Summit sessions to tackle issues facing rural journalism

Away from the hurried nature of a city, in remote towns across the country, many rural newspapers are facing similar problems — from staffing to coverage and beyond. "You wouldn't necessarily have the same set of challenges in a city landscape," says Cecily Weisburgh, executive editor-digital at The Keene Sentinel, who is co-leading the Community Journalism track at this year's Radically Rural summit Oct. 6-8. The challenges facing rural journalism will be the focus of this year's track. Weisburgh and co-host Emily Lytle, rural engagement editor at the nonprofit news organization OpenCampus, say they plan to see journalists from magazines, radio, newspapers, websites and more come to the three-day summit from remote areas all over the United States to share their stories and the ways they have approached these challenges. "We're often seeing journalists from small news organizations that are looking for community and connection, particularly in identifying creative ways to best serve their communities through a rural lens," says Lytle. Some of the challenges they plan to address include how to cover stories across large swaths of land that, for some news organizations, span entire states, as well as how to connect — and build trust with — a readership that's so spread out. And, especially in recent years, how to maintain staffing levels in small, remote newsrooms. In addition to giving journalists ideas to take back to their newsrooms, the summit will also offer a way to address another problem common in rural journalism: isolation. "You can feel very isolated in a rural region," Weisburgh says, adding that by coming together at this summit, rural journalists will have the opportunity to make connections they wouldn't otherwise. Those connections will give participants a chance to share ideas, stories and advice even after returning to their own remote corners of the country. That network of rural journalists can help keep the profession alive, she says. "We all want to find ways to continue doing what we're doing and have this place where you can gather and share ideas," Weisburgh says. "It's not competitive; it's collaborative." Lytle says another key aspect of this track will be addressing the best ways to provide value to the communities they're serving, which is an important focus during a time when news organizations are struggling. "In order to sustain the business of journalism, we have to make sure what we're providing to people is actually valuable," Lytle says. "How do we make sure that what we're doing as journalists is actually serving the communities that we said we set out to serve?" Subsessions This year, the Community Journalism track is taking a slightly different approach to its four subsessions, all of which will be held throughout the day Wednesday, Oct. 7, at Heberton Hall, 60 Winter St. in Keene. "Journalism in general is at this point where we're reimagining how we do things," Lytle says, adding that with that in mind, the journalism track is partnering this year with the All in for Health track to co-host several sessions. The move is based on feedback track leaders received from previous participants who said they like sharing stories and ideas with people who are involved in their rural communities in ways other than journalism. "We were really intentional this year in working with the health track to find those collaborations and those areas where we overlapped," Lytle says. The sessions will kick off at 9:30 a.m. with "Reimagining Community Hubs for Rural Health and Connection," which aims to do just what Lytle mentioned: identify ways in which local journalists and healthcare workers can connect with members of the community. During the session, participants will talk about non-traditional spaces to engage with community members, like libraries, telehealth hubs, mobile clinics and more. At 11 a.m., the two tracks will co-host another session at Heberton Hall. This subsession, which takes a workshop approach, is called "When Communities Speak, What Happens Next?" It will cover ways that five rural radio stations have structured their broadcasting to best connect with and respond to audience needs. After lunch, the journalism track will break out on its own for two journalism-specific subsessions. The first, "Community Listening to Build Trust and Relationships," will be held at 1 p.m. and involve a working session on how to structure community engagement (from events to focus groups), so journalists can gather input from community members, as well as establish connections with those in their rural towns. The final subsession at 2:30 p.m. will wrap up the day of journalism talks with a general discussion on rural journalism. "The whole day overall is about how do we better serve the communities," says Weisburgh. "We have to chart a new path, and the way to do that is by serving our communities in the way they want to be served." For more information or to register for the summit, visit radicallyrural.org.