Building a Solutions Culture: Lessons From 5 Newsrooms

Most journalists today embrace the idea of solutions journalism, because they know their communities want information that can help solve problems, not just stories telling them that problems exist. Embedding solutions journalism into newsrooms, however, is not always easy for all the reasons that change is hard.

Making solutions part of day-to-day coverage requires rethinking priorities — and long-held views and habits. It means supporting staffers who are wary, and sometimes a little apprehensive. It means letting go of lower-value stories to make room for something new.

Five newsrooms from across the nation tackled these challenges, broadening and deepening their solutions journalism and helping their audiences understand and support it. Linked below is a sampling of their successes and insights, as well as their challenges and what they’re planning to do next on their solutions journeys.