Thursday: Legislator conversation + awards · Sundance Film Festival Director Eugene Hernandez + Seized + filmmaker Sharon Liese
LOCAL NEWS SOLUTIONS 2026
Local News Solutions has 89 sessions and conversations. You don’t need 89. You need the two or three that help with something you’re working on right now, and maybe one you didn’t know you needed.
FIND YOUR STARTING POINT
Choose the question closest to the work on your desk. The program gives you several ways into each problem, from practical workshops to candid peer conversations.
REPORTING CRAFT
Getting Better Answers
Ryan Warner uses revealing audio examples to show how to earn candor, ask sharper follow-ups and create memorable interviews.
Campaign Finance Data
Sandra Fish helps reporters find useful records, spot patterns and turn complex filings into meaningful election coverage.
Immigration + Environmental Justice
Experienced journalists examine sources, trust, access, accountability and the global forces changing local beats.
AUDIENCE + RELEVANCE
How to Get More People to Read Your News
Kevin Slimp moves from diagnosis to action across content, presentation, design, distribution and community relevance.
Building News People Actually Need
Amalie Nash shows how audience research and the User Needs Framework can guide editorial choices without chasing empty clicks.
Audience Growth Without a Big Audience Team
Dan Petty focuses on what smaller teams can do to understand who they reach, build habits and bring people back.
REVENUE + EXECUTION
Events and Sponsorships That Actually Work + Sponsored Content That Works
Julia Campbell gets practical about products, packaging, pricing, production and the guardrails that protect trust.
Sales Hiring, Training, and Accountability
Charity Huff focuses on the people and systems required to turn a sales strategy into consistent work.
Beyond Rates and Reach + Donor Development for Local News
Build advertiser and donor relationships that align revenue work with the public value of journalism.
PUBLIC RECORDS + ACCESS
When Should a Newsroom Sue the Government?
Steve Zansberg, Jeff Roberts and Patti Brown help newsrooms weigh the editorial, legal, financial and community considerations.
When Public Records Requests Get Stonewalled
Jeff Roberts and Rachael Johnson get into delays, denials, excessive costs, incomplete responses and when to escalate.
The Records You Should Be Looking At
Compare notes on the filings, logs and documents that could lead to stories you are not pursuing yet.
Bring your questions and examples. These sessions are designed for the access problems and records questions newsrooms are actually encountering.
AI + DATA
What AI Can Actually Do for Local Reporting
Cheryl Phillips demonstrates practical reporting applications, then goes deeper into AI, data, verification and outside support for bigger investigations.
Making Sense of AI + AI Workflow Starter Kit
Kevin Slimp helps newsrooms decide where today’s tools add value, where they introduce risk and where they belong in everyday workflows.
AI Sales Games
Revenue teams use AI to research a realistic client, develop an advertiser proposal and present it live, with human judgment at the center.
PHYSICAL + ONLINE SAFETY
When the Assignment Gets Risky
Jerry Glotzer covers risk assessment, communication plans, situational awareness, legal and medical lifelines, PPE and field decontamination.
Is This a Real Threat?
Evaluate threats and harassment without either overreacting or ignoring genuine danger.
Locking Down Your Digital Life
Beth Rankin addresses online exposure, harassment, doxxing and protecting journalists and their families.
CAPACITY + COLLABORATION
Big Local News Tools + Outside Support
Cheryl Phillips shows small newsrooms how to surface accountability stories and scope projects that could benefit from a partner.
Building the Local Journalism Talent Pipeline
Linda Shapley explores internships, student preparation and shared approaches to developing capacity.
What’s Next for MATCH Lab?
Bring an idea or problem and help shape projects connecting newsrooms with students, faculty and business mentors.
LEADERSHIP + SUSTAINABILITY
Will They Miss You When You’re Gone?
Amalie Nash makes the case that sustainability begins with becoming valuable enough that a community would notice.
Beyond Philanthropy + Runway, Not Revenue
Use funding to leave the organization stronger, with concrete next steps and a framework for what to build while philanthropy buys time.
From Publisher to CEO
Garry Pierre-Pierre focuses on the sales processes, pricing, partnerships and operating routines that support sustainable growth.
DON’T JUST COME TO LISTEN
Some sessions are built around the questions, examples and challenges attendees bring into the room.
Bring Cheryl Phillips an actual reporting problem or data question.
Bring the denial, delay, fee problem, incomplete response or beat you want to examine.
Bring the problem that keeps landing back on your desk.
Editorial and audience peers, a Colorado revenue working group and the What Colorado Newsrooms Need to Thrive conversation all make room for your circumstances.
Some of the most useful expertise in the room will come from the people sitting next to you.
ALSO AT LOCAL NEWS SOLUTIONS
Thursday: Legislator conversation + awards · Sundance Film Festival Director Eugene Hernandez + Seized + filmmaker Sharon Liese
Featured voices: Kent Thiry · Amalie Nash · Amanda Mountain · Garry Pierre-Pierre · more than 70 others
Saturday: Hall of Fame · A-Mark Prize · Better News Awards
Find the sessions that help with what you’re working on now. Meet the people who have tried something you haven’t. Bring home something useful.