Impact Stories

To connect and build trust with community members, the Wichita Journalism Collaborative partnered with a local library to offer weekly “office hours.” Maren Berblinger, a project manager for the collaborative, said the goal was to “provide inspiration and sourcing for solutions stories that we as journalists might be distant from.” In the first few weeks of the program, community members were already dropping in to share story ideas and let collaborative representatives know what story topics would hold their interest.

The Great Salt Lake Collaborative, launched with support from SJN, won the Public Service Award from the Utah Society of Professional Journalists. The announcement read: “The collaborative of 13 news outlets, along with education and community partners, helped put the Great Salt Lake back on the map at a time when it looked like it would literally dry up and disappear. Through the unique partnership model, newsrooms produced and shared over 240 stories about the lake, with a focus on evidence-based solutions. The conversations started have had tremendous impact, with polls from last fall now showing 80% of Utahns concerned about the lake. Politicians have also stepped up, with the legislature allocating $1 billion in the past two sessions to help preserve and strengthen the lake.”

The Narwhal, a Canadian online publication dedicated to coverage of environmental issues, was awarded the Climate Solutions Reporting prize for a series of stories on Indigenous-led conservation in British Columbia. Reporter Steph Kwetásel’wet Wood said: "Solutions journalism isn’t about pie-in-the-sky dreaming. Indigenous conservation has always been. It’s a tried and true solution. We will forever be hearing new stories about how it benefits community, health, culture, food security and the natural world. Western science supports it. Thousands of years of history prove it. These stories show the power in all these communities to be constantly pushing for better.”

The television network CBS trained news leaders at the local stations it owns — including those in major markets like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — to bring solutions journalism to their audiences. It also formed a cross-station “CBS Local News Innovation Lab” so that these leaders can work on solutions-focused reporting together. Chad Cross, who heads the Innovation Lab, has led solutions coverage for years — first in his role at KXAN in Austin, where he helped lead two award-winning solutions reporting projects: “S.O.S. Save Our Students” and “Pandemic Pass or Fail.” He was the only TV executive to take part in one of SJN’s Train-the-Trainer workshops in 2022. Wendy McMahon, president and chief executive officer of CBS News and Stations, said CBS is focusing on solutions because it wants to “look past the who, what, where and why to ask: ‘How can we help? How can we help make our communities better places to live?’ That’s the aspiration.”

QnotesCarolinas, a news outlet in Charlotte, North Carolina, focused on LGBTQ+ issues, published “Workplace equity in Charlotte,” a solutions story highlighting the work of the Carolinas LGBT+ Chamber of Commerce in support of LGBTQ+-led businesses and more inclusive workplace practices. The work was informed by an audience survey related to issues such as pay equity, gender biases, the absence of anti-discriminatory policies and toxic work environments. The survey data and story were highlighted in a June 2023 tweet (https://twitter.com/BraxtonWinston/status/1664811071905976321?s=20) by Mayor Pro Tem Braxton Winston, who is also running for commissioner of labor in North Carolina.

TECHO, a youth-led nonprofit organization that works in informal settlements building transitional housing, was introduced to solutions journalism by David Flier, an editor with the Argentinian online publication Red/Acción. Inspired by the potential impact of reporting on evidence-based responses to problems, TECHO organized a workshop on solutions journalism for three more nonprofits, all of which are now considering how to integrate the solutions approach into their own work.