ONA Weekly #383: The Votes Are In: See Who’s Joining The ONA Board

By on October 27, 2021

The votes are in: See who’s joining the ONA board  

We are pleased to announce the results of the 2022-23 Board of Directors election. ONA members voted for their candidates of choice from a slate of 11 inspiring digital media leaders. Here are the board members who will begin their two-year terms on Jan. 2, 2022.

New board members:

  • Angela Pacienza, Executive Editor, The Globe and Mail
  • Elana Zak, Head of Newsletters, Politico

Members re-elected: 

  • Anita Li, Founder & CEO, The Green Line
  • Charo Henríquez, Editor, Newsroom Development & Support, The New York Times
  • David Smydra, Senior Curation Lead, Twitter
  • Versha Sharma, Editor-in-Chief, Teen Vogue

The board will appoint two additional seats before the end of the year. Learn more about the election results.

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Expose inequities through this Fellowship

The O’Brien Fellowship gives reporters nine months, $70,000, funding for travel and research and a team of student journalists to dig deep into society’s biggest questions, with the power to compel change. Find out more at our Q&A. 

Leadership conversations with women in journalism 

We are excited to bring you a new series of leadership conversations inspired by the Women’s Leadership Accelerator. This virtual series includes three learning sessions, plus a facilitated networking meetup to connect inspiring women in digital news. Each of the learning sessions will dive into strategies and opportunities to advocate for yourself and your team.

The series kicks off next week. Name your own price to register for individual sessions or the full series: 

Registration for the three learning sessions supports ONA programming throughout the year, including the tuition-free Women’s Leadership Accelerator cohort-based program. To learn about more opportunities to support women in journalism, contact Jessica Strelitz, Chief Strategic Partnerships Officer, at jessica@journalists.org.

Impact: What every news initiative should be thinking about right now 

As news outlets build methods for engaging audiences and exploring new revenue models, the question of how to measure and track impactful reporting lingers. The practice of gathering and documenting examples of impact—real-world change associated with the outcome of journalism projects—is an iterative process for every news initiative, and the effort is well worth it. ProPublica, an outlet that communicates impact to its audiences through annual impact reports, recently shared how an ongoing investigation into police misconduct influenced a series of legislative bills. In 2019, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, in collaboration with ProPublica, investigated one of the largest hospital scandals out of Memphis which resulted in debt erasure of over 6,000 patients, totaling about $11.9 million.

For more inspiration as you define your impact strategy for 2022, check out these resources and examples from ONA community members:

  • Winner of this year’s Gather Award in Engaged Journalism at the Online Journalism Awards, Oakland-based news site El Tímpano published their first annual impact report highlighting their engagement efforts and what they were able to achieve with the input of their community during the Covid-19 pandemic.
  • From defining to gathering and planning for impact strategy, this guide from the Local Media Project and Solutions Journalism Network’s Amy Maestas and Leah Todd highlights four key stages and 22 examples of impact to watch for. 
  • At the recent ONA Insights conference, Rubina Fillion and Elana Zak shared a worksheet to define your “North Star” metrics. Clarity on which benchmarks align with your organization’s goals leads to understanding of desired audience behavior. Audience behavior represents action. Action equals impact. 
  • Our friends at the Center for Cooperative Media developed a comprehensive report on measuring the internal and external impact of collaborations.
We’re always on the lookout for helpful resources and tips. If you have other examples to share, please reply directly to this email.

Showcasing newsletter excellence

ICYMI: The Wall Street Journal and THE CITY were honored as winners in the  Excellence in Newsletters category at the 2021 Online Journalism Awards. In the Portfolio subcategory, judges cited WSJ’s Six-Week Money Challenge as a great example of evergreen content that “people could be using years from now.” The newsletter educates readers on personal finance concepts in an email course. Each issue includes an upbeat song for motivation, a savings tip, a step-by-step challenge that can be done in an hour and a recap of the lesson. In the Single Newsletter subcategory, judges were impressed with THE CITY’s The Civic Newsroom in service to New Yorkers participating in their local elections. They called it “accessible” and “almost fun”—words not typically associated with election reporting. Two months before launch, the team published a callout asking readers what they wanted to know about the elections. By the end of their first day, the newsletter had already amassed 2,000 subscribers.

Explore all finalists in the newsletter category, including Bulletin, The Washington Post, Education Week and WBUR.

Important dates

Career opportunities

ONA’s Career Center is an excellent resource for jobs, fellowships and internships in digital journalism. Recent postings include:

On our radar

The radar is now open for suggestions. Have you written or read a piece lately that would benefit others in journalism? We’re interested in sharing insights on trends, how-to guides, lessons from a project and other inspiration for innovation in digital journalism.
Join as an ONA member or make a donation to help sustain ONA’s mission to inspire and support innovation in digital journalism. If you’re looking to promote an event, product, job opening or other opportunity, explore options to reach the ONA community.

We also rely on philanthropic and corporate support. Contact Chief Strategic Partnerships Officer Jessica Strelitz at jessica@journalists.org to learn about the many ways to invest in our mission.