E02: Stop Being Lone Wolves with Liza Gross

Liza Gross has spent 40 years in journalism doing almost every job there is. Reporter, newsroom manager, publisher, Executive Director of the International Women's Media Foundation, VP at the Solutions Journalism Network, and today Senior Advisor there and Director of the Collaborative Journalism Resource Hub at Montclair State University. And she loves journalism more than ever. In this conversation, Liza traces the arc from wanting to win a Pulitzer to becoming convinced that journalism's survival depends on something less glamorous: trust, collaboration, and the willingness to show up in communities rather than parachute in. She is frank about where journalism went wrong, why audiences tuned out, and shares what she observed inside the 50 to 70 newsrooms she visited while working with the Solutions Journalism Network. And she makes the case that solutions journalism and collaborative models are not soft alternatives to hard reporting but the sharpest tools journalism has left. This is a conversation about what it takes to love journalism more, not less, the longer you do it. one voice at a time is aidóni's monthly podcast; conversations with the people who understand, in a very real way, how journalism shapes lives. Resources and people mentioned in the episode: Emilio Salgari - Italian adventure author who inspired Liza's love of storytelling. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilio_Salgari Tina Rosenberg - co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tina-rosenberg Craig Newmark - founder of Craigslist, cited for disrupting the classified advertising model that sustained legacy newspapers. craigslist.org John Oliver - mentioned as a non-conventional but rigorously sourced journalism resource. https://www.youtube.com/@LastWeekTonight Jon Stewart - mentioned alongside John Oliver. https://www.cc.com/shows/the-daily-show SJN story archive: https://solutionsjournalism.org/stories SJN training and resources: https://solutionsjournalism.org/for-journalists Organisations & Initiatives: • Solutions Journalism Network - https://solutionsjournalism.org • International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) - https://iwmf.org • Collaborative Journalism Resource Hub, Montclair State University - https://hub.montclair.edu • Resolve Philly (grew out of the Philadelphia collaborative Liza described) https://resolvephilly.org • Aspen Institute — https://aspeninstitute.org • Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism - annual news avoidance survey https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk • Knight Foundation - major funder of collaborative journalism https://knightfoundation.org • Philadelphia Inquirer - named as a legacy newsroom in the Philadelphia collaborative https://www.inquirer.com • El Bus TV - the Venezuelan initiative delivering news on buses with cardboard TV screen frames, founded by Claudia Lizardo and Laura Helena Castillo in Caracas in 2017. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elbustv YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ElBusTV Longer read on the initiative: https://latamjournalismreview.org/articles/venezuelans-turn-city-buses-into-newsrooms-in-order-to-fight-disinformation • The Bulwark - recommended by Liza as a source she reads regularly https://www.thebulwark.com Further reading on solutions journalism SJN story archive: https://solutionsjournalism.org/stories SJN training and resources: https://solutionsjournalism.org/for-journalists Did you enjoy this conversation?You can support aidóni’s work by making a donation here: ⁠https://www.helloasso.com/associations/aidoni/formulaires/1⁠ Host: Méline Laffabry Concept: Méline Laffabry Producer: Shriya Roy