The Next Gen News Sprint Tool Kit
In an ever-changing industry, it’s natural to wonder what comes next. Who will our audience be five years from now? How will they find their news, and what will make them trust it? Which of the habits we build our products around today will still matter? Yet the best audience trend a newsroom can anticipate is one that already exists.
The tool kit provides a method for building a strategic connection with the next generation of news consumers, while making responsible use of AI in their processes, products, and experiences.
How to use the tool kit
Each section of the tool kit is presented as a moment in the process. You can follow the tool kit from start to finish. If your organization is already partway through this work, you can go straight to the section where you need guidance to unblock a specific moment. Each comes with its own resources, worksheets, and materials.
Each section also includes concrete examples. You can read the snapshots to learn more about a specific newsroom’s experience or see what the method looks like in action. Think of them as tapping into specific moments of the process.
1. Localize research
Turn insights into a strategic challenge.
Snapshots: Tampa Bay Times and Deep South Today
2. Design your idea
Run a sprint that ends in a prototype.
Snapshot: The Texas Tribune and The Philadelphia Inquirer
3. Set the AI foundations
Define if and how AI lives in the product.
Snapshot: LA Times and Advance Local
4. Write the plan
Turn a tested prototype into a road map.
Snapshot: The Minnesota Star Tribune and The Salt Lake Tribune
5. Stress-test the MVP
Let your audience react before a release.
Snapshot: Graham Media Group and Chicago Public Media
6. Ship and evaluate
Launch and read the first signals.
Snapshot: Boston Globe and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
About the Tool Kit
The Next Gen News Sprint Tool Kit shares the method that 12 forward-thinking U.S. newsrooms followed during the GNI × NPA AI-Powered Next Gen News Sprint, an eight-month program developed by the News Product Alliance with support from the Google News Initiative.
Each section opens a window onto each moment of the process, with the same tools and worksheets the 12 teams used, and the ones that newsrooms in our Latin American program are using now.
Interested in bringing the Next Gen News Sprint Tool Kit to your newsroom or organization through a workshop? We’d love to hear from teams looking to explore the Tool Kit’s approach and how it can be applied to their own work.
Acknowledgments
This tool kit was produced by News Product Alliance, with the support of Google News Initiative.
We are grateful to Northwestern University Knight Lab, the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, and Verso for their partnership throughout the GNI × NPA AI-Powered Next Gen News Sprint, as well as to the program coaches and instructors. Their partnership and contributions made possible the knowledge we are now sharing.
Sections by Aldana Vales
Research resources by Ariel Zirulnick
Design-sprint resources by Drue Thomas
Snapshots by Kyle Omphroy
Copy-editing by Margaret Schneider
Images courtesy of Advance Local, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Boston Globe, Chicago Public Media, Deep South Today, Graham Media Group, the Los Angeles Times, The Minnesota Star Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Salt Lake Tribune, the Tampa Bay Times and The Texas Tribune.