Engaged Cities

Engaged Cities is a community of practice for news organizations with engagement-first approaches to serving U.S. cities.

Created by The Lenfest Institute for Journalism in partnership with New York-based newsroom THE CITY, the Engaged Cities community works together to tackle common challenges, share innovative approaches, and serve as a sounding board for peers. The Engaged Cities community will also pilot and spread creative, collective solutions to help these news organizations serve their diverse communities in sustainable ways.

The Engaged Cities community holds monthly virtual discussions that center on engagement as a throughline to addressing editorial, product, revenue, and operational issues. Additionally, The Lenfest Institute facilitates active collaborations among members, engages in data benchmarking and research projects, and publishes relevant learnings to benefit the field.

Inaugural Engaged Cities Community members

• Chicago Public Media / WBEZ (Chicago)
• Cityside (Berkeley and Oakland, Ca.)
• Houston Landing (Houston)
• LAist / KPCC (Los Angeles)
• MLK50 (Memphis, Tenn.)
• Outlier Media (Detroit)
• PublicSource (Pittsburgh)
• The Baltimore Banner (Baltimore)
• THE CITY (New York)

This community is a curated, limited-invitation group for news organizations that fit the following criteria:

• Independent, digitally focused news organizations that have already launched (all business models welcome)
• Primary audience and coverage area is a city in the United States
• An engagement-first approach and have demonstrated an innovative, collaborative spirit through their work
• Primary participants have senior-level roles and buy-in from top leadership
• Participants are willing to share actively and maintain confidentiality in the spirit of mutual benefit

Note: We’re open to including multiple news organizations from the same city, and we’ll work with members to ensure that doesn’t affect their ability to share openly amongst the group.

If you’re interested in joining the Engaged Cities community of practice, please fill out this brief interest form.

Complete the interest form Complete the interest form