AI Community Journalism Lab focuses on rural and underserved markets

(October 17, 2024) — Local Media Foundation has launched an AI Community Journalism Lab focused on rural and underserved markets, investing in experiments that will be conducted by participants in the LMA Family and Independent Media Sustainability Lab and the Knight x LMA BloomLab. The effort is supported by $150,000 from the Walton Family Foundation.

Experiments will focus on creating newsroom efficiencies using artificial intelligence, as well as research into community perceptions of AI use in journalism. Participating news organizations will conduct community outreach and solicit reactions to inform this research via surveys, focus groups and other methods.

John M. Humenik, a respected industry consultant who is president of Pinwheel Insights and former Chief Content Officer and Vice President/News at Lee Enterprises, will lead this program and guide the experiments for LMF. 

Humenik

“I’m thrilled to help navigate this important project that will build even stronger connections between these newsrooms and their communities, especially around advancing their knowledge of AI tools and the potential uses of this technology in local news operations,” said Humenik. “I look forward to the collaborations, explorations, and the learnings to come.”

The lab participants will meet as groups periodically to review and collaborate on the work. Humenik will also prepare reports to the industry and public on findings of the experiments that may apply more broadly.

The Knight x LMA BloomLab, launched in 2022 by LMF, is a three-year immersive experience for 25 Black-owned local media outlets, with initial funding of $3.2 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Local Media Association also launched the FIMS Lab program in April 2023, thanks to funding from Google News Initiative. Both programs aim to develop paths to sustainability and continued independence for participating local news organizations.

“When we first launched BloomLab, and even by the time we started FIMS Lab, AI was a peripheral topic of conversation,” said Jay Small, co-CEO of LMA and LMF. “But it has quickly come front-and-center for strategic focus. Thanks to the Walton Family Foundation, we will be able to guide meaningful experimentation to make best use of artificial intelligence in newsrooms and ensure appropriate transparency to the communities they serve.”

About the Walton Family Foundation

The Walton Family Foundation is, at its core, a family-led foundation. Three generations of the descendants of our founders, Sam and Helen Walton, and their spouses, work together to lead the foundation and create access to opportunity for people and communities. We work in three areas: improving education, protecting rivers and oceans and the communities they support, and investing in our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta. To learn more, visit www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org.

About Local Media Association / Local Media Foundation

Local Media Association brings all media together to share, network, collaborate and more. More than 3,000 newspapers, TV stations, radio stations, digital news organizations, and research and development partners engage with LMA as members or constituents of our programs. As a 501(c)(6) trade association, LMA is focused on the business side of local media. Its programs and labs focus on revenue growth and new business models. LMA helps local media companies develop their strategies via cutting-edge programs, conferences, webinars, research and training.Local Media Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable trust, serves as the innovation and transformation affiliate of LMA. Incorporating our four strategic pillars — business transformation, journalism funded by philanthropy, industry collaboration, and sustainability for publishers of color — LMF helps provide local media companies the strategies and resources for meaningful innovation and impactful journalism projects.