Caitlin Dewey | for API’s Better News
In 2021, Tennessee’s Knox News launched an ambitious project to restore trust in the black community. Staff recognized that for decades the newspaper had failed to include voices of Knoxville residents of color and had often downplayed their stories or used them as an alibi.
To address this historic neglect, Editor-in-Chief Joel Christopher and his team launched an audience engagement initiative, offering free subscriptions to readers of color and inviting them to join a private Facebook group where they could share article ideas and feedback on Knox News’s coverage. Christopher hoped the group would build new relationships and help the paper change some entrenched patterns.
After a strong start, however, more and more black readers left the Facebook group. Maintaining this community sometimes seemed like another task for overworked reporters.
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