Community listening reshapes immigrant media nationwide

Nicolás Ríos, chief product, education and research officer, Documented (Photo credit: Ralph Thomassaint Joseph for Documented)

The central component here is that we want more communities being heard in the news-creation process. We want more newsrooms launching products where they can listen to their communities in their workflows.”

Nicolás Ríos

A new national training initiative aims to help newsrooms better serve immigrant communities by embedding community listening into reporting and product development.

Documented, a New York-based nonprofit newsroom, recently launched Building Bridges: An Immigrant Media Training Program, supported by the Knight Foundation. Over three years, the program will train more than 20 outlets in its methods for creating responsive news products for diverse communities. Its first cohort includes six newsrooms selected from 82 applicants.

Documented serves New York City’s diverse immigrant communities, including Spanish- and Chinese-speaking and Caribbean populations, and has been recognized for its community-driven journalism, earning a 2025 Online Journalism Award for General Excellence in Online Journalism.

That success has drawn attention.

“There was a lot of interest for us to expand to other cities,” said Nicolás Ríos, Documented’s chief product and education officer, who helped build the program. “We decided instead of parachuting into a new market ... we would go back to our methodologies and help others.”

The initiative addresses a persistent gap in journalism, Ríos said, in which community and ethnic media are under-resourced to create innovative products. “The central component here is that we want more communities being heard in the news-creation process,” Ríos said. “We want more newsrooms launching products where they can listen to their communities in their workflows.”

The program runs from January through May and introduces Documented’s “circular” listening model, which emphasizes mapping communities, gathering feedback across platforms such as WhatsApp and WeChat, and integrating audience needs into editorial workflows.

Maria Arce, education program manager, Documented (Photo credit: Jarrad Henderson)

“We were looking for bold, diverse and innovative projects,” said María Arce, education program manager at Documented, who joined the team to help build the new program. She explained that all finalists have community services “ingrained” in their missions.

The first two webinar sessions took place in January and February and were open to all interested newsrooms. The remainder of the program will be limited to the six selected outlets, which will receive a $10,000 stipend to build out their project. They will also have the opportunity to pitch for additional funding at the conclusion of the program.

The six newsrooms span multiple formats and languages.

Henok Mengistu, founder and publisher, Ethiopique (Photo credit: Maya Wendirad)

“Ethiopique serves an immigrant community that often exists in a news desert. Being in a collaborative space with other similar orgs allows us to share models, avoid isolation and innovate faster,” explained Henok Mengistu, Ethiopique’s founder and publisher, in an email to E&P. The Washington, D.C., newsroom plans to advance a gamification product for engaging its audience and expanding in-person community gatherings. “Learning alongside other newsrooms pushes us to think bigger while staying grounded in the real needs of the people we serve.”

Zhe Wu, reporter, San Francisco Public Press (Photo credit: Buddy Terry)

Zhe Wu, a reporter with the San Francisco Public Press — which primarily publishes in English — will build a Chinese-language comic strip and visual explainers to help readers navigate immigration policies. She explained in an email to E&P how learning Documented’s research-based processes that account for cultural and social factors will elevate her work: “Having that framework would help me make editorial decisions more intentionally, rather than relying only on instinct or personal experience.”

The others in the first cohort are India Currents, which will host listening circles with Indian Americans in the Bay Area; KPBS, reaching transborder commuters via WhatsApp; Oregon Public Broadcasting, co-creating content with Latino immigrants; and VozColectiva, a Philadelphia outlet developing print brochures for domestic violence survivors.

Zhe Wu, reporter for San Francisco Public Press, interviews a source in the field. (Photo credit: Jason Winshell, San Francisco Public Press)

Arce said the long-term goal is to create a community of practice that extends learning and support beyond the initial training. “Once each training program finishes, it’s not that we are done and we disappear,” Arce added.

Participating outlets will receive 18 months of post-training advice, including regular check-ins to “switch, tweak, modify” products, and join a shared space to exchange challenges and successes.

Documented plans to evaluate and refine the program for its 2027 and 2028 cohorts. “Once we finish with this cohort, we’re going to evaluate the training program ... How can we improve what we did?” Arce said. “That’s what we usually do. It goes back to our model.”

Diane Sylvester is an award-winning 30-year multimedia news veteran. She works as a reporter, editor and newsroom strategist. She can be reached at diane.povcreative@gmail.com