{"id":4362,"date":"2021-06-22T18:40:39","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T22:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/?p=4362"},"modified":"2021-06-23T16:59:53","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T20:59:53","slug":"how-three-news-start-ups-approached-innovation-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/2021\/06\/22\/how-three-news-start-ups-approached-innovation-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"How three news start-ups approached innovation in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Despite the challenges of COVID-19 and the political pressures of last year, news start-ups from New York to Pittsburgh to Silicon Valley found opportunity for change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editors from the news sites Epicenter-NYC, PublicSource <\/em>and Repustar<\/em> said they moved through the year by embracing experimentation and collaboration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to continue to innovate,\u201d said Halle Stockton, managing editor of Pittsburgh-based PublicSource<\/em><\/a>. \u201cEven when it\u2019s very hard and this is something new to us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Epicenter-NYC<\/em><\/a>, based in the New York City borough of Queens, was co-founded during the pandemic as a way of connecting and helping neighbors by S. Mitra Kalita. The former senior vice president of news, opinion and programming at CNN Digital said what started organically as an email newsletter has grown into a website, podcast, live streams, text messages and a Google Drive<\/a> open to readers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the pandemic, Epicenter-NYC<\/em> helped thousands of New Yorkers sign up to get vaccinated<\/a> with the help of hundreds of volunteers. The site did this by interacting directly with its audience to gather information, according to Kalita. What began as a Google Form evolved to accommodate the community\u2019s unique needs, Kalita said, by adding additional languages, and expanding to include immigration documentation issues and information for restaurant workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By working so directly with the community, \u201cthe rules of who\u2019s a journalist and who\u2019s in your company have also kind of been redefined by us,\u201d Kalita said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hear from S. Mitra Kalita, co-founder of Epicenter-NYC<\/em>. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Epicenter-NYC<\/em> is a for-profit \u201ccommunity journalism initiative\u201d whose revenue is created from a mix of local advertising, donations\/grants and a recently unveiled three-tier membership model, Kalita said. Appreciation for this community-oriented coverage showed in the site\u2019s \u201ctip jar,\u201d which received a donation bump when they started helping with vaccines, Kalita said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The newsroom\u2019s vaccine work and coverage also gave them a unique ability to have an ear to the ground and hold institutions accountable, Kalita said, noting that New York City Council Member Mark Levine once mistook them from a mutual aid group. Epicenter-NYC <\/em>did this, she said, by prioritizing customer service, being conscious of the way they are talking to the community, and innovating by creating usable content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur instinct was to figure out ‘who\u2019s the core community around this? How can we help them? What do we learn along the way?\u2019 Kalita said. \u201cAnd then I would zoom out and write articles about that, but it was much more informed than if I was entering that situation for the sole purpose of extracting a piece of journalism that is in written or video form.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Early voting is under way, and the primary is coming up on June 22nd. This is the first time New York City will be using a rank-choice system. Our latest podcast is a primer on how to navigate ranked-choice voting with journalist @FelipeDLH<\/a>.https:\/\/t.co\/5uc630GWku<\/a><\/p>— Epicenter_NYC (@epicenter_nyc) June 18, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote>