — prisoners called it the “Thomson tattoo,” according to attorneys.

But the most pressing threat came from the men officers chose to put in his cell. “I feel the staff here is purposefully trying to put me in situations of conflict,” he wrote to his cousin Roosevelt in late October. “Pray for your lil cousin, man, that I get through this unscathed.”

In late November, Everson got in a fight with his new cellmate. “I’m doing my best to bob and weave these incidents,” he wrote. “Keep calling up here, inquiring on me any lil free time you get.”

Seventeen days later, Everson, 36, was found dead in his cell. It was a homicide caused by “blunt trauma” with an object, according to prison records.

Read the full piece.

RURAL NEWS SPOTLIGHT

Montana Free Press reports on the state Senate’s vote against establishing Indigenous Peoples Day, and how at least one Republican lawmaker in opposition said the language and quotes used by the bill’s sponsor during its introduction made him uncomfortable.

The future of wild rice may depend on an unlikely alliance. Hoping to halt the decline of the sacred plant in northern lakes, the Food & Environment Reporting Network breaks down how the Ojibwe partnered with western scientists who represent a historical nemesis.

Flatwater Free Press covers Weeping Water’s decision to become at least the sixth school district in Nebraska to go to a four-day week. It’s a move that thrilled the school’s teachers, but also raises questions about whether the new schedule is best for students.

Subscribe here to receive stories like these in your inbox every other week and learn more about how INN is building a news alliance reporting on rural America.

NOTES FROM THE FIELD

A new nonprofit organization comes to Indiana with a mission to fill information gaps in the state. The Indiana Local News Initiative — launched in partnership with organizations in and around Indiana, local community leaders and the American Journalism Project – has raised more than $10 million so far and formed a search committee to begin to fill leadership positions. The organization is launching a 25-person news organization in Central Indiana, “facilitating investments in journalism outlets around the state, and fostering collaboration among Indiana outlets to amplify local journalism for all Hoosiers, especially underserved communities.” Current news partners include INN members City Bureau (Documenters), Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism, The Indiana Citizen, Capital B, Chalkbeat Indiana and WFYI.

Capital B will open its second local newsroom, in Gary, Indiana — joining Capital B Atlanta, which became the first in the national hub’s network of local newsrooms in January 2022. In an announcement, staff wrote, “Atlanta and Gary couldn’t be more different… But, with their unique populations, media ecosystems, and news landscapes, they are both somehow perfect places for Capital B’s local journalism mission: to reach Black residents with the trustworthy information they need to navigate their lives, and to build our understanding of a community’s needs by engaging with the people who experience that community each day.”

A new project from The Trace will allow survivors and people who have lost loved ones to gun violence in Chicago tell their own stories. The storytelling network, which will include six to 10 people, provides hands-on training from a trauma-informed storytelling coach. Participants receive one-on-one attention from their storytelling coach, as well as editing from The Trace staff. Each participant will be paid a stipend of $700 and have their writing published on The Trace’s website.

People on the move

Two long-time journalists, Alejandra Cancino and David Jackson, join Injustice Watch as senior reporters. Cancino most recently served as deputy editor at City Bureau. Other roles include senior investigative reporter at the Better Government Association and business reporter at the Chicago Tribune. In 2019, she received an Editor & Publisher EPPY Award for best investigative/enterprise feature for her series exposing O’Hare International Airport’s track record of costly delays and failed projects. Jackson, born and raised in Chicago, worked as an investigative reporter at the Chicago Tribune from 1991 to 2020, except for a year at The Washington Post. At the Post, he shared the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for public service for a series on residents shot by police that led to U.S. Department of Justice oversight and reform.