How are you holding up? 

These are scary, trying times, but it’s been heartening to see how journalists across the world have risen to the challenge of keeping their communities informed in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. 

As part of its stellar coverage, The Seattle Times reported on how doctors at a Seattle hospital may have established a path forward for other hospitals that will inevitably deal with a crush of patients. Quartz published a story showing the impact of social distancing during the 1918 flu pandemic that explained why people need to stay home. And The Diplomat reported how Vietnam learned from China and has taken a more transparent approach to dealing with the coronavirus. 

I pulled all these stories from Solution Journalism Network’s Solutions Story Tracker, and they show a way how newsrooms can report on the ongoing crisis while providing their communities and leaders practical ways to move forward. 

Have you read any good solutions-focused stories on the coronavirus outbreak? Democracy Fund’s Christine Schmidt and I would love to discuss them with you. How can journalists best provide actionable information that minimizes fear and provides actionable resources for audiences? What else have you found that has given you hope recently?

Instead of a News Book Club this week, we’re going to hold a ~News Story Club~.

Join us at 4 p.m. EDT/1 p.m. PDT this Friday, March 20 on Zoom to discuss the best stories you’ve read or watched on the crisis. You can add the call to your Google calendar here.

This is an experiment. There’s no required reading or anything like that. Please just show up if you’d like. As people try to stay home and limit contact with others, Christine and I thought this would be a nice way to try and bring people together.

We hope you’ll join us, and please reach out with any questions.