Last November the Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln with support from the MacArthur Foundation, hosted a panel discussion at the University of Illinois Springfield titled “A Commitment to Local News.” The event was part of a national effort called Press Forward, which seeks to reshape the local news landscape across U.S. communities.
The discussion featured Executive Editor of the Chicago Sun-Times Jennifer Kho, State Government and Politics Reporter at Capitol News Illinois Hannah Meisel, and Evan Smith a senior advisor at Emerson Collective and The Texas Tribune, as well as the host of “Overheard with Evan Smith,” a weekly half-hour interview program that airs on PBS stations around the country. The panel was moderated by Springfield’s retired political writer and columnist Bernard Schoenburg. The panelists discussed the state of journalism, how to grow diverse audiences, and how to rebuild trust with audiences.
