The Lenfest Local Lab

An app that sent real-time, location-based push notifications with links to news stories written about buildings or places nearby.

• Introducing HERE: A location-aware app that puts you at the center of local news discovery. Introducing HERE: A location-aware app that puts you at the center of local news discovery.
• Finding insights along a SEPTA transit route that may lead to local news product innovation in Philadelphia Finding insights along a SEPTA transit route that may lead to local news product innovation in Philadelphia
• Oh, The Locations You’ll Go… Oh, The Locations You’ll Go…
• Building Context-Aware Notifications Building Context-Aware Notifications
• Sending an unlimited amount of location triggered notifications Sending an unlimited amount of location triggered notifications
• Transparency, all the way down. Transparency, all the way down.

The Philly Eats app made Philadelphia Inquirer food writing searchable by location, cuisine and price, and also made it easy to save reviews and see restaurant locations on a map, making it easier to research and plan out visits.

• Introducing Philly Eats: A local restaurant app that puts hundreds of professional reviews right at your fingertips Introducing Philly Eats: A local restaurant app that puts hundreds of professional reviews right at your fingertips
• Online, On Paper and In Person: The lightweight methods we used to redesign the mobile UX for local restaurant reviews. Online, On Paper and In Person: The lightweight methods we used to redesign the mobile UX for local restaurant reviews.

The Lab created a postcard and text messaging campaign targeted at providing news and information to support civic participation and engagement among “cicada voters.” Cicada voters are people who vote in national elections every four years, but don’t vote in critical and impactful local elections in Philadelphia. The Lab sent postcards about when and why people might consider voting in these elections, along with offering a text message line to answer people’s questions about voting and the election.

• Municipal post card experiment Municipal post card experiment

A three-week long text message service hosted by a group of Philadelphia Inquirer journalists, breaking down a single predetermined issue at stake in elections each week, including healthcare, gun control and the economy. The Lab also allowed people to send in their questions each week, and answered them on Fridays.

• “Hi, this is Jonathan Lai.” Why texting continues to be a big opportunity for newsrooms to customize news and start a conversation with their audience. “Hi, this is Jonathan Lai.” Why texting continues to be a big opportunity for newsrooms to customize news and start a conversation with their audience.
• Midterm elections experiment insights Midterm elections experiment insights
• Midterm election SMS success framework Midterm election SMS success framework

A page, and eventually an opt-in newsletter, that made it easy for residents to read local COVID-19 news about the counties or neighborhoods that were important to them. During a time when news about the global pandemic was being published at a rapid pace, this product offered people a way to see the most relevant and actionable public health coverage first. The Lab also partnered with The Inquirer and Spotlight PA to pair data about case counts and trends alongside written coverage. The page, and eventually the newsletter, were promoted from within the Inquirer’s existing COVID-19 newsletter.

A curated, collaborative neighborhood newsletter for residents of the Fishtown neighborhood in Philadelphia. The newsletter allowed the Lab to explore smart ways to scale tools, workflows and approaches that could support a network of hyperlocal newsletters across a region.

• A look back at preparing to launch a neighborhood newsletter A look back at preparing to launch a neighborhood newsletter
• How the Lenfest Local Lab built a live email preview into its neighborhood newsletter product. How the Lenfest Local Lab built a live email preview into its neighborhood newsletter product.
• How The Lenfest Local Lab @ The Inquirer launches hyperlocal newsletters How The Lenfest Local Lab @ The Inquirer launches hyperlocal newsletters

The Lab launched a bilingual texting service providing information about a local vaccine clinic. The service was designed specifically to serve residents living near the clinic in North Philadelphia. The city had opened this second mass clinic as a way to serve communities in North Philly disproportionately affected by COVID-19, and the service was meant to ensure that nearby residents had access to consistent and reliable information, and could ask clarifying questions.

• Prioritizing action: How The Lenfest Local Lab @ The Inquirer created a bilingual texting service to help get Philadelphians vaccinated Prioritizing action: How The Lenfest Local Lab @ The Inquirer created a bilingual texting service to help get Philadelphians vaccinated

An open-source tool that automatically identifies and maps locations found in local news stories. The Lab used the tool in its experimentation as well as its community engagement work. It also allowed the Lab to support analysis of the Temple University diversity and inclusion content audit of Inquirer coverage (p. 39–44), by observing the geographic distribution of coverage included in the audit.

• The Lenfest Lab and The Brown Institute are partnering on a project to map local news The Lenfest Lab and The Brown Institute are partnering on a project to map local news
• The Lenfest Local Lab, The Brown Institute, and The Philadelphia Inquirer are building open-source content audit tools for local newsrooms The Lenfest Local Lab, The Brown Institute, and The Philadelphia Inquirer are building open-source content audit tools for local newsrooms