Digital Excellence in Local Journalism: A Guide to Practice and Training in Newsrooms

This book helps managers and employees in editorial offices to use digital tools successfully. It is aimed at experienced and new journalists. The focus is on pressing issues of digital transformation: How can local media reach more and younger people? How can regional publishers attract and retain subscribers online?

Readers learn which strategies promote a digital way of working. The guide explains data-oriented planning and production as well as working with audiences and their needs. Checklists, graphics, and tables provide an overview. There are many practical examples, and interviews with experts offer additional insights. The author discusses trends such as constructive journalism and shows how journalistic quality is compatible with the use of generative AI.

One focus is on career opportunities and training. The author considers both the perspective of journalistic talent and the changing requirements for internships and training media companies. The aim is to show how diverse journalism as a profession can be in a digitalized society.

Oliver Haustein-Teßmer (b. 1970) is a journalist specialising in digital strategies. He holds an MA in History and Politics from Humboldt-Universität, Berlin. Senior roles including Chief Transformation Officer at Neue Pressegesellschaft, Editor-in-Chief of Lausitzer Rundschau and Märkische Oderzeitung, Head of News at Trierischer Volksfreund, and Editor at Welt. In 2024, he was a Mercator Fellow at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.