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News Alchemists #12: "The main problem with journalism isn't AI or digital transformation, it's its relevance gap."

Hello and welcome back to the News Alchemists newsletter!

If you are among the many people who signed up over the last week from all corners of the industry — the Daily Maverick, Schibsted, NBC News, INMA, the EBU, ICFJ, and RAI, among others — a special welcome to you. You’re among friends. 🤗

Last week I explained how News Alchemists started out as a community, and I introduced you to some of its founding members. That made me quite nostalgic, and reminded me that relaunching the community — opening it up to you and everyone else who’s reading these lines — is one of the hopes I have for this year.

I’m not ready yet (it takes time, time that I don’t have because I must prioritise projects that help me pay the bills, and blah blah blah) but let me use this moment to ask the most important question: Would you even be interested? Would you find value in an online community where you could meet and share ideas with other alchemists like you who want to make journalism more user-centric, and more equitable and sustainable as a result? And maybe even create something together?

Yes, no, ideas, questions? Reply to this email to let me know your thoughts.

It's time for the links:

I have to say, I was tempted to ditch the 7-links format and just share this one link. This talk by 🧞Shirish Kulkarni should be mandatory reading for anyone working in journalism. I'm pasting one paragraph that I found especially powerful but, please, go read the whole thing:

“The future of journalism can not, should not, indeed must not look like the past. On one hand AI will reshape society in ways that we can’t even comprehend yet, so clinging to storytelling forms that are already outdated simply isn’t going to cut it. On the other, we need to refocus on genuine human connection, providing a service and delivering products that make people’s lives better, easier or more enjoyable. Journalism has a central role in shaping the civic sphere. First we need to acknowledge that, then we need to lean into it. For me, our purpose is to help make the world a better place. I believe only journalism which does that will have a future.”

Until last week, my only journalism subscription was to 🧩 Il Post – an Italian digital media I cannot believe I have not yet talked about in this newsletter. I'll fix that soon, but the reason I'm mentioning this is because last week I became a subscriber of 🧩 The Londoner, a newsletter about the city I live in that has been doing some fantastic work since its launch in October of last year.

This New Yorker article talks about The Londoner, London-Centric, and other newsletters about London that are filling the gap left by last year's demise of the Evening Standard with great journalism about the city. I couldn't agree more with 🧞Joshi Herrmann, the founder of 🧩 Mill Media (the parent company of The Londoner and of its five sister publications across the UK) when he says: “I think a lot of what people feel like they’re missing in modern media is a sense of connection, [...] You don’t really want to feel like you’re a consumer of information. I think a lot of people like to feel like they’re part of something.”

Side note: Best quote in the article, and another one I very much agree with: “[London is] just such a deeply interesting, varied, really fucking strange city.”

The good people of climateXchange invited me to take part in this webinar a couple of weeks ago with 🧞Elsie Roderiques of Common Cause, and my friends 🧞Rishad Patel and 🧞Khalil A. Cassimally, already featured in this newsletter. The topic was climate but the session developed into a fascinating conversation on how we can understand what audiences really need and want, and better connect with them to help inspire meaningful action – whether about climate or any other topic.

I did the obvious thing and asked ChatGPT to summarise the conversation and give me "a few bullet points with the concepts that you found most powerful and meaningful". Here are some of them (lightly edited) to make you want to click on the link and watch the whole thing:

  • Journalism as service, not just content: Acts of journalism can extend beyond writing articles – they can include listening sessions, community engagement, and tools that empower people to act.
  • Values-driven storytelling: Journalism shapes and reflects cultural values. Elevating intrinsic values like community, compassion, and justice can inspire deeper connection and societal change.
  • The power of listening: Newsrooms need to invest in genuine audience listening – not just surveys or analytics, but conversations that inform editorial direction and build trust.
  • Reconnecting through purpose: A clear sense of mission can help journalists and audiences find common ground and deeper engagement.

Doomscrollers is a newsletter by 🧞Liat Fainman that aims to "explain Gen Z internet culture through data-driven research" – which is such a wonderful value proposition. And Liat consistently delivers on it. Last week's edition explained how memes are "Gen Z’s way of processing political disillusionment in a chaotic media landscape." Like every other edition, it's fun, insightful, it makes you think, and it might even help you understand and connect better with the young people in your life. Check it out.

Fav quote: "Young people were raised on a never-ending cycle of crisis content (aka the news). There’s no newspaper to finish or TV to turn off. Breaking news finds you no matter where you are, [...] To quote my brother-in-law, a psychiatrist, “These anxieties aren’t new, but the pace at which technology exacerbates those anxieties is.” 🫣" Ouch.

🍊☘️👾 Just some random colourful emojis to get your attention, because the headline is not very catchy but I need to make sure you don't skip this one. 🧩 Mutante is a media outlet from Colombia – or a digital movement for citizen conversation, as they prefer to say. I'm a big fan, and this profile beautifully explains why:

"From then on we understood Mutante’s goal: to create informed conversations around public issues that matter. With that in mind, we designed an editorial methodology that involves, and actually depends on, our audience. This methodology was inspired by therapy, in particular the process of moving from identifying a problem to actually solving it."

This article brings together three special things:

  1. It tells the story of an interesting project, the Fresno Community Journalism Fellowship: "a paid opportunity to equip community members with journalism skills as a means of getting more civically engaged and contributing to the flow of reliable news and information."
  2. The fellowship is created by Journalism + Design, a lab at The New School whose work I have admired for a long time: check out the excellent Systems Thinking for Journalists guide and toolkit, for example.
  3. The article is written by 🧞Megan Lucero, who supports organisations and projects around the world working at the intersection of systems change, community power and journalism. I met Megan years ago when she was the director of the 🧩 Bureau Local, and I learned that any project she is involved in is usually a cool project.

A good post on LinkedIn by 🧞David Fernández Quijada that gave me quite a bit to reflect on. Lots of insights in the comments as well. (Thanks, Tran!)

More links? 📚 Check out the previous editions

The International Journalism Festival in Perugia is only two weeks away (below the panel I will be on), and I hope to meet as many readers of this newsletter as possible – so if you will be there too, let me know! 👋

What is this newsletter?

The relationship between journalism and the people it aims to serve is broken. But we can heal it if we learn to put audiences and communities at the centre of everything we do. The News Alchemists newsletter wants to help you to do just that.

Every week I share seven links to give you some hope and to introduce you to the many smart, kind, and courageous people (🧞) who strive every day to use journalism as a force for good in society – and to the organisations (🧩) that show us that a different journalism is possible, and profitable.

To respond to this newsletter, just hit reply. I love hearing from you and reading your questions, comments, and suggestions.

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Published by:

Mattia Peretti

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