A growing dialogue: Group sessions to surface news needs

Hi folks, not much from us today. That’s because we’re heads-down prepping for our first listening session, to happen next week.

This session will bring together neighborhood stakeholders, including residents and staff from organizations that have been working and serving people in the Tenderloin for decades. We’re creating a space where they can talk freely about the area’s top issues and information needs. That, along with space constraints, means we couldn’t invite everyone we want to hear from. We will also have at least one public listening session soon. 

If you’re in the Tenderloin and we haven’t connected with you yet, my apologies. Please reach out and tell us you’d like to talk. We’ll figure it out together. My email: noah@newsrelaynetwork.org.

These sessions will calibrate the initial coverage of our newsroom serving the Tenderloin. Stay tuned for the launch date.

We’ll report back to you about what we learned at this session the following week — omitting sensitive information, if the people sharing it request that.

That means you won’t hear much from us until Oct. 8.

As we move forward, we’ll look for ways to maintain an ongoing connection with our audience, so that locals can affect our coverage in perpetuity. A text message thread, perhaps? Maybe an email list would be better? Or, once we get some office space, we could have a weekly in-person meeting with an open-door policy?

Send us ideas if you have them! 

Have a great week. Talk to you soon.