Introduction

A group of about twenty people in a newsroom meeting — Representatives from 13 newsrooms practicing solutions journalism in the Mountain West and 15 community leaders from across the region at a regional solutions journalism workshop in Denver on July 7, 2018.

While some of our newsroom partners report that the transition to solutions journalism felt easy and natural, it's very possible that you will encounter skepticism from reporters who don't understand what solutions journalism is, or may resist the change that it represents to the way they’ve always worked.

Driving organizational change is notoriously complex. Combine that with a news environment in turmoil, sometimes rigid beliefs about the role of journalists, and unrelenting time pressures, and it’s easy to see why leading even modest practice change in newsrooms can be difficult. This section is designed to support you in “selling” solutions journalism and gaining buy-in.

“The term ‘solutions journalism’ can turn people off. It sounds like advocacy, or picking winners, or manufactured fluffy good news. There was a fair amount of skepticism for a number of reasons.”

Linda Shaw

Former education editor, The Seattle Times

Introduction

Editor Toolkit