At NEWSWELL, everything we do is designed to help independent newsrooms do what they do best: Produce factual, nonpartisan reporting that empowers residents, holds the powerful accountable and finds solutions.
In service to our newsrooms, we are proud to partner with professors and students at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The school is acclaimed for its innovative “teaching hospital” education model, and we’re grateful for this partnership that allows students to gain experience and also deepens our internal research capabilities.
Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Mays, an assistant teaching professor who developed and teaches a capstone course for the Cronkite School’s digital audiences students. Times of San Diego and Stocktonia, two of NEWSWELL’s newsrooms, have both benefited from the course as clients. We appreciate Mays’ efforts to bolster NEWSWELL’s newsrooms — and asked her to share what her students are working on and her outlook for the future of journalism.
(Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Mays)
In your digital audience capstone course, what sorts of projects do the students work on?
This culminating class is focused on analyzing a client’s audience data and deriving insights the client can use to grow their audience. Students review aggregated website, social and advertising analytics; find potential influencers; and use third-party tools to do competitive research.
Can you share an example of a project your students have done for NEWSWELL?
Each week during the capstone course, the students peel off a new layer of deeper audience insights that NEWSWELL (and its newsrooms) can implement to refine their audience strategies. Students produce multipart reports focused on web analytics, organic social media, social advertising, technical SEO, paid search, influencer marketing and competitive analysis. They also produce strategy recommendations, potential SMART goals and KPIs, and social content (based on messaging performance data) that can be used or emulated if desired.
What excites your students about partnering with NEWSWELL in this way?
They get to look at real data, for a real client, and many of their suggestions will inform the client’s path forward and/or be implemented in future plans. This isn’t theoretical; their work has real-life impact. And they can point to that impact when talking to future employers and clients.
The coursework prepares them to credibly explain their research and communicate about analytics in an understandable, convincing and strategic manner for key stakeholders — skills that are essential to advancement.
Why is it important to you to support NEWSWELL’s mission?
My first full-time job in journalism was in a hyperlocal community newsroom. It’s exciting to support publishers who serve their regions in-depth while giving students meaningful opportunities to apply and expand their digital marketing skills.
What makes you hopeful about the future of place-based journalism?
It’s important that trustworthy local journalism reach and engage the largest audience possible. Our students — whose courses go deep into web and social analytics, social media, organic and paid search, and audience behavior — are well-poised to help news organizations connect with their audiences and amplify the important work they’re doing.
We’re thankful for university partners like Mays and her digital audiences students — and all of you who care about our efforts to transform local news so that communities and democracy can thrive.
This update originally appeared in our Jan. 22, 2026, newsletter. This version has been lightly edited for clarity.