At the core of INN's Rural News Network is the fact that the reporters who cover its human-centered stories, like those featured in the most recent editorial collaboration, Breaking Point, are locals. They know their communities well because they too call them home.

With support from The National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM), four INN member newsrooms – The Daily Yonder, Carolina Public Press, Honolulu Civil Beat and Shasta Scout – who participate in RNN collaborated in fall 2022 to highlight inequities in health care access.

Today, roughly three months since the series landed on local, state and national news sites and airwaves, and after a variety of audience engagement initiatives, we publish the report examining the process, successes and next steps for how these members will continue this crucial coverage.

Community response to these stories was a significant component of the project, and many audience members expressed appreciation for both the in-depth reporting on local issues and constructive engagement in solutions.

This included physicians offering their services until gaps in in-person care can be sufficiently addressed, political attention and acknowledgment of barriers, and community events dedicated to the issues raised by the series. State lawmakers and community stakeholders have also taken up the standard, pressing for sustainable, locally-relevant solutions and looking more closely at contributing factors. 

Annelise Pierce of Shasta Scout – a one-person newsroom she launched less than two years ago in Redding, California – noted a key benefit of participation “is the visibility that this collaboration has given our emerging news organization with statewide health media, statewide health policymakers, and local health leaders and collaborators who are more likely to share information and stories with us in (the) future, deepening our ability for continued impact." 

Read more about how the journalism built community trust with these newsrooms and brought about meaningful change.

INN members interested in getting a preview of what's ahead for RNN in 2023 are welcome to attend a webinar on Feb. 21 at 11 a.m. CT. Register here.

And, below, enjoy a slate of stories, perspectives and opportunities from INN members covering rural America as part of RNN.

If you'd like to learn more or curious about how you can contribute, reach out directly to collaborations@inn.org.

Alana Rocha

Editor, Rural News Network

At least 1 million Americans, according to early results of an effort to shore up the country’s spotty data on connectivity, feel the new national broadband map the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) produced overstates the paltry internet options available to them.

In Washington state, county officials say tens of thousands of households in the Puget Sound area alone appear wrongly designated as fully served by broadband services.

In 2020, Congress tasked the FCC with updating its national internet connectivity data, which for decades has been regarded as vastly understating the number of Americans without internet access. (The FCC says 14.5 million Americans remain offline; an alternative tally by Microsoft argues the number is as high as 120 million.)

The FCC released updated maps, largely based on service data self-reported by telecom companies, on Nov. 18. But a Jan. 13 deadline to object left less than two months (over the holiday season) for states, local governments and individuals to submit challenges to the service levels outlined for their areas.

Many had hoped that process would be further along by this year, as it will shape how a $42 billion infrastructure push – the largest single investment in the nation’s broadband network – gets distributed among states this July.

Rebuking far-right officials who last year gained control of their school board, concerned residents of Kiel, Wisconsin, this month clawed back political power by blocking the ouster of a popular superintendent.

Two members subsequently resigned from the Kiel Area School District board, returning the usually seven-member body to a moderate majority — at least temporarily.

It’s the latest chapter in a saga that last spring erupted into bomb threats and left some feeling their northeastern Wisconsin community, population 4,000, had been “hijacked by something bigger.”

With his contract set to expire, Superintendent Brad Ebert faced scrutiny from a small but vocal group called Tri-County Citizens for Education. In 2022, the group pushed restrictions on certain library books, sought to block anti-racism training and helped flip the school board to a majority that criticized efforts for racial equity and LGBTQ rights.

Concerns that the board would oust Ebert spurred residents to pack the Kiel Performing Arts center for a Jan. 4 meeting. Ebert’s supporters pointed to balanced budgets, the high-fives he gives students walking into school, his attendance at basketball games and other school functions.

After facing the public outcry, the board unanimously voted to renew Ebert’s contract.

Ebert remains in his job as partisan culture wars spur an exodus of the superintendents at public school districts in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

What’s this math they are teaching in the newly created Alleghany Highlands School District, in southwest Virginia?

One plus one equals … one?

That’s the equation school officials hope adds up to a successful consolidation of two rival high schools in Western Virginia: Alleghany and Covington.

Beginning with the 2023-24 academic year, the neighboring schools’ student bodies will merge as one, driven partly by declining population in both localities.

Both schools have had difficulty fielding teams, particularly on the sub-varsity level. Still, as the two schools merge their varsity athletic programs into a single team, legitimate angst exists for athletes.

Will Fields is aware of those worries, but the head football coach and interim athletic director sees other positive aspects of the consolidation.

“Individual sports like wrestling and swimming are difficult to practice with small teams. Our teams are already practicing together and are able to compete against each other in practice. It’s crucial to get those repetitions in practice.”

College students and 2023 graduates can now apply for paid internships at nine nonprofit newsrooms who participate in the Institute for Nonprofit News' Rural News Network.

Scripps Howard Fund created the internship program in partnership with INN to give students high quality, hands-on experience. There will be six 10-week internships and three 20-week internships.

Students, apply by Feb. 20.

Rural News Spotlight is a biweekly newsletter featuring reporting from INN members on the ground in rural communities addressing their most pressing issues and possible solutions.