Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University

The Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University is helping transform the local news landscape in the Chicago region at a time of historic change in the media industry. LNI is a research and development project. It’s conducting extensive research on the rapidly changing behaviors of local news consumers in our community. Medill is then applying that research to work directly with local news outlets on things like business strategy, audience engagement and product development. LNI also has created a hub that provides shared services to local news outlets. With support from Chicago-based foundations McCormick, MacArthur, Joyce and Chicago Community Trust — as well as other national foundations and tech companies — the Local News Initiative is leading six distinct programs that are providing new knowledge and inspiration ranging from Chicago high school students to the state’s largest news organizations. LNI is home to the nationally recognized State of Local News Project, the Local News Accelerator, the Media Innovation and Leadership Academy, the Medill Solutions Journalism Hub, the Medill Illinois News Bureau and the Teach for Chicago Journalism program.