In addition to working on journalism, elections, and democracy this year, I’ve been navigating a pediatric cancer diagnosis and treatment for my three-year-old. All of this has given me a newfound appreciation for what it takes to live in a constant existential crisis.

While journalists don’t know exactly the speed at which harm may be coming for various demographics and communities, we know harm in various forms is growing. If I were running a local newsroom right now, I would focus on figuring out how to support their communities through crises. This includes all manner of catastrophe: climate disasters, economic collapse, cultural and other identity threats, infectious diseases (hello, bird flu), cybersecurity…you get it.

My prediction is that local journalists, editors, and news leaders will find themselves navigating one or more of these crises in their communities. But if they prioritize the following, I predict that not only will their communities be far more resilient, but their organizations will too.

• Strengthening relationships with other organizations and individuals who are trusted to provide civic information. This includes everything from working with libraries and local cultural groups to individuals who run useful Facebook groups and meetups. Newsrooms could also collaborate with other local and regional media outlets who could benefit from coordinating coverage in a crisis. Plus, partnerships can allow for news outlets to support and protect each other should new policies threaten the act of reporting the news.
• Helping the public strengthen their relationships with one another. Newsrooms who show up with their convening power to hold conversations, help people find one another, and support them with information they need to make decisions will become more trusted, relied upon and supported by their communities. There’s no reason that newsrooms shouldn’t run and support a mutual aid board before a crisis hits.
• Providing critical information they need for the most life-altering and life-threatening decisions they may need to make: where to live, where to go to school, how to find work, how to get help on all manner of basic needs. Someone asked me when I moved to Los Angeles and needed to find a place to live — and then when my child was diagnosed with cancer and I needed to find care and support: “How much did local news help you navigate those decisions?” The answer: not one bit. Creating and maintaining major life moment guides would be hugely helpful not only for longtime residents but also help anchor new transplants.
• De-centralizing their role and seeing themselves as nodes in a network. (In other words, newsrooms should not fall prey to “main character syndrome.”) The more newsrooms coordinate and collaborate with other trusted players, the better information they will receive for reporting and the more their work will filter out to the folks who need that information. Working with folks outside of newsroom staff to get the public information they need means reporting gets less “killable” by outside forces.
• Coming to grips with the worst-case scenarios and playing them out. It’s not fun to contemplate death, I know. But the more that journalists and newsrooms are able to imagine what could render their jobs and organizations inert, and scenario plan for that, the more ready they’ll be to take on anything that comes their way.

If a newsroom does all of these things, there’s still not a guarantee that it will survive. But nobody gets out of this life alive. We need to take every moment we get to ensure we can be helpful to our communities, and leave the next generation with the best chance they have at a prosperous future.