News Relay Network

Our zine puts news in the community's hands, literally Lessons from an SF newsroom creating a print product

What have we been up to since launching @tlvoice.bsky.social? Lots, but today we want to tell you about creating an honest-to-god, ink-on-paper, print news product. What we learned, and why we did it:
newsrelaynetwork.org/tlvoice-zine...

Talk of the Tenderloin A trio of local news vets launched ‘The Tenderloin Voice’ to tell the stories of a frequently covered, but little understood, neighborhood

Say hello to the Tenderloin Voice, a new indie news outlet that aims to cover the much-maligned neighborhood with a simple principle:

Why not ask readers exactly what they want to see?

GIFT LINK: sf.gazetteer.co/talk-of-the-...

New SF publication, the Tenderloin Voice, is now live The launch comes after months of relationship-building.

Please meet the Tenderloin Voice, a newsroom serving and working with San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood.

Dispatches from mission control for our SF newsroom launch Why we’re having big conversations about organization structure, donation systems, and agreements with content contributors.

Latest newsletter: Two exciting updates, and some thoughts on why it’s taking us longer than anticipated to start the countdown to launch (and why we don’t want to rush).

☝Check it out! We're sharing editorial control with San Francisco’s Tenderloin, so that its residents and workers can affect prevailing narratives about the area.

As one local told Diane, “It’s important that people who live here can say what needs to be said to determine what gets done.”

Building news in San Francisco’s Tenderloin through a print-first, multilingual, community-owned newsroom - Editor and Publisher In a neighborhood often defined by outsiders through a narrow lens, three Bay Area newsroom veterans are working to shift power to the people who live there. “We realized it was about listening first,...

We're honored to be featured by Editor & Publisher Magazine, with a great piece by the talented @di-sly.bsky.social!

www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/buil...

Now in production: The Tenderloin Voice We’re drafting, editing, and laying out our first batch of content.

Our newsroom and zine has a name: The Tenderloin Voice.

We're deep in story production now.

newsrelaynetwork.org/now-in-production-the-tenderloin-voice-san-francisco-news

Prepping SF Tenderloin newsroom for launch Pre-flight checklist includes naming the newsroom & prototyping its print zine.

What’s it really take to start a newsroom? We’re finding out, as we work our way toward liftoff.

Asked, received: community calendar for SF’s Tenderloin It’s our first item of content prior to newsroom launch.

We’re heads-down working our way toward launching the Tenderloin newsroom, and starting (today) with a top community request. newsrelaynetwork.org/community-ca...

Thank you for giving journalistic attention to community-driven solutions!

SF Tenderloin’s plan for its future — and how we’ll report on it The plan is years in the making, resulting from surveys, canvassing, community meetings.

Did you know there is a comprehensive plan for the Tenderloin, full of community-proposed solutions and based on the input of more than 1,200 people?

When we’re up and running, our reporting will focus on it. newsrelaynetwork.org/a-reporting-...

We’re changing course — not for the last time Our Tenderloin newsroom is shifting due to public feedback.

For months, we’ve asked SF's Tenderloin what it needs in a newsroom.

What people said, surprised us:

- Community calendar
- Power to tell their own stories
- Articles offering ways to help people
- Some coverage intended for citywide readers
- Muckraking

newsrelaynetwork.org/changing-cou...

SF Tenderloin’s vision for community-serving media We met with a group of locals to find out what they would want from a neighborhood newsroom. Here’s what they told us.

When we met with a large group of locals, we expected marching orders for topics that our newsroom should cover. What we got was much more meaningful.

Here’s what we learned. newsrelaynetwork.org/san-francisc...

Thank you for the hat-tip! We love Coyote!

And sorry for the delayed response. Tiny operation, over here.

Our first listening session has limited space, but a public version is coming soon!

If you’re in the area and we haven’t connected with you yet, apologies. Please reach out and tell us you’d like to talk! DM this account or @noaharroyo.bsky.social

Group sessions to surface SF Tenderloin’s news needs Expanding the dialogue about how our newsroom should serve the neighborhood

We’re talking with a group of local stakeholders to help shape our coverage. newsrelaynetwork.org/expanding-di...

The Tenderloin you don’t see There’s more going on in this neighborhood than crime and drugs — like resilience and recovery.

If you Google news about San Francisco's Tenderloin, the coverage will be dominated by reports of violence and drug use (with some exceptions).

But here’s a counterpoint: newsrelaynetwork.org/the-tenderlo...

We're honored to be featured by Amalie Nash and @inmaorg.bsky.social !!

Community-driven reporting: three examples Here’s how we’d turn our audience’s interests and concerns into coverage.

When our audience directs our coverage, will they have to follow a predetermined story-pitching process? Will they need reporting skills?

No.

We'll ask them to share their thoughts & feelings about their community. We’ll take it from there. newsrelaynetwork.org/community-dr...

How the community will guide our newsroom’s reporting In our experimental newsroom, we’ll share editorial control with our SF Tenderloin audience. Here’s how.

We've been told that we're democratizing the editorial process. We think that fits!

What do you think?

We want to hear from YOU — whether you're a Tenderloin resident, curious news consumer, or journalist wrestling with these kinds of considerations. newsrelaynetwork.org/how-communit...

We are proud to be part of this wave!

In dark times, finding hope in SF's Tenderloin At a community meeting, the message was: You matter.

Our latest newsletter!

Joe ‪Wilson, of ‪@hospitalityhousesf.bsky.social‬, gave a rousing speech at a recent community meeting in San Francisco's Tenderloin.

The message: "You matter."

We hope our local newsroom will also help people feel that way, in part to encourage civic engagement.

We just broke 100 newsletter subscribers!

It may not seem like a lot but it's a big deal to us!

As we build this unconventional newsroom, we're inspired by the many people and organizations that have laid the foundation for our work: @anitawrites.bsky.social, @citybureau.bsky.social, @documenters.org, @eltimpano.bsky.social, @zantimes.bsky.social, #NewsFutures — to name a few!!

We’re building something new. We’re not the only ones. News Relay Network is proud to build on the foundation laid by journalism innovators who are empowering audiences to influence popular narratives, shape policy, and propel social movements.

Ever since we started down the path of founding a newsroom, we worried, “Are people going to think we’re nuts?”

It turns out that many journalists want what we want: to share power with the audience. newsrelaynetwork.org/were-buildin...

Coming soon: A newsroom that empowers its audience Hi! It’s so good to have you. I’d grab you a chair if I could. This is the first edition of our newsletter, which will chronicle wins, losses, and what we learn as we conduct a novel experiment in jo...

Our #SF newsroom will produce high-quality coverage **driven directly by the audience.**

Rather than staff having full editorial control — that’s the norm — we’ll empower the community to determine what we report on, on an ongoing basis. ... #SanFrancisco newsrelaynetwork.org/coming-soon-...

In our first newsletter, we discuss why we're sharing editorial control with our our audience.

Subscribe! newsrelaynetwork.org/coming-soon-...