Newsletter

Solution Set: How The Inquirer cut a 12-hour weekly chore to an AI digest

October 1, 2026

Kevin Hoffman developed the AI tool Scrape for The Inquirer

There is turmoil in the world of artificial intelligence writ large. Warnings abound about its threats and the possible harm the technology could inflict upon humanity. In the meantime, newsrooms are finding that small-scale AI can be a useful tool for their work, especially when paired with human input, oversight, and collaboration. A great example is Scrape, an AI tool built by The Philadelphia Inquirer that monitors many small sources behind hyperlocal news, such as municipal meetings, school calendars, and Facebook pages.

Prior to the launch of the tool, one Inquirer editor was spending 12 hours a week hunting for items for newsletters, which left little time for writing. Now, according to a case study, Scrape delivers a daily digest of potential story leads for six newsletters, with 20 journalists following its output. It grew from a small experiment as part of the Lenfest AI Collaborative and Fellowship Program, launched in 2024 with funding from OpenAI and Microsoft, with new funding from OpenAI helping to expand the program.

Scrape worked because it was built around the newsroom’s existing workflow, with editors providing training for the AI with editorial context, descriptions of each newsletter’s audience, and topics of interest. Scrape has already traveled thanks to the fellowship program: The Baltimore Banner drew on The Inquirer’s work to build its own news discovery tools.

How other newsrooms can apply the lessons from Scrape:

Start with a real workflow and measure it. Find someone already doing the work manually and quantify the effort, then use their existing outputs, like tip sheets and newsletters, as the benchmark.
Build a tight human feedback loop. Have editors annotate outputs frequently, flagging what’s useful, what’s noise, and what should never appear.
Write editorial judgment into the prompts. Replace a vague idea of “newsworthiness” with briefs written by editors covering audience, geography in and out of scope, and topics that matter.
Plan for cost and share what works. Decide early how much search depth you can afford, and borrow from peers, since one newsroom’s tool often becomes another’s starting point.

“The fellows have helped their news organizations build practical tools and drive culture change from the inside — through clear guardrails, policy standards, and open communication,” said Lenfest Institute Executive Director and CEO Jim Friedlich.

Bonus: Watch a video about the Lenfest AI Collaborative and Fellowship Program.

Read the full Scrape case study

Now let’s get to some timely resources for newsrooms, including:

🩺 Grants for up to $30,000 for health care reporting

📷 Grants for up to $30,000 for photographers

🐴 Fellowships to cover and help understand the American West

💡 Learn the secrets of great reporting from top magazine journalists

Did we miss any resources? Drop us a line here and let us know.

🧠 Brain food: insights from the field

Changing definitions of news in a digital environment: How the public defines news across six countries from Reuters Institute

“Around half (49%) of participants hold a traditional core definition of news, associating it primarily with journalists and experts at dedicated news outlets… A further 26% hold a core-expanded definition, recognizing newer forms including individual creators, digital platforms, softer topics, commentary, podcasts, and short-form video. Almost nine in ten (88%) of those who recognize the expanded attributes also retain the core elements, showing that despite major changes in the information environment, audiences continue to share a stable core understanding of what news is.”

First-party data is the most important asset a newsroom can build by Nikita Roy at RJI

“I am working with newsroom partners to build an audience intelligence system for small and midsize news organizations. The goal is for this tool to consolidate and connect the first-party data a newsroom already holds, often scattered across multiple systems, and turn that information into a coherent view of its audience that can inform strategic editorial decisions. Newsrooms will be able to bring together first-party data from the tools they already use such as newsletter, membership, donation, survey, and audience analytics platforms.”

Revenue is growing across Hub newsrooms — but long-term success hinges on audience growth by News Revenue Hub

“Across the Hub network, revenue from individual gifts under $10,000 increased 6.63% year over year, with local and regional organizations posting particularly strong gains…While revenue increased, first-time gifts declined nearly 11% across the network. The takeaway isn’t that audience revenue is weakening. It’s that newsrooms are demonstrating they can generate more value from the audience relationships they’ve already built. The opportunity now is to bring more people into those relationships.”

Apply or Pass? How to Know When a Grant Is Worth Your Time by Tracie Powell at The Pivot Fund

“The point isn’t to become so cautious that you stop taking chances. It’s to become strategic about which chances are worth taking. For small, independent newsrooms navigating an increasingly difficult funding environment, that distinction matters. You cannot control when a funder changes strategy. You cannot control whether philanthropy consolidates its giving. You cannot control when a federal grant disappears, a natural disaster upends your finances or a $150,000 hole unexpectedly appears in your budget. But you can become more disciplined about where you invest one of your organization’s scarcest resources: your time.”

Grants & Fellowships: bring in the 💰

Grants

Journalism Grants from NIHCM Foundation – The National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation supports independent health reporting and education projects for journalists that can help policymakers, health plans, health care delivery systems, health care consumers, and related stakeholders improve the affordability, accessibility, and quality of U.S. health care. Journalists from national and local print, digital, trade, and broadcast, as well as freelancers, are welcome to apply. Most grants will be in the $15,000 to $30,000 range. Apply by October 2 (tomorrow!).
W. Eugene Smith Grant – The grant is designed to support visual storytellers whose photographic work renews the tradition of W. Eugene Smith’s dedicated compassion as evidenced during his 45-year career. Special consideration will be given to work that promotes social change, embraces new technologies and image distribution, and seeks to integrate the tradition of photography and social change with contemporary practice. One $30,000 grant will be awarded, with two $10,000 finalist awards. Apply by October 12.
Travel Grants from the Neal Pierce Foundation – The foundation supports journalists covering under-told stories about ways to make cities and their metro regions work better for all their people. The travel grants of up to $1,500 enable journalists to travel to cities within the U.S. to produce one or more stories for publication. The awards cover travel expenses necessary for on-the-ground reporting. Apply by October 13.
Solitary Confinement Reporting Grants from Solitary Watch – Solitary Watch is offering grants to journalists and nonprofit newsrooms working in all media with the goal of expanding public awareness and understanding of solitary confinement in U.S. federal and state prisons, local and tribal jails, immigration detention centers, and juvenile justice facilities. Grants range from $1,000 to $3,000. Apply by October 31.
Reporting Grants from New America’s Better Life Lab
The Better Life Lab invites journalists and storytellers to apply for its 2026 multimedia reporting grants. They are looking for (and funding) stories on solutions to the care crisis — from child care innovations to investments in family, disability, elder, and end-of-life care. Grants are about $1,000 each. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
Food and Farming Storytelling Fund from Sentient Media – Sentient will fund reporting on factory farming by supporting the journalists, creators, and communicators already working to bring these stories to their communities. Over the next two years, the Food and Farming Storytelling Fund will distribute $360,000 in direct grants to storytellers covering food and agriculture. The fund is made possible thanks to a grant from the Santa Barbara Foundation. Register your interest here.
Data Journalism Grants from The Pulitzer Center – The Center is looking for proposals that will employ cutting-edge data techniques, as well as embrace collaboration among newsrooms. They encourage proposals that push the envelope in data collection and analysis and make use of advanced data mining techniques, such as machine learning, natural language processing, satellite imagery, drones, and sensors. Applications accepted on a rolling basis.
Fund for Indigenous Journalists from International Women’s Media Foundation – The Fund’s Indigenous Journalists & Allies: Reporting on Missing & Murdered People/Women, Girls, Two-Spirit, Transgender People (MMIP/WG2T) initiative directly supports Indigenous journalists’ and allies’ reporting on the violence that targets members of Indigenous nations, both on sovereign ground and in urban settings in the U.S. Indigenous and non-Indigenous journalists of all genders affiliated with media outlets, as well as freelancers, are invited to apply. Applications accepted on a rolling basis.
Fault Lines Reporting Fund from International Women’s Media Foundation – Supports journalists reporting on the forces driving racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, misogyny, and other forms of intolerance. Successful applications will examine how false, divisive, and harmful narratives take hold, including what is fueling them, where they are most pronounced, the scope of their impact, and where progress is made in combating hate-based agendas. Grant awards range from $2,500 to $10,000. Applications accepted on a rolling basis.
Reporting Grants from Sidney Hillman Foundation – Grants support ambitious, timely, under-covered stories about the U.S workplace. The grants are part of the foundation’s efforts to improve coverage of working people, union organizing, and the workplace. They are also intended to help support freelance reporters. Grants are up to $5,000 and are intended to cover the costs of reporting these vital stories, such as travel and related expenses. Applications accepted on a rolling basis.
Collaborative Operating Models Program from the Public Media Bridge Fund – The first open call under the Sustainability Program focuses on advancing collaborative operating models across the public media system. The purpose of this initiative is to implement new operating and collaborative structures that strengthen the long-term sustainability of public media organizations. Investments up to $500,000 include grants, low-interest loans, and advisory services. Applications accepted on a rolling basis.

Special opportunity

Apply to Host a Report for America Corps Member – Report for America places talented journalists with host newsrooms, covers a portion of each journalist’s salary for an initial two-year commitment with the option to renew for a third year, and provides training support to both the newsroom and the corps member. The organization is now accepting applications from newsrooms seeking to host a corps member starting in July 2027. Apply by October 19.

Fellowships

Alicia Patterson Fellowships from the Fund for Investigative Reporting – The fellowships are for established freelance journalists (or journalists employed part-time by a news outlet) who have already published a body of work. The fellowships support investigative reporting on all topics with a strong U.S. focus. The fellowships were started in 1960 in honor of Alicia Patterson, the founding editor of Newsday and the first woman to run a major U.S. newspaper. The fellowships pay $40,000 for a 12-month investigation or $20,000 for a six-month investigation. Apply by October 1 (today!).

Western Media Fellowships from the Bill Lane Center for the American West – The fellowships provide opportunities for journalists working in all kinds of media — newspapers, magazines, radio, television, online, multimedia, video, film, data visualization, and more. The fellowship enables journalists to interact with Stanford researchers, scholars, and students; develop or work on a project of their own design; and spur new coverage and understanding of the American West. Fellows receive $8,500 stipends. Apply by October 5.
The McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism – Fellows receive up to $15,000 along with editorial support needed to produce deeply reported enterprise and investigative stories with a strong economic, financial, or business angle. You don’t need to be a business reporter to apply — many of the previous Fellows have been generalists, or cover beats such as health care, education, or the environment. Apply by October 12.
HEAL and Youth Building and Belonging (YBB) Fellowship from Solutions Journalism Network – The fellowships support U.S. journalists reporting on, for, and with young people on youth mental health and well-being. Both fellowships share a commitment to solutions journalism with differing focus areas. HEAL Fellowship supports journalists reporting on systemic mental health solutions, while the YBB Fellowship supports journalists reporting on the pre-conditions of youth wellbeing. Fellows receive up to $5,000 and SJN professional development. Apply by October 16.
Work//Shift Fellowship from Research to Impact Lab – The fellowship, a program of the Center for Cultural Innovation, is looking for people who are thinking deeply about the future of work. It’s designed around inquiry, collaboration, and developing new ideas with people from different fields. Selected fellows receive $30,000 for a 12-month fellowship beginning in January 2027. The commitment is about 10 hours a month, with two in-person gatherings. Apply by October 26.

Training: upskill FTW 🎓

Editing Workshop with the PMJA Editor Corps, October 2, 11 am to 4:30 pm EDT; $325 members / $450 non-members – A full day of hands-on editing work with the PMJA Editor Corps: story structure, sourcing gaps, and the edits that actually make a piece stronger before it airs. This intensive, hands-on workshop is built around doing the work together, not sitting through presentations. Use discount code JOINPMJA to get $100 off non-member pricing and an individual membership.
Investigating technology and AI in conflict from GIJN, October 6 at 9:30 am EDT – In this workshop, based on an upcoming GIJN reporting guide, Dr. Iain Overton will introduce a practical framework for investigating the technological systems behind modern warfare, from surveillance infrastructure and automated decision-making to the financial flows that make them possible. Participants will leave with practical methods, source suggestions, and real-world examples they can use.
Elections coverage: Finding stories in campaign finance data from Big Local News, October 7 at 2 pm EDT – After this training, you’ll be able to find the candidates spending lavishly on high-end hotels and travel, and the businesses that rely on them; out-of-state donors who are giving to your candidates; and the big money pouring in from SuperPACs to help elect candidates friendly to new data centers. The session will walk you through creative ways to think about the data, and find stories you can use this election season.
The Secrets of Great Reporting from ASME, October 7 at 6:30 pm EDT; $20 for members; $35 for non-members – Join Eric Boodman of STAT and Joy Shan of New York Magazine for a discussion of the reporting process from the editor’s and writer’s perspectives. This session will cover: How does each imagine the reporting of a story before it begins in earnest? How does the editor work with writers to turn that into reality, and vice versa? What are the challenges that come up along the way and some tools to overcome them?
The biz basics of video creator journalism from Video Consortium, October 7, 14, and 20 at 1 pm EDT – Today’s video journalists are being asked to do it all: report, produce, build an audience, navigate platforms, follow trends, find revenue, and think like business owners. In this three-part series from Video Consortium, explore what it actually takes to build a sustainable career around video creator journalism, from revenue models and sponsorships to brand integrations and everything in between.
Beat Academy: Covering the rising risk of flooding from Poynter, October 8 – Get ahead of the next flood story with Poynter’s Beat Academy. In this free, 75-minute webinar, Poynter faculty and journalists experienced in data-driven flood coverage will show local, state, and regional reporters how to identify communities at risk, find and use reliable flood data, and prepare coverage before disaster strikes.
Host Training Workshop from PMJA, October 10 from 11 am to 4:30 pm; $250 members / $350 non-members – This workshop covers pacing, transitions, and staying steady when something changes mid-show. It’s a full-day, hands-on session built for public media hosts at every level. Whether you’re new to the chair or looking to level up, you’ll leave with practical tools you can use the next time you sit down at the mic. Use discount code JOINPMJA to get $100 off non-member pricing and an individual membership.
Clarifying your story: Defining what makes your organization unique from the Lenfest News Philanthropy Network, October 15 at 2 pm EST – In a new workshop series, Max Kabat of The Sentinel Marfa brings business leaders from beyond the journalism industry to share how they’ve built a strong brand, and how that branding translates to relationships and revenue. The first session will feature Brita Lundberg of Lundberg Family Farms.
Covering Immigration with Care: A Mental Health Reporting Project Webinar from Poynter, October 21 at noon EDT – Learn how to report on the effects of immigration on mental health with greater context, accuracy, and care. This free webinar explores trauma-informed interviewing, ethical storytelling, and practical reporting strategies. Learn how to connect individual stories to policy, services, and support systems, and hear from experienced journalists covering immigration.
AI for Product: Are You AI-Exposed? from the Local Media Association, November 10 at 2 pm EST; free for LMA members; $29 for non-members – Artificial intelligence creates many opportunities for news innovation. But AI also exposes news organizations to many new risks. In this essential session, Jon Accarrino, founder of ORDO Digital, walks news leaders through the key privacy and security risks news organizations face both from using AI and from having their content used by AI, including a security and tools checklist.
Building Sustainable Newsrooms through Evidence-Based Reporting from LMA, November 12 at 2 pm EST – Local newsrooms are uniquely positioned to equip their audiences with evidence-based reporting that informs their daily decisions. Reporting that brings evidence to bear on everyday issues such as housing, transportation, and weather stands to build community trust. Join The Open Notebook for a free training on how to evaluate scientific claims, find and interview expert sources, and confidently incorporate evidence into stories.

Support: Get the help you need ☎️

PulseRoom from NewsWerks – This audience simulation tool will help you gut-check a story, product, event, or message with research-informed simulations of your core and emerging audiences. Explore what different audiences might notice, question, value, or need before you move forward.
DataTalk from Big Local News – DataTalk is a research assistant that answers campaign-finance questions from official Federal Election Commission (FEC) data. Ask in plain English, and it writes the database query, runs it against the data, and shows its work next to every number so you can check it.
Where to look for funding for your newsroom internship program by Eden Dinneen at RJI – RJI worked with Street Sense Media to find varied funding to make its internship program more sustainable. They tried to find more funding opportunities and prepared Street Sense for pitching its program. The guide includes templates and resources for others.
Evidence-based election coverage: A guide for journalists from SciLine – SciLine offers reporting resources to help journalists step back from political back-and-forth and show voters what evidence-based research can tell us about the biggest issues at stake in the midterm elections. They will be adding more resources throughout the 2026 midterm election season.
Emergency Mode for News from OpenNews, Newspack, and NC Local – The resource equips local journalists and their newsrooms with the tools they need to respond to climate disasters. With a disaster reporting action pack, software, and a learning community, Emergency Mode is designed to help journalists act nimbly and creatively to serve their communities when the unexpected happens.
The Lenfest Expert Network from The Lenfest Institute – The Expert Network connects local news organizations with experienced consultants who provide pro bono hands-on support to strengthen sustainability, audience engagement, and digital transformation for short-term consulting engagements lasting one to six months. Interested in joining an upcoming consulting round? Sign up for office hours here.

Events: learn and network 📅

Journalism & Women’s Symposium (JAWS) CAMP , October 2-4 in Santa Monica, Calif. – Brings women and nonbinary journalists together from different specialties, beats, demographics, and geographies to share with, learn from, and empower each other.
Mental Health in Journalism Summit from The Self-Investigation, October 6-9 online – An open, collaborative, and global conversation about what care looks like when it’s built into the structures of journalism work.
Audience Studio Live: The Gettable Audience from INN, October 8 in New York – INN is hosting a day-long workshop to share new benchmarking tools built on nearly a decade of Index data and grapple with how to manage the forces shaping the audience publishers can get.
AccessFest 2026 from IRE, October 8-10 online – The conference will provide professional development opportunities that focus on diversity, belonging, equity, and inclusion issues within the newsroom and in news coverage. Must be an IRE member.
Personal Finance Summit from SABEW, October 9 in New York – Through expert-led sessions and practical discussions, the summit helps journalists uncover the personal finance angles that make stories more relevant and useful to audiences.
Local News Camp from Blue Engine Collaborative, October 14–16 in Durham, NC – The event is for leaders who get things done: publishers, editors, audience directors, product leaders, and analytics mavens. Attendance is capped to preserve depth, connection, and meaningful exchange.
Latino Media Summit at CUNY , October 15 in New York – The summit explores emerging opportunities, shares practical solutions, and fosters collaboration to strengthen journalism and better serve Latino communities across the country.
News Product Alliance Summit, October 21-23 in Chicago – The event is for decision-makers who set priorities and ship work across product, audience, technology, revenue, and editorial, and turn strategy into execution.

Ask a Bot 🤖

Prompt: Explain how the value of journalism stories and books might decline because of the rise of AI, similar to the devaluation of music due to the rise of streaming services.

Answer via ChatGPT: The rise of AI could reduce the economic and cultural value of journalism and books in much the same way streaming reshaped the value of music: When people can instantly generate, summarize, or access vast amounts of AI-produced text, individual stories and books may feel less scarce and therefore less valuable.

Just as streaming made songs widely accessible but reduced the amount listeners typically pay for each individual track, AI could make information abundant and inexpensive, potentially weakening publishers’ ability to charge for original reporting, long-form writing, and intellectual property. This could create pressure for journalists and authors to produce more work for less compensation, while making distinctive human reporting, credibility, and authorial voice increasingly important as differentiators.

Human analysis: This lays out the issue very well, including the growing feeling that books and stories are less scarce and less valuable. The key point is at the end: “distinctive human reporting, credibility, and authorial voice” lead to more long-term value. What’s missing is the current push-and-pull around the value of materials that AI is vacuuming up (with or without licensing). The music industry fought valiantly for streaming royalties that are largely paltry, relying more on live performances for deeper connections. Let’s see if the publishing industries can do any better, or if in-person events continue to gain in importance. 💸