WNC Helene Hub Story Share, FEMA Insert & other services

The NC Local News Workshop has established the “WNC Helene Hub” to provide support to news and information organizations across Western North Carolina. Please see the below offerings and get in touch with Catherine Komp at nclocal@elon.edu with any questions or needs not included below.

 

Slack: We have 60+ people from news and info organizations across NC and beyond, many volunteering their time on projects to support WNC partners. You or anyone from your news & info org can join here. (You can use the platform in a browser.) We also have a “wire service” within Slack that delivers Buncombe, Burke and Clay Counties & Asheville City Helene updates in one of the channels for easy access (we are working on adding more counties/towns). 

 

Text-only news sites: We're setting up free text-only versions of news sites. (Example: text.bpr.org) These are useful in low-bandwidth situations as well as helpful for readers who are visually impaired. 

 

Story sharing: We have a number of news partners offering their content for free republication and send out a daily email alert with links to the available stories. 

 

 

Print and digital guides: We are working with partners on creating print and digital guides to help your audiences and communities navigate various topics. These guides are available for you to add your logo to and to sell ads and sponsorships for. We can also offer guidance on revenue and distribution opportunities. Please let us know if you use any of these guides by emailing us at nclocal@elon.edu and credit and/or link back to the original creators of the guides.

 

 

Capacity support: Do you need someone to help with research, reporting or editing? Are there back-end or publication tasks you need help with? Do you have a backlog of audience emails, voicemails or social platform messages you need help responding to? Let us know where we can help. The Workshop is matching WNC news orgs with volunteer journalists, tech specialists and others as well as finding and paying for some freelance needs. 

 

WNC Election hub: The Workshop is launching a WNC Election Hub, to run through the end of the year, to provide reporting, editorial and social platform capacity as newsrooms continue to cover the immediate needs of their communities. We will be holding short, daily stand-ups to hear from WNC news leaders about their coverage or capacity needs and fill those with the help of Hub staff and freelancers. The Hub will be distributing pooled coverage, original content and digital assets around election coverage focusing on voter access, election administration, mis/disinformation, legal challenges and other topics that may arise post Election Day—at no cost to newsroom partners. To learn more or join the Election Hub, send an email to nclocal@elon.edu.