Join us for our News Founders Workshop! This is a limited seat, off-the-record, workshop that will provide the space, guidance and resources for news founders to figure out the next step for their organizations and themselves.

Dates: November 13 & 14, 2026

Location: Reynolds Journalism Institute, Columbia, Missouri

This experience is two days of hands-on sessions and collaborative activities to workshop a path for founders to the next steps for their org and themselves. Sessions will include succession planning, transitioning to a new role (inside or outside your org), founders syndrome & burnout, financial readiness, merging with another org that aligns with your values & mission, and more. Have an idea for a session you’d love to see included? Send me a note and let me know.

RJI will provide:

• A local hotel room for November 12-15, 2026
• A limited number of flight scholarships to help those most in need attend this workshop
• Breakfast and lunch each day of the workshop, plus a welcome reception with Mizzou faculty and students
• Facilitation of support from RJI and your cohort of founders following the workshop

Read more and Meet the session leaders

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.