The Medill Local News Initiative is Named Winner Chicago Innovation Award

CHICAGO, ILL. -- The Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University has been named one of the winners of a prestigious Chicago Innovation Award.

Medill’s award was announced last night downtown at a ceremony that included 700 Chicago business, political and civic leaders. The annual Chicago Innovation Award is the region’s foremost recognition of the most innovative new products or services brought to market.

The Local News Initiative (LNI), part of the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, is a research and development project aimed at helping transform the local news ecosystem in Chicago and across the country during a time of historic change in the media industry.

LNI is conducting nationally recognized research on the local news industry and changing news consumer habits. It’s then applying that research to work directly with local news outlets on things like business strategy, audience engagement and product development.

The initiative is home to the State of Local News Project, the Local News Accelerator, the Media Innovation and Leadership Academy, the Solutions Journalism Hub, the Medill Illinois News Bureau and the Teach for Chicago Journalism Program.

Its work is supported by major foundations, companies and individual donors across the country, including the McCormick Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, Knight Foundation and Microsoft.

“This award is a great validation of the entrepreneurial work of our entire LNI team,” said Charles Whitaker, dean of the Medill School. “Medill is more than just a leading journalism school. It’s leading innovative new approaches to local news in Chicago and the nation.”

Tim Franklin, the founding director of the Local News Initiative and the John M. Mutz Chair in Local News at Medill, said the recognition reflects a true collaboration among faculty and staff, philanthropists and Chicago area news organizations who have partnered with Medill to experiment with new business models and forms of storytelling.

“It’s inspiring to work with news organizations across the region who are willing and eager to try new approaches to strengthen their journalism and, in the process, their communities,” Franklin said. “That’s what has made Chicago an incubator for innovation that is admired by news organizations across the country.”

The Chicago region “leads the charge in innovation across many industries” said Luke Tanen, President and CEO of Chicago Innovation. Other winners included those “solving unmet needs and making an impact” in the industries of healthcare, food and beverage, advertising, sports, entertainment, electronics, agriculture, climate, energy and workforce development.

The winning organizations receive a variety of honors including the opportunity to ring the Nasdaq Bell in New York City.

There were 315 organizations nominated for this year’s awards, and there were 20 total winners across a variety of categories. As a group, these nominees are responsible for generating over $4.2 billion in new revenues and creating more than 2,300 jobs, Tanen said.

The complete list of this year’s Chicago Innovation Award winners can be found at www.chicagoinnovation.com.