Slowing down and training the next generation of storytellers with Lede New Orleans’ Jennifer Larino (LNM Episode 48)

Jennifer Larino, executive director of Lede New Orleans, shares how her organization is reshaping local journalism by training young BIPOC storytellers to address community information needs. She discusses the origins of Lede New Orleans, the challenges of building an inclusive newsroom, and the importance of creating trusted spaces where community voices are heard and amplified.

Jennifer explains how slowing down in the reporting process has allowed her team to engage deeply with their community, resulting in innovative approaches like their Community Reporting Fellowship. She also highlights the unique programs at Lede New Orleans, from multimedia storytelling workshops to short documentaries, and emphasizes the value of centering young voices in journalism.

The conversation delves into the practicalities of sustaining this work, from funding strategies to measuring impact in meaningful ways. Jennifer also reflects on the power of collaboration with non-journalists, the role of mentorship, and the importance of fostering trust in local news ecosystems.

Episode chapters:
(00:03:09) – Founding Lede New Orleans and addressing gaps in representation
(00:09:41) – Underrepresented communities in a media swamp
(00:15:23) – Lede New Orleans programs
(00:23:11) – Engaging the audience and experimenting with content partnerships
(00:28:05) – The challenges and benefits of slowing down
(00:33:25) – Funding and financial sustainability for slow journalism
(00:39:44) – Measuring impact: Community trust and alumni outcomes
(00:45:43) – Collaborating with non-journalists and reimagining storytelling
(00:50:41) – For younger multimedia journalists, look at your training, leadership and management styles
(00:56:53) – How the JSK Fellowship catalyzed Lede New Orleans
(01:01:46) – Rapid-fire questions
(01:25:34) – Media and local recommendations

Listen to the episode here:

Bio:

Jennifer Larino (she/her) oversees operations, fundraising and strategy at Lede New Orleans. She is a journalist with more than a decade of experience covering local news in New Orleans. Prior to founding Lede New Orleans, she was a lead reporter at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Prior to that she served as managing editor at New Orleans CityBusiness. She is a 2022 JSK Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. She lives in Mid-City and can be spotted riding her bike through City Park with her husband and 1-year-old son.

Full transcript:

(recorded via Riverside.fm; transcript automated via Castmagic.io, mostly unedited)

JENNIFER LARINO [00:00:00]: Are you letting them in on the process? What is the bigger vision? Like, what are you trying to do? You know? And also what do they need? You know? And in slowing down on that part of the process has been really revelatory, I think, for us. We have a lot, a lot to learn, you know, but I think that's one reason why we found it so useful to create spaces where we can engage and kind of work that muscle of, you know, what does it look like to open and hold space for community members to see behind the scenes, but also share, you know, how they're seeing things. What are they hearing on their block? You know what I mean? And you see so much of this kind of energy across the country right now. So many of our peers, you know, the Canopy Atlanta's, the City Bureaus are really embracing that and we are learning from them. But I think that what does it look like to slow down this work, is really one of the biggest questions that I've been grappling with, you know, and how we design things at Lede New Orleans.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [00:01:15]: Welcome to the Local News Matters podcast, where we explore pathways to stronger journalism, better businesses, and healthier communities. I'm Tim Regan-Porter, CEO of the Colorado Press Association.

This episode, I talk with Jennifer Larino about her work as executive director of Lede New Orleans, a newsroom dedicated to empowering young BIPOC journalists to tell community stories. Lede New Orleans recently received a grant as part of Press Forward’s first national awards, and I had the privilege of reading their application during the screening process. Their unique approach to community-centered journalism immediately stood out to me, and I knew I wanted to learn more.

Jennifer shares insights on how Lede New Orleans is building trusted spaces and centering community voices in local news, and why slowing down and listening deeply is critical for more inclusive storytelling.

Jennifer has worked in New Orleans journalism for nearly 15 years, including leadership roles at The Times-Picayune and New Orleans CityBusiness, and was a JSK Community Impact Fellow at Stanford University.

I loved this conversation, which ranged across a wide variety of topics and offered fresh perspectives that we might all benefit from. Certainly, on the heels of this month’s national election, slowing down in order to do better work and maintain our own sanity and that of our teams is particularly timely advice.

If you like this episode and what we're doing more generally, please follow in your favorite podcast app, leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, and tell your friends about us. This is a side project and a labor of love, and your support means a lot. You can find past episodes, full transcripts, and relevant links, and sign up for our newsletter at localnewsmatterspodcast.com, or for lazy typists like me at lnmpod.com. You also follow us on most social media channels @lnmpod.

And now I bring you Jennifer Larino.

Welcome to the podcast, Jennifer. It's great to have you.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:03:07]: Thank you. I'm delighted to be here.

Founding Lede New Orleans and addressing gaps in representation

TIM REGAN-PORTER [00:03:09]: Your newsroom, Lede New Orleans, was one of the winners of a Press Forward grant, one of a couple hundred newsrooms that got $100,000. And I was actually on the screening review committee, read your application. And so I saved that one. Regardless of whether you were gonna get a grant, I wanted to talk to you about what you were doing, because I found it just so interesting and needed. So talk to me a little bit about the founding of Lede New Orleans. Why, you know, why you wanted to start it and what you're doing?

JENNIFER LARINO [00:03:45]: Well, thank you for that. It's nice to know that there are eyes out there looking at what we're doing, even if we aren't aware all the time. Yeah. The story of New Orleans really goes back to, well, me moving to New Orleans in 2010, as a young enterprising reporter, and really discovering and building a career in the city. I have worked in New Orleans as a local reporter for, gosh, going on 15 years now, and really immersed myself in the community in covering this community. And in a deeper way, it's home. As a military kid who's moved all around, New Orleans really emerged as a place for me to take root. But, you know, building a career in traditional news media here in local news and here in New Orleans in such a unique city, the experience revealed to me a few different things, that, you know, the main one being that, you know, individual journalists work very hard to serve their communities and really have that at the center of their mission.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:04:52]: The models in which we work make it very difficult to incorporate community voice, to bring community into the decision making around news, and to really kinda democratize some of the skills that journalists sometimes take for granted. And most recently, I'd worked at The Times-Picayune, our local newsroom, here in New Orleans and the region, really. And over that time, what became more and more apparent as I was working was that we actually didn't have people in the newsroom who, one, were from New Orleans. It was a very small contingent. And then Black New Orleanians—we’re a majority black city—were even more rare in our newsroom. And this was kind of across the board in media spaces with the exception of TV news, maybe. So kind of all of this thinking and thought work had been kind of going on the back of my mind. And fast forward to 2019, The Times-Picayune was bought out by The Advocate.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:05:53]: This was, like, in the media world, this was, like, a big deal. It was one of those big newspaper buyouts. A local newspaper at Baton Rouge, The Advocate, had bought out The Times-Picayune from a larger company, Advanced Local. And in that process, all employees of The Times-Picayune, including myself, were laid off. And it was one of those moments of, okay, what now? And those moments are really scary, and they're not fun. They're also critical. And especially in this environment that we've emerged into in media. For me, I love New Orleans. I didn't wanna leave.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:06:32]: And I'd built a life here and really wanted to invest in the community in ways that I wasn't really able to in kind of the traditional journalism model. And the first thing I did was started talking to my colleagues at [?], really, about how they got into this work, and what we could do to address what I was seeing as, like, this exodus of really what were transplant reporters leaving to go on to other cities. But this gap of, you know, quality information for Black and Brown communities in New Orleans that is really fueled by the communities themselves. And, you know, from those conversations, I was actually looking for someone within the community to partner with to start thinking about this idea. And this name kept emerging, Ejaaz Mason. Ejaaz Mason. Ejaaz. You need to talk to Ejaaz.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:07:25]: Ejaaz, I wish you're on this call with me, but he's out in California, doing good work, as part of the JSK Stanford fellowship. Ejaaz was in film at the time and also teaching film at the high school level. And, he saw a lot of parallel things happen in terms of lack of diversity, a lot of outsiders coming into the city doing short documentaries about New Orleans, New Orleans and New Orleanians. And as a New Orleans native, he was thinking about how do we change that? We finally connected, and he jokes that he thought that I was trying to get him to do a video project or do free video for me or something. But we started meeting more regularly and thinking about what, in the early days, was a training program for emerging multimedia journalists, specifically Black and Brown young people. What it would look like to equip young people with skills and tools and resources to inform their communities. And we launched our first, we launched our community for reporting fellowship, which is what it is called now. It wasn't then.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:08:35]: It was a little pilot, in March of 2020 with impeccable timing, with six young people from New Orleans, who were interested in learning more about how they could use film and multimedia journalism skills to serve their communities. When everything shut down for the pandemic, we could have stopped. That would have been easier probably, but we had already been set up on Zoom for interviewing, and it just kind of panned out that we had all that in place. And we said, let's keep going. And since then, we've been growing that core programming and building a whole organization around that. It was rooted in this experience with local news and kind of the limitations of our current models, coupled with, you know, where does journalism intersect with other information forms? You know, that was really the basis of me and Ejaaz's cofoundership. And I'm so glad that I started this organization with a non-journalist because it's really led to some beautiful things.

Underrepresented communities in a media swamp

TIM REGAN-PORTER [00:09:41]: Yeah. That is one fascinating aspect is that partnership. And we'll delve more into that. Talk a little bit though about, a little bit more about the need you were reacting to. I think in your application, you referred to New Orleans as a media swamp. And how was it not serving particularly people of color in New Orleans? Like, what were you really responding to, and how did you help the particularly getting young people out there doing some of this work, would meet needs in a different way?

JENNIFER LARINO [00:10:13]: I love that term because we all know media desert. But if you come to New Orleans, it's a small city with actually, like, three to three plus TV stations. We have a radio station. We have newspapers. You know, we have at one point, we had The Advocate and The Times-Picayune. So three or two major newspapers. We have alt weeklies. We have, you know, we have all these sources of information.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:10:38]: So you look at it. You look at New Orleans and you say, how could possibly, you know, how could there be information needs that aren't being met? What I will say from my time as a journalist, what I saw is we were often because of our revenue models at that kind of the traditional legacy space, competing over the same stories. So you'd see the same exact headlines, maybe slightly different. Someone got a different source, you know, but very similar websites across the board, you know, for TV stations, for The Times-Picayune. And the narratives that, you know, played most, of course, were crime, sports, the big things that generate that kind of minute to minute audience strip that model really demands. Right? And then, you know, among the alternative space, you have a lot of really tiny kind of custom outlets, that, you know, each kinda do their own thing, but, again, are really kinda top down. Right? They're not necessarily going out into community and be like, hey. What do you all wanna, like, read about? What do you wanna do? You know? Or what information needs do you have? You know, there's kind of the small outlet that really is an advertising revenue driven model where they're really just trying to put together content so they can sell ads, you know, and reach their audience and keep that going. And then you have kind of the alternate, weekly model where folks are, you know, really trying to hone in on, like, the artistic community and serve, you know, up an alternate point of view that's really more white and progressive, quite frankly.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:12:20]: And then you have really like our Black community of all ages, but really young Black folks, rarely driving decision-making in the news business or really contributing to that, but much a part of the narrative. If we talk, you know, two years ago, we had a whole narrative from the mayor and from our city hall level of how young people were creating all this crime over the summer and that, you know, there's just this terrible epidemic of youth crime. And I think that story would have been covered a lot differently, of course, if we had different kinds of people in newsrooms. So I think you have a lot of different options in New Orleans, but the models are all very similar and that they're not bringing community voice into the process in multiple ways. And I think that's where we're testing something a little different. Not only are we trying to train young people specifically within the community to do and meet information needs, but we're also going out and we're talking to communities. We're gathering data about what do you need information on? You know, like, what, is on your mind? You know? What is missing? And how might we train people to meet that, you know, within the span. To your question about why young people, I think that, one, this is the voice that is most missing from most of these spaces.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:13:51]: Right? Anyone who has worked in journalism and have been on the, you know, the journalist size knows how difficult it is to crack into this industry and how that is virtually impossible if you're going into college or even graduating college, and you're just thinking, Oh, I'm gonna be a journalist. Like that, you're already I don't know. There's a response, you know, for you to get into a legacy news space. It's just the pathway is so crystalized and hardened. And on the other side, you know, I think there's this really big craving among community to, like, know what young people are doing and thinking and saying. And it's created this interesting audience. You know, us working to equip young people to not only, you know, tell our own stories, but tell stories of people in the community and elevate, you know, here's what's happening. It's almost like, for older generations, it's like attuning.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:14:45]: You know? Once they see who is making the pieces and who is behind it, it lends a different, it's kind of the trusted messenger effect, you know, of like, oh, hey. Like, here's somebody I say I want to listen to and hear more from. Now here's my chance. Why don't I do that? So, yeah, it's been interesting, and, certainly, we don't have all the answers, but that is kind of the lane that we're testing. You know, how do we meet those information needs with this group of young people on this segment of our population that doesn't really get to be in that space very much.

Lede New Orleans programs

TIM REGAN-PORTER [00:15:23]: So let's talk a little bit about what your team is doing, the different programs. So you mentioned the community reporting fellowship. You do community events and workshops, and I think you've piloted this year Fellowship 2.0,, where you get some of the alumni back. So describe those programs and what kinds of journalism, you know, these young people are doing?

JENNIFER LARINO [00:15:47]: Happy to. So I've talked a little bit about our community reporting fellowship. So this is a paid, 16 to 20 week training program specifically for BIPOC young people aged 18 to 25. So this is really our core program. When I talk about what we started with in March of 2020, that this is it. Right? This is this idea of, like, can we pay young people in our communities to learn how to do this work and then go out and actually, like, make stories, you know, fill that information need. Over the years, we've learned that, yes. Yes.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:16:19]: We can do that. We have about 45 alumni now of that program. We're entering, I think, next year will be our 9th cohort. We do about six young people at a time. So it's very, kind of, focused work. But that is really like an intro program. You can come in and not really have any journalism experience before, and come in and learn the basics and learn the ropes. And what they do is they go through training while doing so, and we scaffold mediums.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:16:53]: So it starts usually with interviewing and learning that process and research, and working on writing and written work. So a lot of them will enter kind of journalistic style writing by doing some of these narrative pieces. So they'll explore kind of a larger topic through their own voice. Then we graduate into audio interviewing. And, really, what's kind of interesting about our program is we do short doc production. So kind of throughout that process, as they're interviewing, as they're doing audio interviewing and learning these different mediums, they graduate into production of a short doc, 5 to 10 minutes, around their theme that they're reporting on. And, it kind of brings all that skills, all those skills that they've been learning over that time together. And they come out with a short doc that they've worked on as teams and then various written pieces that meet information needs.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:17:53]: That brings me to kind of a mentioned theme. We have a theme for each community reporting fellowship. And that theme is the reporting theme, and that's decided, first by data that we cull from our community listening work. So we go out to festivals, you know, local events, and we just talk to people. We have them fill out surveys about, you know, what topics are they interested in? What do they need more information on? What do they wanna see different stories about? So narrative and kind of how that's emerging in our city. And we pull all that together and we break out three different themes that people are elevating in our community as something that they need. From those three, the young people who are in our community reporting fellowship actually vote on which they think is the best course to pursue. And then they take that their entire fellowship to look into that issue.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:18:50]: So for example, our fall, 2023 cohort looked into youth incarceration and abolition. So they wanted to introduce their elders specifically and family members to this idea of there is an abolition movement in our city and people thinking about alternatives to prison. What does that mean? What does that look like? And they even developed a vocabulary guide, essentially, for abolition terms to just kind of explore what that means and to make it accessible for people in the community to discuss that. Things like that are what emerged from the Community Reporting Fellowship. Really all of our other programs are kind of built on top of that. Our community events take the work of the fellowship, and really experiment with ways to deliver that to community members in different ways. So we know anyone who's worked in journalism knows how many times we've talked to editors about length of articles and how people engage with written content and text and the challenges of meeting an audience. I think a lot of the times those conversations framed around, like, how can we get our audience to change? Right? Or how can we get them to do what we want them to do? And we're really with our community events program and workshops, we're trying to flip that model.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:20:18]: So what does it look like if the audience has their ideal way of interacting with the content? And one thing that has really emerged to us is live exhibits in a sense, where we bring the reporting of our fellows to community, allow them to engage in on the spot conversations, you know, art, and just hold a space for dialogue around the topic, and then launch our content so that people can dig in more independently, is really something that people crave. And not just that, but creating safety in that kind of space is doubly important. So that's really that bucket of work. We're gonna be relaunching our workshops to basically extend the work of the fellowship. So like I said, they focus for a short time on a theme, and what we want to experiment with is how can we bring community in to continue that work and that inquiry about a particular topic. So our current cohort is looking into public space and green space and what does access look like for Black and Brown communities in New Orleans and why is that important. What our goal is is to have a series of workshops that are a community of practice model next year where community members kind of take on the tools and we are working on democratizing journals and skills to continue that inquiry and that research and that work around that issue, for the next year. So kind of passing the baton outside of the, and furthering the work of the fellowship.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:21:56]: So that's events, workshops, and then, of course, you mentioned Fellowship 2.0. We have this alumni group of amazing storytellers, who are all still quite young and looking for opportunities. And, this pilot program, the Fellowship 2.0 program, was really about experimenting with what happens if we fund specific projects. So one-off editor-fellow partnerships, they work on projects that are their own pitch, you know, that are specific to New Orleans and meet information needs here in that way. So really just kind of creating additional ecosystem room for the young people that retrain to continue telling stories and doing that work. So really, it's all about, like, different ways that how do we get out this question of we have a very full ecosystem, but there's this very big gap, you know, for Black and Brown communities specifically of, you know, information is not responsive and relevant. We've been able to get at that with the community reporting fellowship, but we're trying, you know, different ways to to deliver and meet that need. And that's what's great about being in New Orleans. We could be that nimble.

Engaging the audience and experimenting with content partnerships

TIM REGAN-PORTER [00:23:11]: Talk to me a little bit about who the content reaches, so your audience. So, you know, aside from the community events, you've got a great YouTube channel. I would encourage people to to look at some of the videos. That's great work from some young people, Instagram and that sort of thing. But are you partnering with other media to get the content out there? What's your approach there?

JENNIFER LARINO [00:23:31]: It's a great question, and I think it's gonna change within the next two years. So one challenge that we faced almost immediately was, we were very interested in partnering with legacy media. And I had a network, and Ejaaz had his own network, and we were trying to leverage that, but it was really difficult. You know, you wind up waging this campaign of changing minds about, you know, who an expert source is, who, you know, who should be, you know, what does the process for journalism look like? We really just wanted space to experiment. So at first, you know, we tried to kind of the media partnership model and thought, okay. Well, what happens if we just kinda see what can happen? We'll publish our own stuff. Right? So that's really what we've been working on for the past four years. Can we just, like, make things, you know, and show that it's possible? And we've really relied on Medium and some of these, you know, platforms, YouTube, social media to get that work out there and to build an audience of our own, really.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:24:31]: And our events really a kind of content stream. So we really worked on kind of building our own audience, and in that process, we started to get recognition and started to see the traditional legacy spaces looking our direction and kinda say, how are you doing that? Like, what are you doing? You know? So moving forward, what we're really interested in is partnering with organizations that are trying to reach the same audience as us or trying to meet that the ecosystem gap. And you've seen some headway in that space here in New Orleans. Verite is a nonprofit news outlet that just opened in the city about two years ago, with a focus on minority communities and serving those communities. We're seeing more recognition of the importance of getting different voices into legacy spaces. So I think it was important for us to lay that experimental groundwork and just get content out there and meet people where we knew we could. And now we're curious about, like, what does a partnership or what does a placement type of relationship with our ecosystem look like? You know, who are the people that are aligned in this work? But I think there's a big struggle of journalism. And in the moment that we're at, we talk about partnership a lot.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:25:57]: We talk about, you know, what makes sense. And I think we get in over our heads a lot, you know, because we're trying to pile on too much on, you know, one relationship. So cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to get some headway and make some gains there. But up to this point, it's been mostly, we make things and then an outlet will pick it up. We've worked with YR Media, which is a national organization and media outlet that focuses on youth produced media out of California. They've been awesome in really working with our fellows to get their voices amplified to a national audience. And then we've also worked with Verite who have seen our stuff, said, oh, we'd love to have this voice, you know, here, and communicating back and forth that way. So it's been more one-off kind of what strikes, you know, those outlets.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:26:49]: But I'm hoping to kinda have that be part of our model and what we experiment with in the future is just how could this work? You know, you see it happening in Chicago and New York, other cities. How could it work in New Orleans?

The challenges and benefits of slowing down

TIM REGAN-PORTER [00:27:01]: That space to experiment is so crucial. We know in this industry, we have a hard time getting young people, you know, to pay attention to the news that we produce. And it's not just about hiring more young people. Right? It's about talking to them in different ways, in different formats and different platforms. And I'm curious, you know, you're coming there from what was an Advance Local newsroom, and like most of most of our industry, reach is really paramount, you know, and feeding the beast. And this is very much not that. Right? It's not sacrificing all on the altar of reach. It's not feeding a beast. It's having a whole different level of engagement and conversation and the types of stories you're telling. How was that for you to make that adjustment? And, what have you learned maybe that legacy media, traditional media can start to think about that in a different way?

JENNIFER LARINO [00:28:05]: That is a great question. I think I've learned that slowing down is really hard, and you feel like you're doing everything wrong, honestly. When you emerge from that, the environment you just described, as a journalist in that environment and as a editor, I had no idea just how fast we were moving. You know? And there are people that continue to, you know, to carry on that torch. You know? And when you move that fast through stories, through the editing process, the thought process, you miss a lot, you know. I think that's what a lot of journalists feel, you know, over a number of years, you tend to miss. So, you know, I think, at the beginning of this journey, I thought it would be easy to slow down. But what I'm realizing is that it's actually, like, really, really difficult, you know, and it's a constant check on processes, a lot of the things that you take for granted.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:29:08]: I'll think of a good example. So we are on a production timeline for two short docs that are fellowship produced this summer. And we need them done by Saturday. And part of our process is we bring community in, the community members who are part of it, and the storytellers in there, who are featured in the docs and we have them view it. And always, we're just like, ah, we want them to view it at this time. Like, how do we bring people in? Like, and, you know, we don't want them to see the super rough cut. You know? But, it's always a race on time. Right? Because we're, you know, working on deadline, but it's those little adjustments that have helped us build the kind of trust and just model a different way that I think means a lot for community members who, you know, kind of see the faster paced journalism model not serving them as much. So we have the liberty to do that.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:30:09]: Like, we, you know, have the flexibility in the way our revenue model is. We have that space to experiment as we mentioned earlier. But I think that there's a lot of room to do that in traditional spaces. And now, you know, as a journalist, I was even trying to cultivate some of that for myself. You know? I would tell my editors if I just wanted to, like, take a day to, like, call and just fact check the story myself. I wanna go back to my—and I love that part of the work, you know, going back and saying, like, hey. I just wanna make sure I got everything right. Community members love that.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:30:43]: You know? And that's something I've carried with us to hear as part of our editorial process at Lede New Orleans. Everything gets fact checked. Like, everything, you know, goes through a callback, you know, and we bring people into that process. I think that's been the biggest learning. It's, like, the slowdown doesn't necessarily have to be on the production, like, how we bring everything together. It really actually is the front end of, like, when you're actually out within community interviewing people, talking to folks. Are you letting them in on the process? What is the bigger vision? Like, what are you trying to do? You know? And also what do they need? You know, and in slowing down on that part of the process has been really revelatory, I think, for us. We have a lot, a lot, a lot to learn, you know. But I think that's one reason why we found it yet so useful to create spaces where we can engage and kinda work that muscle of, you know, what does it look like to open and hold space for community members to see what we're doing, see behind the scenes, but also share, you know, how they're seeing things.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:31:56]: What are they hearing on their block? You know what I mean? And you see so much of this kind of energy across the country right now. So many of our peers, you know, the Canopy Atlanta's, the City Bureaus are really embracing that and we are learning from them. But I think that what does it look like to slow down this work, is really one of the biggest questions that I've been grappling with, you know, and how we design things at Lede New Orleans.

Funding and financial sustainability for slow journalism

TIM REGAN-PORTER [00:32:28]: And I know that slowing down can feel like a luxury and privilege that a lot in our industry don't have. You know, heading into a second Trump administration, I think we're gonna see we can't have a repeat of the daily outrage and the cycle we, you know, had through 2016. And I think we're gonna see demand from our audiences to give more context, step back, don't just feed a beast. And so it'll be interesting to see how that evolves, but I think we're definitely gonna see a demand for that. How do you make that work financially? Right? That's one of the reasons these beasts grow so big, is that they're what get fed, and we don't know how to stop feeding them because that's what our advertising and membership, sponsorship, donations, everything depends on. How are you making it work?

JENNIFER LARINO [00:33:25]: I think it starts with framing. We can be very siloed in journalism, and only tell the journalism story of, you know, journalists doing journalism, and it's important for democracy. And that kind of limits our funding and kind of, you know, puts us in that same messaging. With Lede New Orleans, we're an interesting hybrid where we sit at the intersection of a lot of issues that really matter for community. So in New Orleans, you know, youth development is a really big, not issue, but a topic that a lot of people are thinking and talking about. Informed communities is something that goes beyond journalism, but that journalism is a critical piece of. And then we also have art. We have culture.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:34:11]: We have vibrancy in New Orleans that New Orleans is tapping into to inform communities. And I think that really breaking, you know, from a high level perspective, we'll get into nitty gritty, but from the high level perspective, breaking out of we are just a news organization who does x, y, and z and democracy as, you know, this is essential to democracy, has helped us really cultivate supporters. So we are a 501c3, and we are a nonprofit. But to cultivate support outside of the journalism space. So Press Forward was really our first big, like, journalism nod. Right? Up to this point, we've really been just trying to tell the story of young people meeting information needs as like an essential community need. Right? A civic need. And I think that's opened different doors for us financially.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:35:13]: Do we have it all figured out? No. We are a nonprofit and the same as for profit. It's just, you know, we are hustling for money, you know, and we're trying to figure out how to make these things work. But I think that openness of we're not only going to go after, you know, these specific funders or, this specific thing, diversity is king. Right? Like that helps you navigate revenue and make these things work. We'll caveat that with saying it's important to create what you're gonna make. Right? And not go after funding so that you can make something that the funding wants. Right? Which can be challenging.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:35:55]: Right? Sometimes when you get into, like, journalism art, and you wanna, like, go after funding, and you're like, oh, we could do this, you know. But what does the community actually want? So I think that's been important for us on the funding side and fundraising side. I'll say, like, I'm a journalist. And now I'm our fundraiser, and I—this has been a totally new experience for me. You know? But so much of it comes to that framing and that storytelling, which is what we learn as journalists. Right? It's very hard to tell our own stories, right, or to vocalize the needs and insert yourself when you have that journalistic training. But that's the flip, you know, the switch that's flipped for me. The other thing I was gonna say about fundraising is really going back to that slow conversation.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:36:52]: What does slow growth look like for us? I've read a lot about how women-led organizations tend to think in this way, but I've been doing a lot of thinking about this. You see a trend where right now, especially in the nonprofit news space, there's a lot of money coming in all at once, and it's awesome. I think where we're at, though, for the past four years has been just thinking about what does it look like to not only do this work and slow it down, but what does it look like to grow intentionally and to really, like, embrace strategy at a young age? And, again, that takes slowing down, and it's not really something that you see a lot of four year old organizations doing, but it's something that we're trying to do. There are things that we are not going to do. And we can't fall into that trap of trying to do everything, you know, or trying to pursue every kind of funding. You know, just kind of really understanding capacity. Journalism is one of those spaces where the overexertion and overgiving is kind of just the norm. But the reset of that thinking of, like, what is needed, you know? And what do we need to ask for? And what makes sense? It's hard. They're harder questions to answer than you might think, and they take time.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:38:15]: You know? So I'm very grateful to have a board of directors who understands that and really is focused on the strategy portion of this, and a staff of all former program participants, I'll add, which we're very proud of, that is coming along on this journey and embracing that. Because, yeah, we are meeting, we are one piece of the pie within a larger ecosystem. Right? We're not trying to eat the whole pie. So what does that look like? You know? And from an operations fundraising standpoint, that is challenging but important to take the time to work through those questions. So, yeah, from nuts and bolts perspective, a lot of our fundraising up to this point has come from the youth development space. So this recognition among funders, specifically in New Orleans and national funders who are working in New Orleans, that we need to invest in young people who are disconnected from work and school. That is our group who we work with at the 18 to 25 range. Right? And then also various, different mediums that serve as information conduits for community, whether that be documentary spaces, whether that be audio, and just kind of opening up what we consider ourselves as and how we tell our story and, explain the importance of what we're doing.

Measuring impact: Community trust and alumni outcomes

TIM REGAN-PORTER [00:39:44]: What can you tell me about impact both in the community as well as your alumni? What have they gone on to do?

JENNIFER LARINO [00:39:51]: So I will start this conversation by saying that's been one of our biggest learnings, in terms of how do we think about our impact and how are we measuring it and what is that story that we're telling. Right? So from the very beginning, Lede New Orleans has always had a big focus on telling the stories of our fellows. So the individuals who come through our programs, which you're asking about. And really, kind of, figuring out, like, why are they coming into the program, what do they wanna do, and then following them once they get out. One thing that I'm super, super proud of is about half of our fellows are from New Orleans, and either Black or Brown folks from New Orleans, which is some people might say only half, really. But I think that's a really big thing for us because a lot of the naysayers in our community would say these schools, our schools don't prepare young people for this kind of work. What is the interest if people have never seen people like them doing journalism work in the city? And that we've been able to challenge that in just the different ways we're communicating about the program and what we do here. Right? There's a lot of young people that are interested in civic leadership and media, but maybe don't see the two connecting and journalism is kind of the thread there.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:41:06]: Right? So just kind of different ways of that we're recruiting and messaging around this. Of those 45 young people we've trained, all have completed the program, which is, that's pretty big. Right? Like, to spend multiple months, you know, with an organization, we do pay. So I think that has been essential, right, to giving the financial support to pursue your ambition. It's critical. So that is big. Beyond that though, what we're starting to realize, well, let me actually go back to individuals. So our individuals who have gone through the program, again, these are folks 18 to 25.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:41:44]: They have gone on to do so many different incredible things, which I think is a big learning for us. Not all of them are like, I wanna go into a newsroom. Some have. We've had folks go on to ESPN, you know, and work for ESPN. We've had folks that have gone on to work at The 19th and to social media and things like that. But, really, what we've been really interested in is how our fellows are using these skills and going all different directions with it. So we have people that have entered education. We have people that have entered the organizing space and are doing, you know, their own storytelling around organizing and kind of building their own platforms.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:42:26]: One fellow Alec, I'm thinking of in particular, works with our small but very vibrant, Asian American Pacific Islander community here in New Orleans and is building a storytelling platform around, you know, just capturing and documenting those stories, which is crucial. Right? So not a journalist per se, but very much doing this kind of work. We've had people, of course, go on into marketing, and do various, different things with the skills that they have. Film production is another, big avenue. But I wanna say all that and say that we're now learning, though, that our impact is really beyond those little individual stories. That is an awesome, like, secondary, maybe even tertiary part of what we do. But we're starting to understand that our impact is really in, one, what we're making and how that's different from what exists, so media content. And then, two, this trusted space aspect, especially if we as we enter, you know, another four years where there's gonna be, not a lot of trust and a lot of need for Black and Brown communities to come together to discuss issues, Being able to establish basis of trust has been something that we have noticed as our impact, but we haven't been measuring, which is which is such the rub.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:43:55]: Right? We haven't been actually asking people. So what is, you know, do you trust this space? You know? And literally having surveys and whatnot that measure that. So that's a direction that we're actually headed right now. We are investing in our content because we realized that is where our impact lies. People in our community crave this. You know? And from the little surveying that we've done, we have about, I would say, about 30% of our survey respondents say that we are meeting a need that is not currently existing. That's just not currently existing. Right? For the folks that the majority of our audience, they're saying, you know, maybe we see this, but this is where I'm going to get information that is from young people and from the community.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:44:43]: So I think that there's still a lot of learnings that we have to really document, which is such an interesting part of being in the nonprofit space is that you're kind of forced to document the impact, right, and report back to funders and whatnot. Whereas when I was a journalist, we never really did that. You know, we didn't really follow-up. Right? So I'm excited about it. I like it. Not everybody loves that part of the work. But, really, like, that's part of our innovation. It's, like, how are we thinking about impact, and how are we measuring it, especially in these live spaces? Like, that's something that we're really excited about headed into next year's.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:45:22]: You know, what are people getting, you know, when they walk in here? And how do we document that in a way that we can continue to tell our story on and really guide our decision making? Because at the end of the day, that funnel that we wanna keep or that cycle that we wanna keep going into, what are you getting from the space, community member, and how do we deliver more of that?

Collaborating with non-journalists and reimagining storytelling

TIM REGAN-PORTER [00:45:43]: Yeah. Talk a little bit about partnering with someone outside of journalism with a totally different storytelling background. And what was that process like, and how did it shape your thinking? How did you shape each other's thinking maybe?

JENNIFER LARINO [00:45:55]: Ejaaz, if you're listening, I'm so grateful for you. Always. I think that, like I said earlier, it was critical for us getting to where we are now, which we still have so much more to do and want to grow. But I think that having somebody and working with people who are outside the journalism space really helps you open up possibility. This is possibility in terms of, like, how information can be presented. So I was a print journalist. You know? My medium is always gonna be written form. Right? That's where I'm comfortable with.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:46:32]: Like, that's what I was wanting to teach in our programs and really work through. And then Ejaaz, of course, having the visual element had a totally different take on, like, what people connect with, what would help people access the kind of information that they're looking for. And so for, really, from, like, a medium standpoint, right off the bat, we brought very different perspectives and skill sets that I think really helped shape, especially our training program and what we emphasize. I think we're really unique and that we're trying to figure out different mediums that really reach our audience. Because the reality is, you know, across the South but in New Orleans, you know, we're battling varying rates of literacy. We're bet you know, we're working with time crutches, people that gotta work, like, a lot, you know, and don't have time to, you know, consume news in the ways that we serve it up a lot of the time. And then also utility. Like, how do people, like, use something? You know? So right off the bat, we were already kinda coming from these different perspectives and thinking about how to, what do we train people in? You know? Like, what's important? And but I think at the core of each of our skill set was kind of like a responsiveness and adaptability that has really helped in shaping our programming.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:47:55]: And we're iterative, and we've been able to adapt and shape and, kind of, push and challenge. And that has been really, really valuable. What I will say also is our personal backgrounds were very critical to, you know, the DNA of this organization. I'm not from New Orleans. I love New Orleans. It's my home, but I am much like most of the journalists that are in New Orleans. I've come from elsewhere and learned the city, but have my own blind spots, you know, and my own, things that I think are true but need to be tested. And Ejaaz is a New Orleans native, a Black New Orleanian who grew up here and has seen a lot, and, you know, knows the narratives in the city. And I think, from the narrative perspective, it's really interesting. Very early on, we had a lot of interesting conversations about what the narratives that are flying around about New Orleans are, you know, and how we're gonna how, like, do you unpack that? You know? So very early on, our fellowship was not just a space to learn skills. It was also like this almost philosophical space where we were thinking about things beyond, you know, how do you put this story together? And I think that's something that has been a thread throughout, and that our fellows really, they don't get anything like that normally.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:49:22]: Right? So much of our journey in education is about what skills you can get to equip you to move on to some sort of career. And time and time again, we survey our fellows, you know, before, during, and after their fellowship. They will say, you know, the conversations we had in the space are unlike any that I've ever had. And I remember being a young journalist and being in newsrooms where I would encounter those conversations and think, like, wow. Like, this is so cool that I get to be a part of this, you know, and thinking about some of these bigger issues. So being able to bring that to a broader part of the community through the fellowship has been really cool, but it's kinda baked into our DNA and how Ejaaz and I interacted that we were always pushing and challenging each other and having some of these, and we continue to, you know, big debates about what, you know, what is the story of New Orleans that's being told right now, and how is it different from what we're experiencing? So those are some of the things. There's a whole laundry list of things that I think really really benefited us, and helped us get that start. But, those differing perspectives and skill sets were crucial, and that's a lesson that you can scale, you know, for all newsrooms. Who do you have in the room? You know, it's always important.

For younger multimedia journalists, look at your training, leadership and management styles

TIM REGAN-PORTER [00:50:41]: We did a, back when I was at the Center for Collaborative Journalism, we did a six week—no, it wasn't even that long—two-week high school journalism, media camp. And, you know, we're largely, we had a decent-sized print newsroom attached and a public radio station. And, you know, we were teaching—some of the journalists had to learn video production, DSLR, you know, InDesign, Photoshop. Not InDesign, Final Cut. And the quality of the work that these kids were doing with a couple weeks to train, and, you know, you teach them how to write also.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [00:51:23]: You teach them how to do good audio, teach them good storytelling, and you just put them out there. And they were really into it, and they produced some great work. So I hear newsrooms all the time, you know, wanting more young people, but you've gotta change your rhythms, and you've gotta let them do this kind of work. But also the training is crucial, and that's something a lot of people aren't comfortable with. How have you approached training? Who is doing the training, and how hard was that to actually get ramped up? And what have you learned?

JENNIFER LARINO [00:51:55]: We have the benefit, I'll say, of being a training space that makes media rather than a media space that is trying to make training or trying to do training. Back to our old conversation, you know, our former conversation about the pace. Yes. When you equip people with the resources to do what they aspire to do, incredible things happen. That said, it can be slow and demand different skills for nurturing emerging creators into that role. So I don't wanna discount that part of it. You know, when you as you were saying, when you hear newsrooms saying, we want younger talent, we want more multimedia, more different kinds of thinkers in our space. It also requires a different leadership, a different management style.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:52:47]: And I think a lot of traditional spaces are used to, quite honestly, because we are set up where, you know, we are training, you know, that we know and have accepted that's part of our space. I think it makes it easier for us, one, to establish the culture that we need to be able to, of course, meet people where they're at, but also like have the listening in place, the coaching in place to move them through the work, which, you know, as a camp model, will, it will indicate without some of these other training models that have historically worked and done really well. Like a lot of it is about having that culture. Right? Where we're here to learn and figure things out, but we also wanna make stuff. So that is not always the case in newsrooms, you know. And why is that, I guess? Where is the learning culture? Right? Cultivating a culture where people can learn and and push and question, even the process of doing something is important. When you do that, you wind up attracting professionals. So that's part of our model.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:54:00]: We attract freelancers mostly, but people who are working journalists to serve as instructors and editors as our program. So as young people are moving to the program, they're also connecting with people that are actually working in the space, which was very important to me to have, you know, people that are currently working. When you're kind of pushing the culture aspect of we're learning and we're rethinking journalism, you attract different kinds of people, you know, that are also thinking about this within the context of their careers or maybe even their newsrooms. So that's something really interesting that's emerged from this project and this work that I don't think I anticipated. Just like how many journalists want to engage in this thought work of reimagining what journalism could be like, you know, slowing down different aspects, you know, and challenging some of the culture aspects of the industry, but just don't have a space to do it. So that's helped us to bring people who are experienced into the space. I think a challenge with that is we are competing with time. We, it's a struggle to pay a rate that competes, you know, with the work that freelancers are doing.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:55:09]: If they need to go shoot something, they're a photographer and they need to go shoot something for the New York Times, they're gonna they're gonna go do that job and, you know, our training session on Saturday, we're gonna have to figure something else, you know, out. So I think that is something that is a big priority for us in terms of keeping our media professionals engaged in this work because they actually, there's impact on their end of, like, having space to think about a different way of doing things. But we also have you know, we face that challenge of the larger industry and the pace at which things move and people just trying to hustle. So I think that those are two elements of the way we do things that I think help set us up for ushering young people without a lot of journalism experience, kinda connecting the dots from that to you've now published articles, you've been part of a documentary. The third thing I think is just, like, really breaking down the editorial process and, like, where do you need your expertise most at? Something that we found, of course, is that editing and kind of having that experience on how to manage projects, and know how much time things take, for example, is crucial for us in an area that we need to invest in. And if you could have that, you can kind of, you know, you can the other pieces fall into place. But it's so much about leadership and, like, who do you have in your corner who's contributing that knowledge and that framework, but also within this culture of we're here to learn, we're here to challenge things, nothing's a given. It's a unique environment, and I love it.

How the JSK Fellowship catalyzed Lede New Orleans

TIM REGAN-PORTER [00:56:53]: You mentioned JSK in relation to Ejaaz, but you did a fellowship. Where did that fall in the timeline, and what did you take out of that? And I saw your Medium post from that time too, and I can very much see how that factors into what you're doing now.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:57:13]: So, oh my gosh. I don't have to think of years here. The past few years have been such a blur. Okay. So, Ejaaz is a JSK ‘23-’24 fellow. Right? Yeah. So I was the year prior to that. So we were, we were actually, the Community Impact Fellows in that cohort. So the model that JSK adopted for the post COVID era, was remote, and that we would be continuing to work in our communities but engage remotely in the training and support that the fellowship offered. And then we went out to Stanford and were able to come together as a cohort and really think through some of the bigger picture issues and think about where we were. That fellowship was critical. It came at a critical time for me in my leadership journey with Lede New Orleans and where we were headed. So we were about three years old when I first started. So we were not a pilot anymore. We were emerging from infancy as an organization and entering toddlerhood. And as a mother of a toddler, that is an interesting time.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:58:31]: It's a lot of exploration and uncertainty. And that, the having a place weekly to go to, think about bigger picture issues, to work on leadership, but also to have mentorship around fundraisings, particularly, when I'm coming from, I'm a journalist. Like, I don't, I don't do the money part. Right? Like and learning that how to manage a board, kind of all these new skill sets that were just cascading upon me. Having spaces like that is so critical if you're gonna continue doing this work and not just cry and quit, quite honestly. Because there were a lot of times when I wanted to cry. I don't think I ever really got close to quitting, but, it's a lot. You know, you start with a spark of an idea, and then it actually turns into something.

JENNIFER LARINO [00:59:18]: And now you're faced with this question of, do we grow it? Or what do we want this to be? You know, now so many other lives are involved. So, yeah, it was a critical space, and I thought it was a critical time to most of that cohort were in a similar kind of sector, I guess, of news right now where, you know, they were kinda pushing the envelope in terms of what it means to serve community, specifically Black and Brown and BIPOC communities. So it was really cool to be able to build those connections, to have that space to think about some of the skills that I really needed to skill up on, and it really began that journey with JSK in order to build a sustainable, healthy organization. That's a little different from JSK's, kind of, you go out to Stanford model, but it worked really well for what I needed. I needed to be able to invest in Lede New Orleans and grow. It's a little different from being a journalist in a larger newsroom where you're looking, you know, to get outside of the space to think. I really needed to be in my space to see how some of these ideas applied. And I'm so grateful that I caught that opportunity, you know, to be able to do that.

JENNIFER LARINO [01:00:28]: It really it catalyzed Lede New Orleans. I mean, after that, as a result of coaching from that, we got one of our largest grants to fund the Community Reporting Fellowship and really grow it. So eternally grateful to Dawn and Alberto over there, for their guidance and the work that they do.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:00:48]: Yeah. I've been amazed at how well that remote program worked because it's not the same as the on-campus experience. But the number of Community Impact Fellows I've gotten to know and seen around, and they feel just as connected, it seems, as the on-campus cohort was. And that's been great to see. If I'll have to talk to Dawn at some point about designing that because I think that's rare.

JENNIFER LARINO [01:01:10]: For that cohort, so many of us were, like, entrepreneurs in news, either starting an organization or cofounding or, you know, just leading. You know? And I think that was what made the remote dynamic work is that we were all in kind of this high need positioning of being on entrepreneurial and running organizations. So I think that kind of my, after having reflected on that experience, those connections. That's the connection I made in terms of, like, what made that cohort, like, so effective.

Rapid-fire questions

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:01:46]: Alright. So now for the rapid-fire segment, and my questions will be quick, but your answers don't have to be. So first question compared to a year ago, are you more or less optimistic about the future of local news?

JENNIFER LARINO [01:01:58]: I am more optimistic. I am an optimist at heart. But I think all the projects that are happening, especially at the local level, and really starting to see investment and interest from funders across the country, it's just really promising and really awesome to see, and it's great to be a part of that.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:02:18]: Yeah. Does AI fill you with more hope or dread when it comes to journalism?

JENNIFER LARINO [01:02:23]: There's a mix. I think I'm leaning more toward hope. There's a lot we need to think about, especially in the realm of journalism and how it impacts us. But from our context in New Orleans, we're really interested about training and how AI can really help equip and enable community members to meet information needs, of course, with the parameters of good journalism.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:02:47]: What's the best piece of advice you have been given, or do you have a favorite piece of advice you like to give?

JENNIFER LARINO [01:02:53]: What comes to mind is if it's not a hell yes, it's a no. So as we were talking about slowing down and really trying to manage and think about how you grow, I think that's something that's bubbled up recently. But it's not a hell yes. It's a no.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:03:10]: I like that. Is there a piece of common advice or conventional wisdom that drives you crazy in its wrongness or oversimplification?

JENNIFER LARINO [01:03:20]: I think the idea that communities don't really care about news or where they get it from is something I hear kind of, you know, still popping up even though we have this trend of more, kind of community-focused news and information initiatives. People do care, you know, and people may not realize all the forces that play that are influenced how they get information. But when you sit them down to talk about it, you start to realize that they do care.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:03:51]: Yeah. And I wanna dig in here for a minute because I thought about this too when I was asking about the hope for local news as we're talking, you know, the end of election week. And a lot of us, I think, are doing some introspection about our industry and our relation with our communities. And I think misinformation maybe didn't play as big of a role. I think it played a role. But I think different information or lack of information definitely did. And this is not because the candidate I may have wanted to win did or didn't, but it's clear and just hearing from people and some of the coverage and that we people have very different media diets, not just because of, you know, Fox News and CNN watchers, but also people at different economic strata and different life circumstances have different time, you know, amounts of time available, different levels of trust. They just can't—you know, people have different information diets. And so I've been wondering, what does this mean for local news, and what do we need to do different or better? And a lot of local news, we know, we've kind of abandoned the national picture, and some of that makes sense.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:05:05]: We don't need to get into a lot of that and if we don't bring a particular expertise. But being able to explain what does, you know, a proposed tariff mean for this community and the businesses in this community. What does this mean for whatever the policy is or discussion? That's something we should be doing, I think, at the local level. We need to insert ourselves back into that. But, also, we just need to be convening people and having them talk as neighbors. You know, it's not always about hard news. It's also about, you know, the arts and culture. And if you get to know your neighbors, maybe we can have conversations that clarify. So, yeah, what would you say to all of that?

JENNIFER LARINO [01:05:46]: Yeah. I mean, what a poignant moment that we're at. Right? I think that's something that's really resonated with me, coming out of this election was how much shared values can be interpreted differently. So I was just listening to a story on NPR about polling questions and, the question of this election, the statement, I guess you would say, of this election is about protecting democracy. For folks who were on the Harris camp, this is about, you know, maintaining democracy, making sure the process is fair. This, that candidate represented that to them. But you could also have, you know, a Trump supporter who agrees with that statement, and would answer yes to a pollster, who believes that the election was stolen. Right? And that, you know, voting Trump in was a reinstatement of democracy.

JENNIFER LARINO [01:06:41]: Right? And fair is fair. So I think that, you know, within the context of all of that, I think that local news and kind of community level news, we can't forget to help people connect the dots, or we can't assume that people are connecting the dots of what's happening here in our neighborhoods to that bigger picture. And, you know, we call this the nut graph or the why it matters graph in our written journalism, in our print journalism. But I think that, you know, as we focus on providing more useful information, as we focus on, you know, trying to really just meet immediate needs, whether that's creating a space where people can talk about the larger context or, you know, including, you know, an explainer kind of segment of whatever it is, whatever information you're trying to provide that connects it to that bigger piece and picture. I do think, like you were saying, that local news is uniquely positioned to meet that need, you know, and to describe that, or at least foster that conversation about how this is impacted. A major theme of this election was just cost of goods and inflation and people seeing that in their lives. Right? And that's a very local news topic. Right? We can get out there and talk to people about how this is impacting them.

JENNIFER LARINO [01:08:00]: You know, but what is that constant work of connecting that to the larger picture of, like, what does inflation actually mean? Like, who has control over that? Like, what does that mean? Like, I still don't even know. And I'm a business reporter, you know. I need to reexamine that. But those are the things that really help us dig a little bit deeper and add complexity to the narrative, which I think is such, that's something that local news is so uniquely positioned to do, because we know our community so well. How do we add that complexity and maintain that trust that we've worked to build?

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:08:36]: Yeah. And, you know, there even just that one question on democracy is such a rich area for nuance, because not only do you have, you know, a sort of simplistic red and blue view on what that question means, if you dig even, you know, what does democracy mean to people? And for, you know, I had this conversation with Jay Rosen where he talked about, you know, the people who wanna blow it up and and then the defenders of democracy. It's like, but there's also this sort of other category. You can not wanna blow it up and also criticize it. Right? And there are some people who felt like democracy wasn't working for them. They've never been included. And so as local journalists, we can have those, facilitate those conversations, dig into that, and provide context. You know, even with inflation, we should be talking about the impact on people's everyday lives.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:09:26]: We should also be having maybe a solutions journalism lens and what are how does it work? What are the approaches? But also placing in an international picture. You know, it's been a problem worldwide, and we've actually done better than most countries. And you might have heard the something I think just came out yesterday, maybe, where someone published a study looking at all of the elections basically going back to, like, 1905. And this is the first one in all that time where every single governing party around the world lost seats. Right? And so it's hard for local people to give that context, but there you know, if we're doing a good job as an ecosystem, can we tap into that and bring that into our stories so that we're giving people more holistic frameworks and facilitating those deeper and richer conversations?

JENNIFER LARINO [01:10:16]: Yeah. And I also think the work of just documenting people's voices. Right? So often, I think that sometimes as journalists, we just feel like this, we've gotta explain it all and tie it together. You know? And, like you know? But if you're just out there documenting what people are saying, and digging in and trying to kind of lead, you know, or facilitate these more complex discussions, you're gonna get at some of that complexity that would, just don't emerge at the national media level, at the pollster level. You know what I mean? And it's quite helpful beyond the context of journalism. You know? But it's hard and slow work as we were talking about you know, earlier with slow journalism, not as slow, and it doesn't always fit in the context of a story. You know? It's something that we've found. Like, we can document a lot of voices, but, like, what's the end product? What do we do with it? You know? Is it just information for us? Or, you know, is there something that we can deliver that would be helpful for community? That's something that is curious to me.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:11:15]: I think that has to go beyond, at least in terms of this broader picture we're talking about, beyond just Fox pop or the more gendered term man on the street. Some of the most interesting work I've heard it comes out of the political arena, not the media or certainly not journalism, but The Bulwark, Sarah Longwell, who was a Never Trumper, but she started, I think back in 2017, started these focus groups. And listening to her talk about that, and it's these very rich conversations. Right? So it's not getting a quote for your story. It's really trying to understand how do people see things, why do they see them that way, and digging into that. Yeah. And I think that's an anecdote to the knee-jerk reaction that a lot of Harris supporters, but, you know, a lot of that breaks down on education lines. Right? And journalists come out of that, you know, economic and educational status.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:12:14]: And there's a tendency among, I wouldn't say journalists, but educated, college-educated folks to dismiss people as being ignorant or, you know, you can throw all kinds of other epitaphs, but not really understanding where they're coming from. And, you know, and there certainly are bad actors of all political persuasions, and some of them certainly came to the fore in the MAGA movement. And I think we need to talk about that, but, there's a lot more nuance that we need to have. And I think what you're saying about bringing people's voices to the fore and not just stick a mic in their face, right, and let them give whatever's on top of the head, but rich, deep conversations and understanding where people are coming from and why they think the way they do.

JENNIFER LARINO [01:12:59]: Yeah. Yeah. And that doesn't always fit in the confines of the story. I think that's the most limiting thing for journalists. You know? It's yeah. Sometimes it's work that's almost outside, but informs. It's almost like that background research.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:13:11]: Yep. Exactly. Which is one of the things I love about what you're doing in terms of the mini docs. So you know, there aren't enough documentary filmmakers in the world probably to get at all of this. But with a little bit more time and a little slow journalism, you can start to peel the ways, you know, the onion or whatever the metaphor should be.

JENNIFER LARINO [01:13:32]: For the people that don't show up, you know, there's so many different yeah. It takes even on a very local issue. You know? We would just did a short doc on a youth farm that is leasing land in our City Park, and City Park wanted to change a few things, and their lease was on the chopping block as they wanted to build a new road. And community came together and said, no. Like, we value this farm. But within that story, you know, there was the larger story of, like, this battle between, you know or disagreement between City Park and Grow Dat, the organization. But there's so many stories of the people in the organization, the young people they work with, and their connection to land, people that I've never heard of Grow Dat. You know? So it's like, we know this as journalists, but, you know, I think, again, in the hustle to to deliver, you know, and feed the beast as you had said earlier, it can be very tempting to just kind of, you know, we need to get this quote, this quote, this quote, this quote, pulled it all together. Alright. Onto the next.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:14:36]: Failure is an important part of life, and it's actually an important part of journalism. Certainly, as an organization, we don't like to fail in our journalism. Sometimes we do. But it's what gets us to a new place sometimes and provides some of the most rich learning experiences. We don't like to talk about it. So do you have a favorite failure of yours?

JENNIFER LARINO [01:14:58]: Well, I mean, it's every I feel like it's all the time. You as a startup, you know, and nonprofit startup, like, that is something that you have to embrace. I think, like, something that immediately comes to mind is I had mentioned earlier that, you know, I'm a journalist who has evolved and grown into this executive directorship, and learning how to fundraise and, put together budgets and really run an organization. You know, a failure that I had last year was we were rushing to pull together an operating budget. I had run all these numbers. I thought we were solid. And I get to the end of the year. Our board had already approved this budget, and I realized and I'm going through the numbers again.

JENNIFER LARINO [01:15:44]: And I'm realizing we didn't put in payroll taxes, which is gigantic now that we have a staff. Like, that's a major thing. Record scratch. Had to, you know, eat my words, go back to our board, and just say, like, look. Here's where we're at. Thought it was gonna be a much bigger thing, and they're mainly like, we're glad that you do the work that you do to catch this and make sure that we're on top of our stuff. And it all was resolved. But I think the higher level learning from that failure is what happens when you rush.

JENNIFER LARINO [01:16:15]: When you rush things through, you don't do what you need to do or you, you know, you miss things. So that has been the theme of my year this year is slow down. Slow down the process, whether that's doing journalism, whether we're doing budgets, whether we're doing this. I always feel like we, especially in our industry, we operate with a scarcity mindset, and it bites us, you know, on it. And only after I left The Times-Picayune did I realize how deep it is, you know, deeply embedded in my DNA sense of how I operate. So a lot of this here, you know, kind of starting with that big failure at the beginning of the year was just kind of unwinding and unpacking that. It's still on the journey. But, yeah, that immediately came to mind when you said that.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:17:03]: It can be tough in this industry, as a journalist, as an editor, running a nonprofit is its own challenge. Being a citizen is a challenge sometimes. What do you do to maintain your sanity and mental health?

JENNIFER LARINO [01:17:19]: Travel. You know, getting out of your bubble as local. As much as I love New Orleans and, you know, wanna spend all of my time here, I think breaking out of weird norm is just so essential for reigniting that creativity, seeing how other people do it. I just went to Mexico City, for the first time in a long time this past summer. And, yeah, just being able to connect with journalists there was really cool, and seeing the things that they're thinking about, and other nonprofit leaders there as well. So, yeah, I think that's a big thing. And then, of course, family time reconnecting with the very intimate, and most important things in my life. I have a 16 month old baby, so he keeps me busy. And then, of course, my life partner, and husband, Glenn, he, grounds me. So, yeah, those are the big things.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:18:13]: And what about as a leader? What do you, how do you help your team maintain their sanity?

JENNIFER LARINO [01:18:18]: The biggest thing for me this year has been investing in my leadership capabilities. I think coming out of legacy newsrooms left me with a very narrow view of what it means to be a leader, a very white male view of what it means to be a leader, authoritarian. And really this past couple of years, kinda starting with the JSK Stanford Fellowship and, coming into this year and a few other learning opportunities. Really just kind of understanding what leadership means to me, and then, like, learning how to ask questions in a way that guide my team. This was a major and recent learning, because I always like, oh, I'm a journalist. Like, I got this. I know how to ask questions. I know when you are questioning as a leader and as a manager, it is a totally different ballgame.

JENNIFER LARINO [01:19:10]: And I never really seen the distinction of you know, when you're a journalist, you're trying to to drive questioning that reaches a result. Right? You need this piece of information for your story. And I had not had a lot of questions you know, a lot of practice with more open questioning of like, I don't know what the result is, you know, staff member. I'm trying to help you get there and help you work through the pieces in your mind. And really, that practice and kind of leaning into that, that's a very recent development for me, and one that I learned. My journalism skills actually didn't quite prepare me as much for. So it's been a really interesting journey, but that has been probably the biggest change maker more recently for my team is how I'm investing in how I ask questions and how, you know, I'm equipping team members to solve their own problems, rather than rushing in with ideas. That's also the founder syndrome. We're always ready with ideas. Right? But, yeah, that has been a really big thing for our team, and we'll see how it plays out.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:20:23]: Yeah. A lot of times for that question, I'll get some basic, you know, make sure people take vacation, that sort of thing. But I think reflecting on yourself as a leader is really crucial. And an episode I've recorded, but I think it'll come out after this, with the team from RJI and their researcher who did the burnout survey. And, you know, what people needed was, you know, yeah, they need to make sure they take vacation. Everybody'd love more money and just more staff. But a lot of it boiled down to, can I have a little autonomy? Can I have a little mentoring and guidance? And so a lot of it does come down to what you're talking about, just asking the right questions and being human with people.

JENNIFER LARINO [01:21:01]: I'm gonna keep I mean, I keep coming back to this, but that's the theme of this episode. I think it's slow down. When I was a young journalist coming up in these newsrooms, there was not time. There wasn't time for these things. You know? And a lot of the times, it was editors just saying, here, plug this in. Do this. We need to get this out of the door. X y z.

JENNIFER LARINO [01:21:22]: I'm gonna redo your story. We're not gonna revisit it. You're just gonna have to figure it out. And, you know, me being who I was, I was trying to study, okay, what are they changing? Why are they changing these things? But, yeah, that sort of leadership development is, I think, lacking in a lot of journalism spaces and that has to do with all the pressures, you know, and people being promoted quickly. I know I was a managing editor at 23 and could have really used a lot of this stuff back then. But, yeah, like, what are we doing, you know, especially going back to this thread of conversation about bringing younger people into the industry? What are we doing to really shape and help people learn, you know, and correct their problem or, you know, problem solve, rather than trying to, like, you know, patch up the boat and ship it out, as quickly as possible.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:22:13]: And that's even more crucial as we've downsized and have fewer editors and also gone to remote work. So we have to be really intentional about that. Do you have a favorite time saving hack?

JENNIFER LARINO [01:22:26]: Limiting when I check email. I am an admitted email addict, the millennial in me, that's coming through right now. Yeah. Just really trying to concentrate all tasks within time, honestly. But that's one thing I try to do daily is just kind of say, you know, this is this time when I'm gonna check email the morning and in the afternoon. Newsroom, we would have been like, you're insane. So I realized that might be some of the responses I'm getting as I say that now. But, really, when we think about all the research around how multitasking is a myth, how, you know, you think that you're getting things done when you're answering emails, but you're not. Actually, that made sense for me.

JENNIFER LARINO [01:23:13]: And then the other thing that I did at the beginning of this year at the advice of an executive coach, was to keep a time journal for a few days, and really just see how you're spending time and have that data. So if there are any data journalists or any data people out there, that was really helpful for me to, like, just see how I'm actually spending time and use that as a foundation for, like, is this matching how I want to spend that time, or is there something that I need to change and adjust? So, yeah, those are I don't know if they're hacks, but practices that can help.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:23:49]: Five years out, three to five years out, if things go wildly successfully, what do things look like at Lede New Orleans?

JENNIFER LARINO [01:24:00]: Been thinking a lot about physical space and having physical space where, we can really bring a civic media hub to life, in New Orleans. You know, that looks like having a place where not only our offices are, but, you know, we're able to make and produce media and bring people into that process in physicality. So much of what we do is, like, looking around the community, like, look for a space to hold things. So that's just very, like, front of mind right now. But I think that, really, I want us to have an editorial process of a content stronghold, really, and to have really leaned into that role as filling in a piece of our ecosystem and our information ecosystem here in New Orleans. Do I know exactly what that content will look like or will it be a platform or what you know, what will it emerge us? No. Not right now. But I want folks to be, considering us as a piece of that pie, as I was discussing earlier, and looking to us for content that they're not quite getting elsewhere, something that's, you know, hope-driven, solutions-driven and presents voices that they're just not seeing elsewhere. That's my hope.

Media and local recommendations

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:25:14]: Alright. And now for the recommendation section. New Orleans is one of the great American cities and one of the great cities in the world, really. If people are visiting New Orleans either for the first time or maybe they've been there and they want something new, what are three to five places or activities that you would recommend?

JENNIFER LARINO [01:25:34]: Oh, that's tough in a place like New Orleans. I have a whole map, a Google map that I send people. So if you want that, let me know.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:25:44]: Yeah. I can put that in the show notes.

JENNIFER LARINO [01:25:45]: Right. There you go. There you go. So, of course, first and foremost, most people know when you come to New Orleans, go to Cafe Du Monde, get a beignet. Yes. Cafe Du Monde is the premier beignet. Don't go anywhere else. You may be disappointed. Maybe you don't know the difference, but from someone who's local, go to Cafe Du Monde. A little tip though, there is a Cafe Du Monde in City Park. So, that is my second recommendation. You can get two for one, is to go to City Park. Actually, our fellows, our community reporting fellows just did a whole reporting series on parks and public spaces, and City Park featured prominently on that. But it's one of the largest City Parks, municipal parks in the country. So, but it often gets overlooked, but you can take the street car, all the way out there. So take a street car ride, go visit City Park, get some outdoor time, see the centuries old oaks that are there, and hit up Cafe Du Monde in City Park.

JENNIFER LARINO [01:26:47]: And then the last thing I would recommend is also a natural space, so everybody tends to be in the French Quarter when you visit New Orleans. But if you have the time, I'd really recommend going out to the lakefront. So this is, Lake Pontchartrain is on the kinda top of New Orleans, and then the Mississippi River is on the bottom. If you're in the Quarter, you're likely to see the Mississippi River and kinda take in that. But I think, really, kind of the essence of what it is to ecologically be New Orleans really hits home when you go to the lakefront. You basically are confronted with this massive ocean looking body of water, and you realize you get to see the levees that protect the community that's right next to it. And you just kinda realize how watery New Orleans is and a bit of an island, but it is a beautiful place, especially at sunset. So those are my recommendations. Cafe Du Monde, City Park and check out the lakefront.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:27:47]: And I'm gonna quiz you for two more. One, is there a hole in the wall restaurant that is not world renowned that you would recommend?

JENNIFER LARINO [01:27:56]: No, Tim. Now you're asking me to blow up spots. I don't know if I call it a hole in the wall, but I think a very small restaurant that I love. It is called 1000 Figs. It's a Mediterranean restaurant, with delicious food, but it is right off of Avenue, one of our main thoroughfares that leads right to City Park. They have great affordable food and a very nice cozy little spot that just makes you feel like, yeah, you're in the neighborhood. So I'm gonna shout out 1000 Figs.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:28:30]: Okay. And then the last one in the place recommendations. New Orleans is, you know, internationally known for its music. Is there a small club or venue that you would recommend people check out, or it could be just a historic club or venue?

JENNIFER LARINO [01:28:45]: This is always dependent on your vibe. Of course, Preservation Hall is where, you know, if you haven't checked it out and you've been to New Orleans, you should make time to go there. It is history. You kinda walk in and you can feel it there. But I think if you're looking for something that is a little off the beaten trail or outside the Quarter, obviously, to Tipitina's is a great place to catch a show. There's always something going down over there. So, yeah, if you can take the street car out that way. That's the slower, older, historic Saint Charles Avenue street car line. So it might take a little bit longer. Or crash an Uber, that is always a fun time.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:29:30]: And then the final question, media recommendations. This can be any form of media, and it can be entertainment or nonfiction.

JENNIFER LARINO [01:29:39]: If you're in New Orleans and visiting, I wanna shout out Verite. I love the work that they're doing over there. It's a great, in addition to Lede New Orleans, a great way to kinda see different voices that are happening in the city. So if you are local or in the region, definitely check them out. In terms of other recommendations, I've been really interested in TransLash, and they have a newsletter. So this is a trans media organization. Just in the wake of the election, if you are following trans rights at all, I think that this is a really great authentic voice and a very interesting perspective. They have a newsletter that lands in my inbox, so I'd like to see that.

JENNIFER LARINO [01:30:20]: I'm also gonna shout out my friends at Canopy Atlanta in Atlanta. I love the work that they're doing in their very similar vein of community reporting. They do very neighborhood issues, of reporting, where they focus on a specific neighborhood, and I love getting their newsletter as well. Even though I don't live in Atlanta, it's just well, one, seeing how they do things, but also just kind of seeing the different voices that are out there in a very complex city that I think is kind of the future of our country and resembles it in a lot of ways. So those are my recommendations that are immediately coming to mind. There's a billion others, of course, because the world we live in. But yeah.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:31:01]: Great. Well, thank you very much. This has been great.

JENNIFER LARINO [01:31:05]: Thank you, Tim. It's been a pleasure.

TIM REGAN-PORTER [01:31:09]: Thank you for listening to the Local News Matters podcast. Never miss an episode by subscribing in your favorite podcast player and sign up for our newsletter at lnmpod.com.

And thanks to our production partners at Pirate Audio. Pirate Audio believes every community deserves great things to listen to, and they're on a mission to help local newsrooms reach their communities via audio. If you're interested in starting a podcast or need production support for an existing one, let me know, and I'll be happy to connect you.

If you have guest recommendations, others doing interesting and innovative work in local news, let me know through the contact form at the website, lnmpod.com.

Past guests on the Local News Matters podcast include: Katherine Ann Rowlands (Bay City News), Jim O’Rourke (O’Rourke Media Group), Teri Finneman, Nick Mathews and Pat Ferrucci (Reviving Local News), Nic Dawes (THE CITY), Allison Taylor Levine (Local News Initiative Delaware), Crystal Good (Black by God), Lisa Snowden (Baltimore Beat), Karen Rundlet (INN), Jim Brady (Knight Foundation), Candice Fortman (Exit interview, Outlier Media), Jean Friedman-Rudovsky (Resolve Philly), Jay Rosen (NYU), Sue Cross (Exit interview, INN), Mary Margaret White (Mississippi Today), Amy Kovac-Ashley (Tiny News Collective), Michael Shapiro (TAPinto), Kenny Katzgrau (redbankgreen and Broadstreet), John Garrett (Community Impact), Shannon Kinney (Dream Local Digital), Larry Ryckman (The Colorado Sun), Frank Mungeam (Local Media Association), Kelly Ann Scott (Alabama Media Group), Sara Lomax and S. Mitra Kalita (URL Media), Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro (National Trust for Local News), Mike Rispoli and Richard Young (via When the People Decide), Sarabeth Berman (American Journalism Project), Rabbi Hillel Goldberg and Shana Goldberg (Intermountain Jewish News), Lyndsay C. Green (via The Journalism Salute), Rashad Mahmood and Mark Glaser (New Mexico Local News Fund), Christian Vanek and Barbara Hardt (The Mountain-Ear), Dan Grech (BizHack), Zack Richner (Easy Tax Credits), Tracie Powell (Pivot Fund), Dan Oshinsky (Inbox Collective), Linda Shapley (via What Works), Yehong Zhu and Jake Seaton (Zette, Column), Charity Huff (January Spring), Joaquin Alvarado and Dave Perry (Aurora Sentinel), Steve Waldman (Rebuild Local News), Maritza Félix (Conecta Arizona), Michael Bolden (American Press Institute), Jeff Roberts and Corey Hutchins (CFOIC, Colorado College), Eve Pearlman and Erica Anderson (Spaceship Media), Jennifer Brandel (Hearken, Democracy SOS), Corey Hutchins with Bay Edwards, Todd Chamberlain and Raleigh Burleigh (Sopris Sun).