Guest Essay

What we learned at ONA25: From solo creators to shared purpose

By Meena Thiruvengadam 

September 25, 2025

I’m not sure how it happened, but I blinked and New Orleans was my 12th ONA conference. This year’s conference brought together nearly 1,200 media professionals, all eager to learn, but more eager to connect. I spent most of my time in the hallway, which is probably where I ran into many of you. 

After over a decade of ONAs, my biggest takeaway is: 

Community is the infrastructure. 

Yes, journalism is a craft. Yes, it’s a business. But more than anything, it’s a people practice. 

Keep up with your people. Celebrate their wins. Be there for them when life happens. Make an effort to see them when you’re in their town, or they’re in yours. Ask for help when you need it, and offer help when you can give it. 

Relationships may ebb and flow, and some may not work out. But after enough time, you can find yourself with a rock-solid professional network of friends you can count on — the kind of community that makes all the difference in this work.

Join the Audience Community Join the Audience Community

In many ways, this idea connects everything else we took away from this year’s conference: Creators need support. Trust is built through community. And journalism, at its core, is a deeply human pursuit.

If you weren’t able to join us, here are a few standout themes we heard:

Trust is the assignment

If your audience doesn’t trust you, they won’t follow you, no matter how good your content is.

Human-centered storytelling led several of the discussions. Journalistic authenticity is proving to be a true differentiator in an era of algorithm-chasing and AI-generated content. People make space for stories that feel more grounded, more vulnerable and more real. 

Journalists are also getting creative with how they reach new audiences and build their trust. Notably, several journalists shared how they’ve begun monitoring their content performance  across Reddit, enabling them to identify communities to partner with on AMAs, superfans who regularly post your content, and communities your organization or reporters may want to participate in. 

Content creators are stepping into the spotlight

The Project C Creator Cohort, organized with support from The Lenfest Institute and ONA, was a breakout moment for creator-model journalism at ONA25. These ten journalists are blending personal branding, platform fluency, and journalistic rigor in ways that feel like a real glimpse into where journalism is heading. 

The 2025 Project C Creator Cohort. Courtesy of Liz Kelly Nelson of Project C.

Throughout the week, participants found community with like-minded peers, gained confidence in presenting their work, and sharpened their approach to revenue and audience strategy. 

The cohort programming could serve as a blueprint for how the industry can better support independent journalists, not just as learners, but as leaders in the field. At the same time, the experience surfaced what’s still needed: more hands-on support around monetization, ethics, and platform-specific strategies, especially for non-text creators.

The future of journalism is human

Robert Hernandez’s session “[BLANK] is the Future of Journalism,” made a triumphant return to NOLA, the city where it was first born at the 2019 ONA conference. This gameshow-style session featured several participants showcasing exactly why the future of journalism won’t be dictated by platforms or technology alone.

It will be shaped by people who show up with authenticity, build real trust with their audiences, support one another through change, and create new models that reflect the world we’re living in now. If you’re doing that work, in a newsroom or on your own, you’re already part of what’s next.

Shoutout to Audience Community of Practice Member Cathy Rainone of NBC who spoke on a panel about real-world lessons from custom GPTs in the newsroom, and to Diana López and Rubina Madan Fillion who led table talks. 

The Lenfest Audience Community of Practice is a group providing support for audience development news professionals. You can learn more and sign up here.