Impact Stories

Reporting by Reyes Mata III of the Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative on a community-driven research effort in Sunland Park, New Mexico, played a part in getting local officials to approve the hiring of a digital navigator, whose role is to educate the population in digital skills. The initial solutions-focused story, “Mamacítas Cibernéticas seeks to close digital gaps in Sunland Park,” demonstrated the success of an organizing method adhering to the community’s cultural values to learn about its needs. This led to subsequent media coverage from neighboring areas and national outlets. One of the local research coordinators credited the media’s attention and presence at a local council meeting for advancing the approval of this new position.

In April 2023, the Amsterdam News, a Black-owned newspaper in New York City, published a solutions-oriented series titled “Hard Labor” on the state and history of labor relations in the city, with a particular focus on the construction trades. It subsequently revived its Labor Awards Breakfast, an annual event dedicated to celebrating people in the organized labor community, which, in addition to the labor-focused reporting, provided an opportunity to rekindle relationships. A couple of unions sponsored the event, increasing their financial support of the publication by 50% and 110%. The coverage also led to a growth in subscriptions from individuals living in public housing in New York City. The newspaper’s president and chief revenue officer, Siobhan "Sam" Bennett, said: “The Labor community was appreciative not only of the special section but also of the breakfast which gave construction trades leaders the opportunity to speak to today's critical and under addressed issues."

RiffReporter, a German digital publication that covers science, the environment and society, worked on a series of solutions journalism articles as part of a series titled “Lessons from Africa.” In one instance, the story, “Unter der Erde bewässern, Energie sparen und gleichzeitig mehr produzieren?” (“Can underground irrigation help farmers save water and energy and produce more?”), led Dr. Bellachheb Chahbani, the inventor of the Chahtech underground diffuser, to receive inquiries from people in Germany about his product as well as purchase orders for the watering system. The story was also referenced in a documentary by German public-television broadcaster ZDF.

In 2023, The Bristol Cable, a local media cooperative based in Bristol, England, published a series of solutions-oriented articles for its Future of Cities project, developed during its participation in the Solutions Journalism Accelerator (coordinated by the European Journalism Center, with support from SJN). As part of the project’s evaluation, the newsroom ran an audience survey to discover the work’s impact on readers, which generated 127 responses. Over 80% of people surveyed said they “generally or always finished the long read articles,” “learned either a lot or something from engaging with the project,” and “felt more connected to The Cable.” After reading a piece of reporting from the series, 43% of respondents said they “felt more empowered to act,” while 15 people pledged to financially support the cooperative by becoming members of the cooperative, as a result of engaging with the Future of Cities series.

Chris Nichols (2023): Veteran journalist Chris Nichols, of CapRadio, the NPR affiliate public radio station in Sacramento, worked as an editor on several story assignments for Solving Sacramento, a local news collaborative focused on reporting solutions-oriented stories. Engaging with a project dedicated to that editorial approach was a professional development opportunity: For his ongoing coverage at the radio station of affordable housing in the city, solutions journalism also made sense. “It’s reinforced the important message that as a newsroom we can showcase not only the problems but ways they might be fixed,” he said. “We’ve also discovered there’s a strong appetite for these stories online.” One of the solutions-focused stories he’s worked on is “Sacramento turns to ‘micro apartments’ to ease affordable housing crunch.”

Beginning in fall of 2023, the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, started teaching a Social Justice and Solutions Journalism specialization as part of its Master of Science in Journalism. The focus of the course is on “journalism that makes the world a better place, revealing inequities and injustices while also highlighting solutions, best practices and the triumphs and voices of regular people.”