Impact Stories

In 2020, the Alabama Legislature voted to appropriate funding for a Maternal Mortality Review Committee, in charge of investigating the causes behind maternal deaths in the state. Beginning in 2019, reporter Anna Claire Vollers, then at AL.com, the largest statewide news site, had brought increasing public attention and awareness to the issue through a series of articles on motherhood, co-published by Reckon, a sister publication. Her work contributed to growing calls by physicians, academics and advocacy groups to support the committee financially. Following the series’ publication, the state medical association launched a maternal health awareness campaign using information uncovered in her reporting.

The Journal-Constitution replaced its lineup of national opinion columnists with more solutions-focused coverage, and that resonated with its audience. One reader wrote, “Thanks for pausing the polarizing ‘both sides’ discussions, especially during this time where we all need to come together to provide care and assistance to our neighbors.” Another said: “I appreciate the effort to improve and will look forward to seeing how it works out.” Managing Editor Mark Waligore said the solutions lens has made him and his readers feel smarter and more hopeful, and has helped his editorial team reframe some of its news coverage.

Eric Cortellessa of the Washington Monthly wrote a solutions story about Utah’s vote-by-mail system, followed by an opinion piece (published in The Washington Post) that focused on Maryland (“Maryland can save its election by letting
people vote at home” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/local-opinions/maryland-can-save-its-election-by-letting-people-vote-at-home/2020/03/19/0c7afe6e-68a3-11ea-9923-57073adce27c_story.html). Maryland then adopted the approach, starting with a small special election. Cortellessa followed up to see what happened, and found that the switch had some success, with turnout increasing 10 percentage points compared with a primary election a few months before (https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/05/14/can-vote-by-mail-work-in-low-income-minority-neighborhoods/).

A story about a Louisiana sheriff’s lieutenant who created an inventive program to protect women from domestic violence led several other localities to consider replicating the model. The lieutenant, Valerie Martinez-Jordan, also was invited to develop a domestic violence curriculum for police departments across the state, which often ranks in the top three for rates of women murdered by men (https://secureservercdn.net/166.62.112.150/bk4.85e.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/Violence-Policy-Center-2019-Press-Release.pdf). Martinez-Jordan, herself a survivor of domestic abuse, put her small Lafourche Parish sheriff’s office in the vanguard when she created the firearms retrieval program, which takes guns away from domestic abusers. The federal Department of Justice’s community policing publication featured Lafourche Parish’s system in its newsletter (https://cops.usdoj.gov/html/dispatch/10-2020/spotlight_on_the_field.html).

In 2020, U.S. Rep. Bobby L. Rush of Illinois introduced a bill requiring hospitals to report ambulance diversions to the federal government and providing for a study by the National Academy of Medicine of ways to reduce this phenomenon, which can put patients’ lives at risk. This legislative step followed the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s investigation into the death toll related to diversions (https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/investigations/2019/10/28/ambulance-diversion-least-21-deaths-tied-hospital-bypass/4064119002/) and solutions reporting on how Massachussets banned the practice of turning away ambulances (https://projects.jsonline.com/news/2019/11/22/busy-hospitals-say-they-must-turn-away-ambulances-one-state-banned-practice.html). The reporting also led to hearings in the Wisconsin State Legislature.

Outriders, a Poland-based digital publication covering global issues, generated $8,000 in sponsorship revenue from Santander Bank to support a solutions-driven reporting package. Jakub Górnicki, CEO of Outriders, said pitching solutions-focused projects to businesses increases the publication’s chances of garnering support, because companies see value in associating their brands with coverage of responses to social issues.