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Innovate Local. A new program for spreading actionable ideas.

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

Next Webinar: February 26, 15.00 CET – YOUNG READERS

How Augsburger Allgemeine futureproofs its newsroom by training young, diverse journalists

At Augsburger Allgemeine they call it the Future Department. Its brief is to ensure a diverse regeneration of the newsroom, and support the new, young journalists in producing content that speaks to their peers, using approaches like constructive journalism. Leader Lea Thies looks for trainees from varying backgrounds and a university degree is not a requirement. Young people with unusual CVs or who need to train on a part time basis are given a place. Once in the newsroom they are given the tools and space to be able to truly contribute journalism that speaks to young readers.

 

Featuring Lea Thies, Head of Günther Holland School of Journalism at Augsburger Allgemeine

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Innovate Local Advisory Council 2025

We are happy to announce that we now 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. We look forward to working with you!

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Cordula Schmidtz

Funke Mediengruppe

Germany

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Christ Janz

Capital Brief

Australia

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Isabel Russ

Russmedia
Austria

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Ken Doctor

Lookout Local

USA

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Markus Rask Jensen

Amedia

Norway

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Richard Prest

DC Thomson

United Kingdom

Our latest webinar: February 12 – ADVERTISING

How Stampen Media is maximising programmatic display revenue

In five years Stampen Media, a local news group based on the west coast of Sweden, has grown their programmatic display business from 3 million USD/year to 7 million USD/year. And this has been done while the group has been focusing on reader revenue which makes it astonishing. This webinar will cover strategies to maximise revenue from national advertisers while building the local online display market. Learn about header bidding, inventory-optimisation, CPM-pricing and on how to open the paywall for ads.

 

Presented by Håkan Hamrin, Head of programmatic at Stampen Media (until Jan 31 2025)

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Life after Print and Breaking Data themes at first ever Innovate Local in person event at #WNMC

During our 90 minute session at the World News Media Congress in Copenhagen, we heard three cases on from local publishers on two different topics.

Life after print

The Big step in digital transformation is stopping print –  and do it with a vision! La Presse in Montreal started that process in 2013 with the launch of a tablet version and completed it in 2018 when the presses were permanently turned off. François Cardinal (top right) told us that a key success factor was choosing and sticking to the strategy, preparing readers for it and executing to plan. Read full case.

Breaking data

Markus Rask Jensen described how Amedia in Norway "turns data into gold" by producing and distributing hyperlocally relevant stories. "Location is king – hyperlocal is better than just local." Full case

Gabriel Kahn of Crosstown in Los Angeles described what they do: "With a newsroom of two part-time journalists, we deliver 114 unique newsletters each week – one for each neighborhood in LA." Full case.

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Previous Innovate Local cases:

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

Driving subscriber retention: How content collaboration with clubs in and around live sports increases subscriber loyalty at Bonnier News Local

Creating new revenue streams: How Newsquest is diversifying into being a local digital marketing agency

Developing sponsorships: How Spotlight Delaware has developed a model for mission aligned branded content

Creating powerful local content: How DC Thomson use data journalism to track the vitality of city centres

Achieving sustainability: Implementing a revised business strategy for a growing newsroom – a methodology with Russmedia

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


Creating powerful local journalism: How Borås Tidning’s investigative team builds community connections while driving conversions and supporting the brand

Attracting local advertisers: How Amedia is reviving traditional recruitment and real estate advertising, delighting readers with local opportunities

Driving conversions: How arts has boosted subscription sales at Hamburger Abendblatt

Expanding hyperlocal coverage: Growing local newsletter portfolio with automation

Freeing up newsroom time: How Amedia’s AI sandbox will allow reporters to do more

Attracting local advertisers: How an innovative ad product creates value for readers and local businesses at Bonnier News Local


Reaching young readers: How Stavanger Aftenblad covers junior football like it’s the Champions League

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.

Not a WAN-IFRA member? Learn about the benefits of being one.

A WAN-IFRA membership costs €800/year for an individual. Corporate memberships start at €1,600.

Non-members get a 3 month free trial to try Innovate Local, register here. After that the program costs €2,800 a year for six seats. 
 

Join us now!

Next webinar: YOUNG READERS – How Augsburger Allgemeine futureproofs its newsroom by training young, diverse journalists
Time: Wednesday February 26, 2025 at 15.00 CET | 9.00 EST

Tell us more about yourself and we'll send you webinar link and information upcoming webinars.

Interested in becoming an Innovate Local Tech Partner?

Join publishers already in the program:

“We very much welcome a program with focus specifically on the challenges and opportunities of local journalism. We’re always on the lookout for new ideas and inspiration, and we look forward to the chance of sharing our own learnings with peers around the world."

Markus Rask Jensen, Chief News Officer, Amedia, Norway

Our tech partners

Some of the topics we cover in the case webinars

• Product development around community interests like local sports

• Serving local readers relevant stories through geo segmentation

• Ad packages for local advertisers in jobs, real estate, family related services like funeral services

• Using AI and automation to surface, sort and present more public data

• Nurturing and growing reader groups through newsletters

• Using new story-telling techniques to bring in young readers

• Local impact journalism

• New products like events and B2B
• Branding, marketing and community outreach.

• Working on inclusivity in order to reflect all local communities

• Programmatic advertising and self-service for the local SME segment.

• Print distribution development

  • LinkedIn

© 2023 WAN-IFRA World Association of News Publishers

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