If you are a news publisher whose digital report card reads either “absent” or “needs improvement,” there is free professional help available.
The News Media Help Desk, operating under the umbrella of the Reynolds Journalism Institute, is a “one stop shop offering digital help for local news organizations.” Developed in collaboration with the Local Media Consortium and supported by a Knight Foundation grant, it is located at the Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
“The key reason we pursued this project was sustainability,” said Randy Picht, executive director of RJI. “It’s easy to launch a news website, but sustaining high-quality journalism is hard. This initiative will make it a little easier. We’re optimistic about that because we’ve built the Help Desk on best practices, strong foundations and successful pilot programs.”
Leah Becerra, product director for the Help Desk, said the service is designed to “help local news publishers navigate the rapidly evolving digital landscape.”
Publishers may access newsmediahelpdesk.org to learn more about the service, which involves:
— a Learning Center that gives assistance in finding resources such as case studies, how-to guides and insights into what is working for other publishers.
— a Scorecard that compares third party tools the Help Desk staff has researched to identify digital technology that aligns with specific needs.
— Digital On-Demand Services that matches a publisher’s specific project needs with a vetted contractor who can tackle the work.
— an avenue for receiving Help Desk Monthly, a newsletter that helps keep publishers informed about changes and opportunities in the digital publishing industry.
The Help Desk also may be contacted directly with questions about digital issues, with information provided at no charge.
In response to concerns that a significant number of news publishers may feel uninformed in the sometimes-complicated digital landscape, Becerra said, “Being unfamiliar with something will always result in being less comfortable with it. By highlighting what’s working in other newsrooms, we are hoping to help people feel more familiar – and maybe even more willing to experiment at their own newsrooms.
“So, I would suggest a publisher starts by reading our coverage. Then, if they have follow-up questions about how to do something similar in their newsrooms, they can reach out to us. We want to help.”
Becerra said the Help Desk is staffed by a team of six, with journalism school students being part of the mix. “They help illuminate things for me,” she said of the insight provided by the students.
Currently, the Help Desk is operating with funding from a $2.5 million grant from the Knight Foundation. As the team behind the Help Desk looks to remain sustainable, they are working to secure additional funding through sponsorships of Help Desk Monthly, website ad spots and more.
Becerra said the newsletter is an outstanding way for news publishers to stay informed with the rapid changes in digital developments and solutions, with a goal of creating for readers a feeling that “they just went to a really good journalism conference.”
Becerra is eager to help news publishers with specific questions encountered in their work. Two recent examples involve a publisher having trouble accessing funds from an operating account associated with Meta, and another who wanted potentially to take advantage of a grant project for non-profit publishers sponsored by Google.
“When people reach out to us now, it’s because they’re using a digital tool and facing roadblocks,” Becerra said. “For example, publishers are having issues with Meta, Google or some other big technology company that news publishers rely on to reach audiences. But we hope to encourage people to reach out to us for help beyond these issues with big tech.
“When we talk to publishers one-on-one and they don’t have an issue top of mind, we ask about the struggles they are facing. They mention AI, staffing, training and advertising as issues that keep them up at night. We aim to support them in those areas, too.”
The digital and technology issues in today’s publishing industry clearly are abundant, but perhaps at the top of the current list is the growing impact of Artificial Intelligence. The Help Desk can direct publishers to information and video seminars to help them better understand complex issues.
“We’ve done a lot of AI coverage,” Becerra said, “mainly because it’s the biggest change in the digital landscape in a long time, but our framing for this coverage is really intentional: we emphasize using AI to solve problems, keeping humans in control of the output and measuring any experimentation.
“Rather than tackling, for example, the issue of AI hallucinating untrue information, we’d rather journalists be aware that it happens and help them form plans and processes to ensure their journalism isn’t harmed if they decide to use an AI tool.
“Outside of AI as a tool for doing journalism, we’ve done a lot of coverage of the AI scraper issue. Because even if your newsroom doesn’t want to use AI tools, your journalism is still being scraped. The internet is changing, and news publishers need to be aware of what those changes mean for their business models or content delivery methods if they’re going to be sustainable.”
As a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, Becerra is on familiar ground in her current work.
She has been employed at the Reynolds Journalism Institute since March of 2025. She built and now oversees the News Media Help Desk and teaches the MSJ’s web design class, where students learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript and how to use product thinking.
Prior to her work at Columbia, Becerra was senior digital editor at The Boston Globe, where she worked closely with technology and product teams. She also served as digital and audience engagement editor at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
A native of Iowa, Becerra has worked at numerous newspapers in the Midwest, including the *Kansas City Star*, the Omaha World-Herald, and the Springfield News-Leader. She has won numerous journalism awards, including being selected as a 2018 Pulitzer Prize finalist in Public Services while employed at the Kansas City Star.
Becerra enjoys working with journalists with their digital and technology concerns and finds it satisfying as she continues her journalism career.
“I feel incredibly fulfilled doing this work,” she said. “Before I was in journalism, I actually worked at Best Buy. I was good at explaining technology to customers, so good that I ended up on the Geek Squad at the end of my tenure.
“In my journalism career, that background made me very comfortable as the go-to person for technology issues, website troubleshooting and even strategic thinking as it related to digital decision-making. So, it kind of feels like I’ve been doing this work for years but on a much smaller scale.
“Now, I get to do what I’m best at and what I truly enjoy for an industry that I care deeply about.”
This article first appeared in the Aug. 13, 2026, issue of Arkansas Publisher Weekly and is republished here with permission.
