Sep 18, 2026 1 min read

Podcast: Serve your community, don't just cover it

For the Jewish New Year, the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle asked local people, "What do you choose?" In emotionally engaged journalism, the message is not that we journalists matter. The message should be that you matter. This cover features local people. How can you also put your local people front and center?

By Rob Golub

How can community journalism endure and even thrive? How can we stay relevant as AI increasingly turns information into an easily acquired commodity?

We must serve our audience, not just cover it. We must have a relationship with our journalism audience – the human element is what we have to offer in an AI-addled world. I made this point in today's podcast session with Brad Pomerance, on "Can Jew Believe?"

The setting for the podcast was Jewish journalism and my particular audience's needs at the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, but the points we discussed apply to every community newsroom. Know your audience. Connect with your audience. Think about your audience's emotions. Serve your audience. Whatever your audience may be, I invite you to apply our SJ guidelines from the One-Sheet Guide. It's all grounded in research and lived experience. It works.

Listen here:

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We're building a movement for greater trust in journalism, rooted in emotional engagement of audiences. If this resonates with you, please forward this to a colleague or friend who cares about the future of local or community news.

For additional practical steps, check out the Successful Journalism One-Sheet Guide. New journalists, please see the Lab and Journalism Basics pages.

Together, we can create journalism that communities believe in.