The case for solutions-focused journalism
There's a strong link between making a difference to communities and their willingness to pay for content, while also combating news avoidance
Hello
I hope you’re doing well. The Happy Journalist is now six weeks old. Each week I talk about journalism sustainability in an AI era, through a lens of people, planet and purpose. I’d love to hear your feedback on what you like and what you’d like to see more of in this newsletter - please do drop me a line. If you like the newsletter, please do consider referring a friend, using the button below. If you’re here because someone forwarded you this newsletter and you’re not yet subscribed, please do click the button at the end to sign up for free.
Like many, I became a journalist to change the world. In my first editor’s role, at the The Cornishman in Penzance, I realised that changing the world was probably not on the cards, but having a positive impact on this little corner of West Cornwall was not only possible but vital to the community. I threw myself into campaigning, making some mistakes along the way, but left that paper having saved the local hospital from closure; raised cervical screening rates in the area after the death of a young girl; and inspired hundreds of kids through what became an annual storywriting competition for the paper in collaboration with local schools.
Hands Off Our Hospital campaigners march through Penzance in 2011. Credit: BBC
It was a different era - pre digital transformation - but I firmly believe that deliberate approach to not just reporting the news in a community but helping people, making a difference and presenting solutions to the issues that affect people’s daily lives was key to the success of that paper where, at a time when newspaper circulations were falling everywhere, we managed to increase readership and maintain that weekly paper’s position at the heart of the community.
Listening to Radio 5’s Drivetime show in the car this week, I was struck by how much of the BBC programme was focused on actively helping their audience. They interviewed a man as part of the BBC’s Be Safe Scam week who had recently been scammed out of £73,000 from his Tide bank account. His story was a lesson in both the sophistication of scammers and the ways to avoid falling victim. It was relevant and powerful and I thought how useful it would be for my mum to hear it. (As an aside, the ability to easily search and share that kind of interview snippet is something that’s missing right now from broadcast and presents a real gap for technology in the future.)
Several links later, presenters Tony Livesey and Clare McDonnell paid tribute to black actor Richard Roundtree, but instead of just focusing on his dramatic achievements, they discussed breast cancer in men as the action hero had undergone a double mastectomy a couple of decades back. They interviewed a listener who had been diagnosed after finding a lump two years ago and urged all listeners to check themselves while the show was on air. This could have just been a tribute to Roundtree - and the discussion of his film career was great - but it was so much more.
At the recent Press Gazette Future of Media conference, DC Thompson’s chief brand officer Ella Dolphin described how they had put communities at the heart of their brand strategy. She saw their role as “advisors, advocates, and connections of the community” but also articulated the link between making a difference to those communities to their willingness to pay for the content, using examples such as the Beano’s school literacy programme and the Press and Journal’s 275 Community Fund to support local charities.
“We’re asking for a transaction: participation and payment,’ she said. “If they know what you’re doing for the community, it’s easier to make that transaction.”
This week marked Solutions Journalism Day and Tina Rosenberg, co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network challenged all journalists to write at least one solutions-focused article this week. This led to the brilliant Solutions Journalism Tracker, which has collected more than 15,000 published articles focused on driving positive impacts from stories. It’s a goldmine of inspiration for shifting the emphasis of journalism from reporting the issues to presenting solutions.
In smaller newsrooms, it’s often difficult to focus on campaigning and solutions-focused journalism and yet, alongside trust, that ability to make a difference to people’s lives is what delivers the real value in local news. It’s also crucial to combating news avoidance - in a world of depressing news, solutions are more important than ever.
Journalism has many roles. Presenting solutions to the biggest issues among readers is just one of them. But if greater priority was given to solutions-focused journalism in local newsrooms, would it help readers see greater value in the content, encourage more participation in news and unlock more funding for local journalism?
I’d love to hear your thoughts and examples of the best solutions-focused journalism.
Reading this week
People
🫶 TikTok is a news wasteland, according to a new report from the Reuters Institute. Of 6,548 videos they looked at, just 6 could be classified as news, with one out of 700 trending hashtags news-related. That’s a pretty scary finding for the future resonance of news among young people - many of whom would say they use TikTok both as a search engine and a source of news.
Planet
🌍 Can solar and wind power Britain? This is from one of my favourite Substack writers Hannah Ritchie, who authors Sustainability by numbers, which I love for its clear approach to climate, all based around data.
Purpose
📰 I came across The Narwhal in Canada this week and love their approach to reporting communities, outlined in this piece on improving relationships with indigenous communities. They’re a member funded organisation that, like all news organisations in Canada right now, are struggling with Google and Meta’s moves to block news from feeds.
AI
🤖 The UK is hosting the world’s first major international summit on AI this week. It’s an attempt to position Britain as a world leader in this field and it’s understood Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will set out recommendations rather than regulation. So what will it achieve? Good explainer from the BBC here.
AI experiment of the week
Tool: Deepl - https://www.deepl.com/write
Prompt: It was a different era - pre digital transformation - but I firmly believe that deliberate approach to not just reporting the news in a community but helping people, making a difference and presenting solutions to the issues that affect people’s daily lives was key to the success of that paper where, at a time when newspaper circulations were falling everywhere, we managed to increase readership and maintain that weekly paper’s position at the heart of the community.
Response: It was a different time, pre-digital, but I firmly believe that a conscious approach to not just reporting the news in a community, but helping people, making a difference and presenting solutions to the issues that affect people's daily lives, was key to the success of that paper, in which we managed to grow readership and maintain the weekly's position at the heart of the community at a time when papers everywhere were declining.
Tips: I discovered Deepl this week and it’s a great free AI tool to sharpen your writing. You can input words, phrases or whole paragraphs and it will give you tips and ideas to make your writing sharper, clearer and more concise. Crucially, it works well in British English, where other tools often default to US English.
Please do get in touch - I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you like it, please share with friends. And remember to hit subscribe if you’re not already signed up.
Until next time.
Jacqui