Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
Recently, the Reynolds Journalism Institute held a webinar to demo the projects from its 2025-26 Fellows. While all of the projects have appeal to some facet of journalism, one product in particular seems suited for many Missouri communities and their newspapers.
Cara Kuhlman’s “A Tour Guide for Journalists” is intended to get industry professionals to give life to local journalism by stepping outside and taking a walk with the community. Kuhlman’s website, futuretides.org, has a variety of resources to get you started and they can be accessed directly from here: bit.ly/JournalismTourism.
Kuhlman says while “tours” often bring to mind out of town visitors, “Locals can be ‘hometown tourists’ without even realizing it, creating direct and indirect economic impact akin to the tourism industry.”
In promoting her own Seattle-area maritime tours, Kuhlman encourages participants to bring their “curiosity, questions and an open ear.” The sorts of tours can connect your news outlet with new and existing audiences while diversifying sources of revenue and sharing information about the community.
As a method for in-person communication of local news, tours are often used in tandem with another medium, such as print, and have similarities with events. Areas of overlap between tours and events include being content-driven, in-person experiences that engage the audience.
Other similarities include ticketing and/or a registration and the logistics of getting all the necessary materials and participants in the right place.
Tours, though, usually have lower fixed costs and require minimal staff, making them easier for small newsrooms to get one going. Once a tour is established, they are repeatable and bring easy re-marketability and because of the smaller attendee group, tours lend themselves to a more experimental model for presenting information.
Generating revenue from tours can be similar to events as they lend themselves to sponsor partnerships and more established tours could offer merchandising opportunities. Even if you don’t charge an admission price for your tour tickets, Kuhlman says the tour itself is an
avenue for community engagement and to help guide your publication’s future coverage.
Making it local
So, why should Missouri newspapers be considering something like this? Much of the state’s history is documented, even from its earliest years, a benefit of being the literal gateway to the United States’ western expansion.
Your newspaper, and more importantly, its archives, is very much a part of that history and its preservation.
Think your community doesn’t have much in the way of interesting historical facts, stories or events to draw on? Think again!
Missouri is home to the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, Historic Route 66 and a myriad of other historic events and sites throughout the state you might not even realize (looking at you, Chillicothe Baking Company, the first to sell commercially sliced bread.) In addition to the usual resources, like the National Register of Historic Places and Missouri State Parks, several websites like The Historical Marker Database (hmdb.org) have collected listings of various historical markers, stories and other information you can use as a jumping off point, even if it’s just to help guide you through your newspaper’s back issues.
For example, during this author’s time working in Bolivar, I was excited to see the historical marker denoting the town’s location on the former Butterfield Overland Mail Route, which provided the nation’s first transcontinental mail delivery. This marker was particularly serendipitous because some 20 years prior I briefly attended Butterfield Elementary in Abilene, Texas, named for its proximity to the original overland mail route.
I guarantee you have readers and visitors to your communities who would be able to make similar connections with the people, places, events and stories that your newspapers cover.
You can also collaborate with neighboring publications to create a tour that gets readers exploring both towns. Create a syllabus for your tours that combines information from both with tidbits of material that allude to what participants in the neighboring town might learn on that tour.
The Missouri State Society Daughters of the American Revolution has several maps on its website showing historic trails that pass through multiple communities. You can find this great resource at bit.ly/DARmaps.
A common mantra for community newspapers is that nobody knows your town like you do, so prove it by giving readers and visitors a one-of-a-kind experience. Make it weird (looking at your Lost City, Moberly Monitor-Index), make it fun (have your tours get pictures with that 8-ball, Tipton Times), but most importantly, make it uniquely about your community (start with your own history, Mexico Ledger’s former building).
Be sure to check out more of Kuhlman’s “A Tour Guide for Journalists” resources at bit.ly/JournalismTourism. She covers everything from the basics of starting a tour, figuring out your itinerary and capturing the moments and information you’ll need to make future tours a success.
Other RJI Fellows projects
You can find more information about the other RJI Fellows’ projects on rjionline.org.
One project to keep an eye is Monica Williams’ Grants for Journalists website, conveniently called grantsforjournalists.com. This website is intended to connect independent journalists, staff reporters and newsrooms with a range of funding opportunities.
While the concept is encouraging, the database does not currently have any information about funding available for Missouri-focused projects or news organizations. Still, you should check it out and see what kind of grant funding is out in the world.
You can also email Williams with questions about the database she and her collaborators have put together. After all, the goal of bringing funding opportunities together in one searchable, user-friendly tool is laudable as we all look at the future of funding for journalism.
