In 2021, Tennessee’s Knox News launched an ambitious project to rebuild trust with the Black community. For decades, staff realized, the paper had failed to include voices from Knoxvillians of color, and often downplayed or tokenized their stories.
To begin to address that historic neglect, executive editor Joel Christopher and his staff launched an audience engagement initiative that offered free subscriptions to readers of color and invited them to join a private Facebook group where they could share story ideas and feedback on Knox News’ coverage. Christopher hoped the group would foster new relationships and help the paper change some entrenched patterns.
After a strong start, however, Black readers started dropping out of the Facebook group. Maintaining that community sometimes felt like one more thing that overworked reporters had to do.
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