Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
In my first column, I shared that during my time as president of the Missouri Press Association, I plan to lean on the expertise we’re fortunate to have at the Missouri School of Journalism. One of the strongest examples of that partnership is the Potter Digital Ambassador program.
I asked Columbia Missourian Executive Editor and Missouri Community Newspaper Management Chair Elizabeth Stephens, someone many of you already know and trust, to share how this initiative is helping Missouri newsrooms strengthen their digital efforts while giving students meaningful, hands-on experience. Here is what she has to say:
For a week in January, five newspapers across Missouri get a boost to their digital efforts. Students from the Missouri School of Journalism spend a week helping newsrooms with projects from social media and vertical video to marketing strategies and email newsletters.
The Potter Digital Ambassador program began in 2018 and has been funded by Missouri School of Journalism alum Walt Potter with additional support from the Missouri Press Association.
Members of the Missouri Press Association have the opportunity to have an ambassador work from their newsroom for a week at no cost to the newsroom. The ambassadors are well-versed in digital and audience strategy, and they work on projects intended to grow audiences for the news outlet.
This program gives students hands-on experience working in a newsroom and applying their knowledge outside of the newsrooms within the journalism school. I often have students return and say they want to continue to do work like this, and they also come back excited about community news and the work that is happening in the newsrooms.
We have seen the program grow within the state by adding broadcast outlets. I also have newsrooms that apply each year because they have great experiences with the ambassadors. I often have to turn down newsrooms because I have too many requests.
All of this reflects the value of this program, and the impact it has on Missouri news outlets. So we decided that it was time to share this program with other states.
In January, news outlets in four other states got to see what all the hype was about. We expanded the program to Iowa, Kansas, Tennessee and Vermont. We worked with press associations and university programs in those states to send ambassadors to news outlets.
We found that this program could be replicated, and we saw success with the other schools and states.
Our goal with the program is to meet newsrooms where they are and help them move forward digitally in some way. I say that there is no need too simple or advanced for this program. This year, an ambassador helped a newsroom with a Facebook page and digital edition launch an email newsletter. Another ambassador helped a newsroom level up their analytics dashboard as one of her projects.
We also recognize that technology and tools are changing fast and newsrooms can’t always keep up. We try to bring a new idea or tool to newsrooms as something they could implement. As we all know, artificial intelligence is all the buzz right now, for better or worse. We wanted to look at how we could provide some use cases for AI that would support the work of news outlets.
Our ambassadors were trained to use Google Gemini and provided tools for building custom “gems” based on newsroom needs. Ambassadors gauged interest from their newsrooms and discussed ethical considerations before moving forward with testing AI for certain projects.
We had some newsrooms that did embrace the tool and find ways AI could support reporters or editors without content creation. In Poplar Bluff, an ambassador created gems to help a newsroom prepare a script for a weekly wrap-up video and identified other tasks that might help the newsroom in the future.
As we continue expanding the program, we are looking back at all the projects that have been done over the last eight years. We hope to offer a catalog of projects to show what ambassadors can do for a news outlet and provide clearer training resources to the new ambassadors.
Even though the projects, tools and trainings make a difference in each newsroom, what I consistently hear from the students is that editors and publishers are grateful to have someone to brainstorm new ideas or processes with. It is those conversations and opportunities that inspire and excite students the most, and I hope it does the same for newsroom leaders.
If you are intrigued, we will have information about applying for the 2027 program in late summer.
Also, if you would like the chance to meet some of our journalism students, we invite you to join us for Missouri Press Day at the Missouri School of Journalism on April 2.
Elizabeth Stephens is an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, executive editor for the Columbia Missourian and the Boone County Journal, program director for the Potter Digital Ambassador program and community newspaper management chair. She teaches a class on community journalism and loves to visit Missouri newspapers with students. She can be reached at stephensec@missouri.edu.
