(November 2026) — Local Media Association is pleased to announce the 12 news organizations selected to participate in the LMA / GNI AI Growth Lab. Led by the Local Media Association in partnership with Google, this six-month initiative equips local newsrooms with practical strategies and hands-on experience in integrating artificial intelligence into their news organizations to increase operational efficiency, expand audience reach and drive revenue.
Running from November through April, the program combines structured training from Google trainers, peer-to-peer learning, and 1:1 coaching to help newsrooms move from AI strategy to practical execution.
“We are excited to partner with Google to help local newsrooms transition from AI exploration to practical implementation,” said Frank Mungeam, chief innovation officer at Local Media Association. “Through structured training, direct mentorship, and hands-on prototyping, newsrooms will build high-impact capstone projects that solve immediate operational and editorial challenges.”
“Local newsrooms need practical tools that save time and bring in revenue,” said Suzanne Perron, News Partnerships Manager at Google. “Working together with LMA, we’re helping publishers harness the benefits of AI right away so they can focus on what matters most: informing their communities.”
Selected news organizations
The 12 media organizations accepted into the 2026 cohort represent a diverse cross-section of small, medium, and large local news outlets, family-owned publications, digital independents, and publishers serving traditionally underrepresented communities:
2026 national cohort, LMA / GNI AI Growth Lab:
- AFRO News
- Appen Media Group
- Carolina Panorama Newspaper
- Gallup Sun Publishing
- Greenfield Recorder
- Salem Reporter
- The Atlanta Voice
- The Colorado Sun
- The Columbian
- The New York Amsterdam News
- The Santa Fe New Mexican
- The Seattle Times
Cohort structure & curriculum
To maximize impact and peer-to-peer collaboration, participating newsrooms will be grouped into three mini-cohorts aligned with their market profile and strategic goals:
- Small publishers
- Larger publishers
- Publishers serving underrepresented communities
Participants will receive targeted instruction on Google’s core AI tools—focusing specifically on Gemini for prompting, research, and story idea generation, and Gemini Notebook for source-grounded document analysis and reporting. During the lab, newsrooms will construct functional, off-the-shelf prototypes from a curated menu designed to address pressing publishing challenges:
The program concludes with an in-person convening where newsrooms will present the capstone AI projects they’ve implemented.
The cohort will be led by Frank Mungeam, chief innovation officer at LMA, in partnership with dedicated Google News trainers to guide newsrooms as they prototype and implement their AI applications.