Playbook - Listening Post Collective

The LPC Playbook

Guided DIY Civic Media Playbook
for Community-Led Projects

The Civic Media Playbook, available in both English and Spanish, is a self-paced tool designed to help communities understand and improve their local news and information ecosystem. Check out our new version made especially for educators

This online resource empowers local media leaders to start and sustain community-driven projects, with a special focus on communities who often face barriers to accessing reliable, relevant information and participating in civic life

Click Here to Access the Playbook

Click Here to Access the Playbook for Educators

Haga clic aquí para el Playbook en español

How to Access the Playbook

The video below provides a detailed tutorial on how to log-in to the Playbook

Access the tools, resources, and mentorship you need to start your own civic media project through the Internews Studio. Start sign-up below.

If you have any trouble logging in, reach out to [email protected]

Start sign-up

Key Benefits

Five Digital Modules

Our five easy-to-follow digital playbook modules include tactics for mapping local news and information needs, launching your civic media project, case studies, discussions, and engagement prompts that you can complete at your own pace.

Apply for a Subgrant

Our current Playbook Subgrants are thanks to generous support from the MacArthur Foundation, with which we will distribute $1 million in funding by 2027.

Users are eligible for grant funding to support their Playbook-guided work across three phases (Listen, Seed, Cultivate). The ranges vary depending on which phase of the Playbook they are applying for, and the budget and needs of the individual or organization. We prioritize applicants serving high-need areas as identified in our Civic Information Index, including the Appalachias, the rural Midwest, Southwest border communities, the Southeast, and Tribal communities. We work to prioritize historically underserved communities in our grantmaking and typically offer up to $15,000-$20,000 per Playbook phase.

LPC Coaching & Mentorship

Access to LPC coaches + mentors and a sounding board of peers from across the country trying to do good work too.

Community Roadmap

This roadmap, also known as an Information Needs Assessment, will not only help you understand your community needs but will you understand how to best deliver news and information to the people that need it most.

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Playbook Testimonials

“As a small publisher, I’m always looking for ways to better connect with readers. Working my way through the Playbook allowed me to learn more about the different communities I serve and learn things I didn’t know. The Playbook reinforced the need for me, as a writer/publisher, not to view my statewide communities as monolithic because, using the Playbook, I took a deeper dive on my community and saw them uniquely.”

– Dana James, Black Iowa News

“Because of the nature of the quick-moving work that we do as journalists, it’s often our instinct to approach reporting and engagement with a top-down approach and provide readers with answers to a set of questions that arise over the course of our reporting. LPC offers an important reminder: Sometimes the best stories and insights come directly from the community, and all you have to do is take the time to ask.”

– Courtney Teague, Honolulu Civil Beat

“The LPC folks have done the work and built in best practices based on working with their grantees. [The Playbook] provides a clear, detailed road map on how to engage our community so that our local news project has the best chance of success.”

– Steve Burger, Evansville News Lab

“The Playbook’s methodologies for conducting comprehensive Information Ecosystem Assessments (IEA) align with our goal of identifying the unique information needs of our targeted communities, allowing us to engage directly with community members, and understand their media habits, preferences, and gaps in information access.

– Niketa Reed, True Soul Media

“The Listening Post Collective was one of the first organizations The Rapidian turned to for support when we relaunched our platform a year ago. We chose to work with LPC and their playbook because it provides easy-to-customize templates that save our small newsroom time and effort. The Playbook has been instrumental in guiding our Information Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) work and refining our mission at The Rapidian.”

– Allison Donahue, The Rapidian

“The Playbook’s Civic Media Design process, with its phases of Listen, Seed, and Cultivate, underscored the importance of understanding and addressing community-specific information needs. The project reinforced the importance of culturally relevant content and the vital role of media in preserving cultural identity and fostering a sense of belonging among immigrant communities. Additionally, the emphasis on ethical journalism and sustainable media practices has deepened my appreciation for the need for robust financial and operational structures in media outlets.”

– Faisal Karimi, Nowruz Media