Want to reach beyond your newsroom’s bubble and biases? Apply for free training and coaching

Published on February 16, 2026February 16, 2026 by Joy Mayer | Reading Time: 3 minutes

Thanks to a $30,000 sponsorship from the Knight Foundation, Trusting News is offering free training and coaching to journalists who want to examine how their work could better serve people across their complex communities — especially outside urban, liberal bubbles.

Here’s what that support involves and how to apply.

What we’ll address

Reporters and editors are not exempt from the charged and polarized environment we are all living in — one that too often dissuades us from interrogating assumptions or challenging orthodoxies. And because of where journalists tend to live and socialize, it’s no wonder that the news overall tends to feel more accurate, relevant and fair to people who live in urban, liberal environments than it does to people who lean right or center politically and live outside of big cities.

Earning trust across the political spectrum is about equipping diverse communities to grapple with shared problems together, relying on the same set of facts. It’s also about securing journalism’s relevance and financial future.

Trust in journalism is particularly low among conservatives, and it’s also slipping among moderates and centrists. At Trusting News, we have been learning about right-leaning communities’ experiences with local news since 2021. Across fault lines and demographics — from rural communities in the South who feel misunderstood, to immigrant communities in Miami, a city that shifted 20 points to the right in the 2024 election — people are questioning whether journalism serves them. Too often, they don’t see coverage that feels accurate, relevant, or useful to their lives.

When such a large part of the country doubts the integrity, what are journalists doing to earn trust rather than wishing we already had it?

Trusting News trains newsrooms in recognizing how their own perspectives and biases show up in their work and how to reach audiences across a broader range of worldviews and experiences.

How it will work

While most of what the Trusting News does is offered free of charge, we do typically have fees associated with private support offered to individual newsrooms. This Knight sponsorship is subsidizing that support for up to 10 newsrooms.

Apply for one of these two training offerings:

ONE-HOUR STAFF TRAINING AND FOLLOW-UP COACHING: We share data and strategies around who journalism serves well and who it leaves out, especially across political and geographic worldviews, followed by Q&A. The material can be customized to the interests and needs of the newsroom. We’ll then provide up to four follow-up coaching calls as the journalists work to put the strategies to use. Value: $3,000.

SMALL GROUP DIALOGUE AROUND SPECIFIC COVERAGE: We’ll guide journalists through a supported conversation around a specific coverage area, looking for gaps in understanding or accidental perspectives that might be present in the work. This offering includes a planning meeting to learn about the team and the subject area, pre-work for each participant, and a 90-minute Zoom with structured conversation for up to 10 participants. We include a check-in call a month later. Value: $4,000

Hear what one newsroom leader had to say about how similar training helped his team:

“Joy Mayer’s workshop on perspective bias illuminated blind spots and sparked an honest, energizing conversation across our news and content teams. It helped us identify obstacles — and opened up clear opportunities to take actionable steps toward deeper connection with all the audiences and communities we serve across Oregon and Southwest Washington.” — Jason Potts, SVP and Chief Content Officer, Oregon Public Broadcasting | KMHD

This support is a good fit for journalists who:

• are working on newsroom teams (not solo)
• are ready to examine who they’re not reaching and assess how they could improve
• are willing to share back with Trusting News what changes they make as a result of the work we do together (for our impact tracking purposes — internal discussions will not be shared publicly without permission)

We can work with newsrooms who publish on any platform, serving audiences of any size and type. We especially encourage applications from newsrooms aiming to reach audiences typically underserved by journalists, especially across fault lines of geography, race, socioeconomic class and political leanings.

Apply here

Please fill out this form to apply. The form will remain active until the free support is no longer available. Everyone who applies will get a response from the Trusting News team. Questions? Email info@TrustingNews.org.

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At Trusting News, we learn how people decide what news to trust and turn that knowledge into actionable strategies for journalists. We train and empower journalists to take responsibility for demonstrating credibility and actively earning trust through transparency and engagement. Learn more about our work, vision and team. Subscribe to our Trust Tips newsletter. Follow us on Twitter, BlueSky and LinkedIn.