Our Mission
We support local and community-based media through research, programs and products that foster healthy, responsive and resilient news organizations.
Our Areas of Focus

We work to ensure all people have the information they need to make decisions and thrive.

We mentor journalism professionals toward integrating diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in every aspect of their work.

We support news organizations as they build trusted relationships with their communities.

We provide news organizations with the tools and resources they need to think creatively and achieve overall wellness.
Featured Research
This guide features strategies tested and proven by local news organizations that participated in the Table Stakes Local News Transformation Program along the themes of product thinking, revenue, engaged journalism, collaboration and managing change.
As research continues to inform this slice of the news industry, we’ll continue learning, too. Who gets to be called a journalist in 2025? What is the future of trustworthy information, especially considering the access to and trust for online content creators? How might journalism adapt to the rise, or co-opt the styles, of news influencers?
The press will be much more effective in serving people and strengthening democracy if it learns from what researchers are learning. Among the examples and takeaways, you will find that news leaders and non-news experts alike value the opportunity to think differently about the challenges in front of them, about how local news can change and how research can ask different questions.
We imagine a future where evidence, data and peer assessment support decision-making in journalism — whether by reporters, editors or news executives — and where journalism better informs the questions researchers ask.
Special Editions & Series
Reaching younger audiences has long been a challenge for media organizations. As platforms evolve, trust in news shifts and news avoidance grows, it can feel especially difficult to connect with and serve multigenerational audiences in an authentic and sustainable way. How can news leaders do their part to represent and include community perspectives from members of different age groups?
Generational tension has always existed, of course, but today it is amplified by several factors, both in our communities and our newsrooms. We asked five summit participants to share more about the ways they are engaging and serving multigenerational audiences.
Welcome to July’s Special Edition, where we feature essays from four attendees of the API Local News Summit on Local Identity, History and Sustainability on [...]
API Products & Programs

Helping journalists and media leaders transform their local news businesses to better serve diverse communities

Improving how newsrooms cover communities of color by assessing seven areas to reveal inequitable practices