Ink and Airwaves

In this episode of Ink & Airwaves , host Bella Gruber talks with Kendall Staton about what it takes to do city and county reporting that actually serves people. Staton reflects on covering the Lexington metro area's mix of long-rooted communities, rapid growth pressures, and deep inequalities, and how those realities shaped the angles she chose and the voices she centered. She walks through how st...

In this episode of Ink & Airwaves , host McKenna Kirchman maps the conditions that shape reporting at the Lexington Herald-Leader across Central and Eastern Kentucky. The team explains how ownership under McClatchy influences funding through ads and subscriptions, and how legal realities in Kentucky, including open records rules and the absence of a strong shield law, affect what journalists can s...

In this reflection episode of Ink & Airwaves , the team looks back on what they learned while reporting on KXAN Austin and what it revealed about how local journalism actually reaches people. They discuss how studying conditions, creation choices, and circulation changed the way they personally consume news, including what they now notice about speed, platform incentives, and the difference betwee...

n this episode of Ink & Airwaves , host Owen Parker and field reporters Ethan Roy and Jack Flaherty track how KXAN Austin reaches audiences across platforms, and where people may fall off along the way. Using only publicly visible signals, the team reviews KXAN's website, social accounts, livestreams, newsletters, and app pathways to understand how distribution choices shape what gets seen, clicke...

In this episode of Ink & Airwaves , Owen Parker and an analyst panel (Ethan Roy and Jack Flaherty) compare two stories about air traffic control disruptions during a government shutdown: a KXAN local report focused on missed paychecks and Austin-area travel delays, and a CNN national piece that frames the issue as a broader airspace and staffing risk. Using a framing–sourcing–tone lens, the group...

In this episode of Ink & Airwaves , hosts Owen Parker and Jack Flaherty go inside the work of Kate Winkle, Digital Director at KXAN Austin, to understand how digital journalism gets built and prioritized. The conversation focuses on process and judgment rather than biography, walking through what a digital director does day to day, how projects move from idea to execution, and how success is defin...

In this episode of Ink & Airwaves , hosts Owen Parker and Jack Flaherty map the conditions that shape KXAN's journalism in Austin, Texas. The team introduces the community KXAN serves, then breaks down how ownership under Nexstar Media Group and ad-driven revenue influence newsroom capacity, priorities, and resources. They also explain the legal environment in Texas, including public records acces...

In this reflection episode of Ink & Airwaves , the team looka back on what they learned while analyzing KXLY Spokane and how local news reaches people through platforms like Facebook, websites, newsletters, and video. They talk candidly about how producing the series changed their own news habits, including what they now notice about visibility, credibility, and the role algorithms play in shaping...

In this episode of Ink & Airwaves , host Anna examines how KXLY Spokane finds its audience, and where it may be losing viewers, by comparing what's most visible on Facebook with what the station leads with on KXLY.com. Using only publicly accessible information from November 2025, the team traces an audience journey through a breaking news story, then analyzes KXLY's homepage design, newsletters,...

In this episode of Ink & Airwaves, we uncover how a major issue, the domestic violence crisis, changes depending on whether it is covered on a local or national level. Host Lily Wooten walks listeners through a KXLY Spokane report highlighting funding cuts and issues that local organizations such as the YWCA and the Spokane Regional Domestic Violence Coalition are facing in the Spokane community....

This episode will focus on the day-to-day work of a local journalist at Spokane, Washington's 4 News Now. In a one-on-one conversation with News Director Melissa Luck, listeners will hear about her origins in journalism, starting at Marquette University, which led up to the work she is currently doing at 4 News Now. Luck offers personal insight into the newsroom's team dynamic, including the varie...

In this episode, we begin our series highlighting KXLY newsroom 4 News Now, located in Spokane, Washington. We give context to how this local source started out and how it continues it work of producing quality journalism to this day. We'll look at the economic impact of the newsroom, such as the station's ownership and funding, and the legal setting under which they operate, such as the state law...

In this final episode, Daria, Rachael, Allison and Rylie do a quick review and recap of the previous four episodes and then discuss the themes of the episodes, what they've learned, and what they can do moving forward. At the end of the episode, they reflect on the project and all the work they've done, and how they perceive the news differently than when they started. 

In this episode, host Rylie looks at accessibility and The Seattle Times. We look at the website, their social media, different accessibility features, and more. We delve deeply into different aspects of their social media and what can be done to improve accessibility. We finish off the episode by brainstorming some ways the Seattle Times can increase their accessibility and interactions from read...

In this episode, host Rachael talks about news coverage on homelessness examining the differences between two articles, one by The Seattle Times and the other by Associated Press News. She, Rylie, and Allison discuss the structure, sources used, and tone of each story, and analyze how each was written in a different way for the audience it was seeking. The Seattle Times article was written on home...

In this episode, host Allison interviews Brier Dudley, the Free Press Editor at The Seattle Times to learn about how his work in The Seattle Times helps civic engagement. Brier discusses his writing process, how feedback shapes his work, and why people and outside factors can make a story stronger. The Free Press Initiative is a special project that Brier is working on, and he explains how his wor...

In this first episode, host Daria explains the importance of news literacy, how journalism works, and why the news matters. Daria leads the group in exploring different aspects of The Seattle Times, including their funding, laws, and challenges and opportunities for the newsroom. They also discuss various philanthropic work The Seattle Times does to help benefit their community, like the Mental He...

Why is local news important and how do people really experience it? In this episode of Ink & Airwaves , the team discusses their experience producing the podcast and the lessons they learned about local journalism. They go over each episode from this season again, talking about how the Jacksonville Journal-Courier serves its community, how Jacksonville residents are impacted by their local coverag...

How does a local newspaper actually reach its audience and where does it fall short? In this episode of Ink & Airwaves , we examine how the Jacksonville Journal-Courier finds, builds, and sometimes loses its audience across Central Illinois. Through the idea of circulation we discuss how stories move from the newsroom to readers through the Journal-Courier's website, social media, newsletters, and...

How a news story is written and framed can shape how the audience understands it and whether they feel represented by it. In this episode of Ink & Airwaves , we compare how a local newsroom, the Jacksonville Journal-Courier, and a national outlet, CBS News, covered the same issue: delays and cuts to SNAP benefits. We looked at the reporting from both publications to see the differences in framing,...

What all goes into the reporting of a local news story and how do journalists balance ethics and accuracy? On this episode of Ink & Airwaves , we go inside the daily work of Bridgette Fox, a staff reporter covering local politics for the Jacksonville Journal-Courier. Throughout the episode, Fox tells us her complete reporting process starting with deciding what to cover to then working with editor...

What does it take for a local newspaper to survive and why does it matter? In this episode of Ink & Airwaves , we take listeners inside the Jacksonville Journal-Courier, the oldest continuously published newspaper in Illinois. We explore how the paper operates as both a community institution and a business that has to balance its public service with financial pressures from subscriptions and the p...

In this episode of  Ink & Airwaves , the team builds on its reporting about Albany's Times Union to examine what local journalism looks like in practice and what it means for the public. Through concrete examples and on-mic analysis, they trace how newsroom constraints, platform realities, and audience expectations shape which stories reach people, how those stories are framed, and what gets left...

In this episode of Ink & Airwaves , host Lily Kuypers and the Maroon Goblins examine circulation at the Times Union : where audiences encounter its journalism, what pathways pull readers deeper, and what barriers push them away. Using a short observation window (November 18–21), the team traces an "audience journey" from a breaking news story on the homepage through site navigation, category struc...

In this episode of Ink & Airwaves , host Molly Weasler and guests Kate Maher and Katie Mancini compare how two outlets tell a viral sports story: the Buffalo Bills' table-breaking tradition. Using a January 2025 piece from the Albany Times Union and a January 2025 story from Sports Illustrated , the team analyzes how framing, sourcing, and tone change depending on audience and purpose. The convers...