The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) engages journalism professionals, organizations, scholars and communities in programs, tools, resources and workshops aimed at strengthening community-centered journalism through practical innovation.
The Challenge
Newsrooms are always searching for new methods to increase revenue and deepen relationships with their communities. One avenue that has been growing across the country is newsrooms designing unique, sometimes funny or clever, but always community-centered, merch.
Whether it’s the $100k that Block Club Chicago raised with their gator watch shirts, the $7000 raised by LOOKOUT with their quick whip up of the Don’t be Patty shirts, or newsrooms building collaborative merch with local community artists – we’ve seen what results in successful merch: designing something that highlights a unique, fun or timely topic in the community that the newsroom is serving.
So this year’s challenge is for student teams to find a newsroom partner and come up with a new merch idea.
Read more about the challenge, rules and timeline.