How RJI helps indie news publishers pursue meaningful projects that center community

The Reynolds Journalism Institute is a Reception Sponsor of the 2025 Independent News Sustainability Summit. LION is featuring some Summit sponsors in Q&As to help members learn more about their work. Find out how to become a Summit sponsor.

We’re thrilled to have RJI back as a sponsor of our event for the second consecutive year. In 2024, we had the chance to connect with Kat Duncan, the director of innovation at RJI, to learn more about how the organization empowers independent news entrepreneurs to experiment with new ideas. You can read that Q&A here. And this week, we caught up with Kat to hear how the work’s been going, what’s new, and what’s next.

Hayley: Building on last year’s Q&A, could you share a bit about RJI and how you support LION members and other indie news entrepreneurs? Have there been any changes since 2024?

Kat: RJI’s mission is to provide journalists with the knowledge, tools, and funding to support them through practical innovation. We focus on building initiatives and tools for journalists in small, independent, and community-centered newsrooms that address their current needs. 

In the last year, we have worked to grow how we help those we serve. We received a $2.5 million investment from John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to build a new hub for journalists to get useful guidance, templates, tools, and consulting assistance all in one easy-to-utilize site. We also hired an Impact Producer whose role with us is to connect journalists and newsrooms with the tools, programs, and training we offer that is most useful to them. We provide a ton of resources (as do many journalism support orgs out there!), so we’re working to build more ways for newsrooms and journalists to find what they need from us faster and easier.

Hayley: The last time we connected, you were getting ready to launch the second cohort of RJI’s Community-Centered Symposium. Could you provide an example of a project that really surprised or inspired you, along with any actionable insights for LION members?

Kat: So many of the projects this year were inspiring, and I shared 12 of them in a wrap-up to help other newsrooms replicate and learn from them. What really stood out to me this year was how many of the projects were about elevating experiences and spaces for joy and connection in their communities. 

Mirror Indy provided disposable cameras for elementary students to tell their own stories through images, Planeta Venus created Café, Amor y Colores through a collaboration with a local coffee shop, and Jozef Syndicate created Positively Louisiana. With so much stress and uncertainty these days, newsrooms are finding that creating spaces for joy and connection is important. 

My advice to LION members is not to wait until you get a grant or hire a new person to try something new. A lot of the work we do to help newsrooms innovate involves supporting them in making the time and space to try something new that they’re already capable of. Innovation doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, be a huge lift, or require hiring new people. If you need help, advice, or just want to talk through some ideas, my virtual door is always open to chat.

Hayley: What’s one thing you’ve seen in the past year that excites you about the independent news industry? And what’s something you’d like to see more folks focusing on moving forward?

Kat: One thing that excites me right now is seeing newsrooms spend genuine, quality time in their communities to build real relationships and become a third space for them.

For too long, a lot of journalism has been based on journalists assuming we know what our communities want or need. The newsrooms that inspire me are those that are letting listening guide their work and are evolving to be community spaces that provide more than just news and information. They are becoming places of safety, education, and connection; they’re providing the support for people to make informed choices and get civically involved in ways that better their lives and communities. 

Hayley: I’d love to hear a recent success story from one of your 2025-26 Fellows (four of whom are LION members)!

Kat: According to Claudia Amaro, founder and editor-in-chief of Planeta Venus, studies show that Latinos in the U.S. lag at least a decade behind in digital skills, and she is determined to take action to address this gap for her community. She began conversations with local leaders, joined a statewide broadband initiative, and started to emphasize the need for digital literacy in her community.

This year, she launched free classes in Southwest Kansas and Wichita, teaching nearly 100 people — mostly women — how to use computers and essential Google tools. Through partnerships with libraries, churches, and adult education centers, she’s not only providing access, but empowering people with knowledge and confidence to find and utilize the information they need. “We’re not just teaching people how to use a computer — we’re closing a generational gap and opening a world of possibilities, one community at a time. How can I aspire to be in digital news media if my audience is not equipped to search, find, and access reliable information?” Claudia said. 

This is the type of initiative I find inspiring: news founders who not only strive to provide information that communities need, but empower them with the support to utilize it. You can read more about this project here.

Hayley: Are there any upcoming initiatives that RJI is working on that you’d like to preview for us? Any application deadlines that LION members should keep an eye out for?

Kat: This month, we’ll be launching two new training tools: the Science Reporting Navigator, developed in collaboration with The Open Notebook, and a Sensitive Source training course, which is being built with The Signals Network. Both of these are being created to be useful and practical for journalists who need guidance and resources in these spaces. They’ll provide templates, how-to guidance, and step-by-step access to data and information journalists can utilize in their work. 

We’re also currently interviewing newsrooms across the country to inform a content-sharing platform I hope to build, which will allow newsrooms to share and republish each other’s content without having to visit individual websites to cut and paste or email each other, etc. We’ve heard so far that priorities are being able to send and receive corrections, republish data visualizations and videos (not just text and photos!), and find relevant republishable news easily with a great search function in one centralized location. We had over 70 newsrooms sign up to contribute to our information needs assessment interviews on this project, which is exciting and shows the depth of the need for this tool. 

As far as upcoming deadlines, I’ll be opening applications for the Community-Centered Symposium soon! Big thanks to Mirror Indy for being our co-host this year, and Planeta Venus and LA Public Press for offering to co-host. I am grateful to these amazing newsrooms for their support. Stay tuned! I post updates to LinkedIn, Instagram, and include all deadlines in my newsletter.

Hayley: To close us out, what’re you looking forward to most at the 2025 Independent News Sustainability Summit and seventh annual LION Awards?

Kat: We work with so many LION newsrooms, every session I go to at the Summit, I get to listen to and spend time with journalists I admire and support. This year, I’m really looking forward to the discussions around hiring a development person/team. This is one of the biggest needs I’ve heard from newsrooms in the past year. It’s a brand new position for many newsrooms, so there aren’t a lot of journalism-focused development professionals out there to hire yet, or a well-worn path to find, train, or support them as there are for other positions. As we see these development roles grow and become central to the sustainability of some news organizations, we’re going to learn a ton from those who have already been successful at finding the right fit for their org. I would love to create a training program based on real successes in newsrooms for burgeoning development professionals to help them serve their news orgs and communities — it’s on my list of future projects I hope to make a reality.

Hayley: Thanks so much, Kat! I’m looking forward to seeing you in person in eight weeks.

Join us at the 2025 Independent News Sustainability Summit to meet fellow independent news leaders, supporters, and funders.