Innovate Local. A program for sharing actionable ideas.

ONE PRACTICE AT A TIME.
PRESENTED BY WAN-IFRA.

Welcome to Innovate Local 2026!

Next webinar: February 25

Local Journalism Day: Building a movement across German-speaking Europe

Building on an idea at Ippen Media in Munich, the Day of Regional Journalism was launched in 2025 and is now spreading across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The webinar will show how the initiative invites publishers to promote their journalism to locals by using May 5 as a shared moment to engage directly with communities. Participation is deliberately open, ranging from in-person encounters and editorial initiatives to social media campaigns that show what reporting looks like in practice. Isabel Russ, Editor-in-Chief at Russ Media in Austria, will share how their newsrooms plan to spotlight local journalists and their work, giving the people behind local news time to be seen and appreciated.

Presented by:

Markus Knall, Editor-in-Chief at Ippen Media, Germany

Isabel Russ, Editor-in-Chief at Russ Media, Austria

Innovate Local Advisory Council 2026

We have a fantastic Advisory Council to support and guide our work. Thank you to this international group of passionate, experienced and generous local media leaders from across the globe for your commitment and valuable input to Innovate Local!

Cordula Schmitz

Funke Mediengruppe

Germany

Christ Janz

Capital Brief

Australia

Isabel Russ

Russmedia
Austria

Ken Doctor

Lookout Local

USA

Markus Rask Jensen

Amedia

Norway

Richard Prest

DC Thomson

United Kingdom

Actionable ideas from two years of webinars. By topic.

Young readers

How Mediahuis is figuring out what young audiences will pay for, and what they are learning

How a bold test to focus only on younger readers drives traffic and subscriptions across all age groups at Amedia

How The B-Side delivers daily, hyperlocal news from Boston Globe Media to engage younger audiences

How Stavanger Aftenblad covers junior football like it’s the Champions League

Growing revenue

How Ouest France's self service platform for local events drives revenue and engagement

The multifaceted product portfolio of VK Media for local advertisers

How Polaris is rebuilding sales in recruitment focusing on passive job seekers

How DC Thomson is selling corporate subscriptions to local businesses

Journalism & mission

How Borås Tidning’s investigative team builds community connections while driving conversions and supporting the brand

Showing up. First principles and lessons from Lookout Local’s successful local models

How Amedia’s AI sandbox will allow reporters to do more

How hands-on, in-person support to local newsrooms helps NTM achieve their north star goal

Audience Development

How Tamedia is growing local newsletter portfolio with automation

How new ways of thinking about arts audiences has boosted subscription sales at Hamburger Abendblatt

Stampen Media’s deliberate strategy and tactics for local e-papers

How The City in New York built from the ground up to listen, respond and foster community

There are many more – here!

Local media for the 21st century

The first global program for local media

Innovate Local is the only truly global program for local media professionals.

It’s built on WAN-IFRA’s mission to support a free and independent press.

We’re building a global hub for knowledge sharing and networking around the future of sustainable local journalism.

And we invite you to be part of it.

Tired of waiting for the silver bullet for local news?

Innovate Local is where you want to be.

Through this program we'll share the best ideas, drawing on our global network of local publishers.

Simply join, listen, hopefully be inspired and feel free to copy the idea!

The program is about exploring how local media can become indispensable to local people and businesses by:

– Leveraging data and AI

– Deploying user needs models

– Drawing on new formats for storytelling
and the journalism product

– Developing relevant advertising products

– Developing additional revenue streams

- Two compact webinars a month.

- Regular schedule.

- One publisher case each time, looking at one solution.

- Recordings and resources will be collected here.

What is Innovate Local about?

We're keeping it simple.

Innovate Local is open to everyone and free for WAN-IFRA members.

Who is the program aimed at?

Innovate Local is for anyone working in a news media company operating in its own geographical community – anyone involved in the business of journalism close to home.

What do you get when you join the program?

You get access to two case webinars a month (live and on demand) with documentation. We're also building a community of local publishers exchanging ideas and experiences on a dedicated Slack channel, moderated by our experts.