More and better reporting on local solutions

Keen curiosity, insightful questions and a constructive atmosphere defined the first in-person meeting of the b°local 2025 cohort. The program participants, who work at local newspapers and editorial offices in various regions of Germany as well as southern Denmark, discussed constructive journalism with a focus on solutions-oriented reporting during a two-day workshop in Dortmund.

b° local, the Bonn Institute's unique flagship program, offers nine German-language local newspapers and editorial offices the opportunity to tackle the challenges of digitization at the content level. The goal is to align a publication's offering more closely with the needs of their respective audience, build sustainable digital subscriptions and tap into new target groups. The program is offered in collaboration with with the Association of German Local Newspapers and Local Media (VDL) and the Kiel-based performance analytics service provider uniten. The following publications are taking part in b° local:

Claudia Isabel Rittel, b°local project manager and trainer, and Lisa Urlbauer, the Bonn Institute's head of journalism training and also a b°local trainer, taught the participants the basics of constructive reporting. Together with consultant and editorial coach Stéphanie Barsch, a b°local partner, each editorial team developed an individual goal and formulated concrete steps to achieve it by the program's conclusion. David Reuter and Christof Groner, co-founders of uniten, introduced participants to the b°local data analysis they will use throughout program. Kai Röhrbein, chairman of the VDL, was also present in Dortmund to welcome the participants.

After an intense first day of work, participants had time to socialize and network at an informal champagne reception. They will be working with each other regularly throughout the year, as the two days in Dortmund were just the beginning of b° local. An eight-month training phase now follows, during which the participants will receive new input from the Bonn Institute every three weeks on a sub-topic of solutions-oriented reporting. Journalistic content produced within the framework of the program will be measured and analyzed for performance, and participants will share their experiences and findings with each other. This approach provides participants with the support they need to put newly acquired knowledge into practice and pass it on to colleagues in their editorial departments.