NewsLynx

NewsLynxWith the rise of nonprofit, foundation funded newsrooms, the field of Measurement and Evaluation (M&E), which emerged in the international development community, has taken a strong foothold in journalism. As nonprofit newsrooms apply for grants and appeal to donors for funding, they often need to explain in formal reports how well their stories performednot just in terms of impressive traffic but in qualitative evaluations of the impact their

With the rise of nonprofit, foundation-funded newsrooms, the field of Measurement and Evaluation (M&E), which emerged in the international development community, has taken a strong foothold in journalism. As nonprofit newsrooms apply for grants and appeal to donors for funding, they often need to explain in formal reports Òhow wellÓ their stories performedÑnot just in terms of impressive traffic but in qualitative evaluations of the impact their reporting had on the world: Did it change a law? Did it move the needle in the conversation? Did it meet the expectationsÑhowever definedÑthe organization had for it? Based on survey research and interviews with newsrooms regarding current impact measurement practices, the researchers designed and built a new analytics platform called NewsLynx to improve upon existing methods of displaying quantitative metrics and to add qualitative information that was previously nonexistent in such tools.