You’ve likely noticed a growing number of partnerships between universities and local news outlets, but a new initiative out of Arizona State University called NEWSWELL is taking this type of collaboration to the next level. The school officially launched the nonprofit last month with a $5 million investment from Knight, aiming to take news outlets and transform them into sustainable businesses by providing operational support.
NEWSWELL will provide back-end operations and business strategies to help news sites become or remain sustainable. Local journalists report the news. NEWSWELL offers the support. They don’t just want to sustain local news, they want to transform it.
As NEWSWELL Executive Director Nicole Carroll—the former editor-in-chief of USA Today—explained in Poynter, NEWSWELL will support news outlets by assisting with finance, IT, human resources, and legal services, along with expertise in audience development, membership, and advertising.
How? With a team of experts offering advice, ASU Enterprise Partners managing the back end, and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication providing student interns.
“While no student funds go to these news sites, NEWSWELL editors act as master teachers to Cronkite interns, giving students a jumpstart on their careers and providing newsrooms with an unmatched talent pipeline,” Carroll wrote.