Local Angle | Consulting

In 20 years working at the intersection of news and technology, the most impactful work I've been involved with has rarely come from strategic planning or executive decree. It has come from small, scrappy teams driven by curiosity, obsession, and the courage to to ask forgiveness, not permission.

The problem is that we often talk ourselves out of good ideas before we give them a chance. We convince ourselves they're too complicated, too expensive, too small to make a difference, too much of a pain to build consensus around, or too much of a distraction given our other priorities. More often than not, we stop before we even start.

With all the excitement and uncertainty presented by AI and other emerging technologies today, the news industry needs to try more things, faster.

That’s where Local Angle comes in. Our mission is to help accelerate innovation in news organizations.

Our approach

The best way to try new things is to actually try new things.

Not to talk, or plan, or overthink, but to build and launch real, practical projects and prototypes as quickly as possible. Building makes concepts and ideas concrete, encourages useful feedback and gets stakeholders and investors excited. It reduces risk and changes the perception of what's possible. It creates momentum.

This lesson has come from a career working in newsrooms like The New York Times, where relentless deadlines and high standards demand an approach that is highly pragmatic and unreasonably fast. That experience, combined with the rise of generative coding environments and some of our own proprietary tools, allows us to build at the speed of news — think days or weeks, not months and quarters.

The same principles apply to training and strategy. We prefer hands-on, project-focused training, where participants learn by solving practical problems. And we look for creative, low-risk ways to test strategic hypotheses without having to make huge bets.

We believe that the faster we start building, the more effectively we can move ideas forward and the more excited your organization will be to come along for the ride.

What we do (and don't do)

Local Angle blends a lived understanding of the values, challenges and opportunities unique to the journalism industry with extensive hands-on experience building and launching projects based on emerging technologies.

The best time to call us is when you have a problem that requires both of those things. Such as:

When you're considering launching a new product, service or tool but aren't sure where to start.
When you're seeking funding, investment or internal buyin around an idea
When you need a translator to help smooth collaboration between your newsroom and other company departments.
When you want to develop a more data-driven coverage strategy — but one that also follows the spirit and values of your mission.
When you have a great idea, but you worry it's too complicated, expensive or otherwise out of reach.
When you want to encourage your newsroom to embrace new technologies, like generative AI, and to do so in line with journalistic values and ethics.

We're not the best fit if you're looking for extra developer capacity on a pre-existing project, though we're happy to point you to other folks who can help.

Let's get started

Interested in working together? Get in touch.