News Alchemists 7x7. My 7 favourite links from the first 7 editions

Two days ago, I sent the first edition of the News Alchemists newsletter: a weekly curation of seven readings that made me think and gave me hope about redefining journalism and its role in society.

Confusingly, the headline read "News Alchemists #7": because for six times I had already shared the 7-links curation on LinkedIn in the previous weeks – to test the appetite for this product.

That means I have already shared 49 reading recommendations! But not everyone among my amazing newsletter subscribers (🫶) saw the posts on LinkedIn, nor will have time to go through all the links I had already shared.

Hence this special 7x7 edition: I picked my 7 favourite links from the first 7 editions. I hope you enjoy them! You do? Let me know in the comments 😉

(Don't worry that you didn't receive this in your inbox: I only published this post on the website. I promised to only email you once a week, and I will stick to that.)

1. The Green Line creates local news for the people turning away from “big-J journalism” 👉 LINK

Nieman Lab sharing the amazing work of 🧩 The Green Line, a hyperlocal publication from Toronto, Canada, founded by 🧞Anita Li.

2. Community-led listening project offers solutions to journalism’s biggest challenges 👉 LINK

Can't-miss report by Media Cymru and 🧞Shirish Kulkarni. (I mean it, don't miss it.)

3. User needs is great. But it is not an end in itself. 👉 LINK

🧞Khalil A. Cassimally dropping truths: "It’s time to move beyond platitudes about journalism as a public good and take tangible steps to make it a reality."

4. Learning from membership models: Daily Maverick’s superpower database 👉 LINK

🧞Madeleine White on The Audiencers. I love this from the 🧩 Daily Maverick. (Disclaimer: I'm currently working on a project with them as an external consultant.)

5. Taking lessons from independent bookstores 👉 LINK

Eric Nuzum's 2025 Prediction for Nieman Journalism Lab (Maybe the best one of the lot this year?)

6. Could we give audiences a different entry point into a news story? 👉 LINK

Very cool experiment by 🧞Sannuta Raghu of 🧩 Scroll.in.

7. Slovakia’s Denník N’s bold campaign brought 10,000 new subscribers in just four days 👉 LINK

Inspiring results from 🧩 Denník N in Slovakia. By Marcela Kunova on journalism.co.uk.

What is News Alchemists, you ask? 👉 Good question.