In 2021, I began the year with several goals, one of which was to think about The Arizona Republic’s criminal justice coverage in a new way. Through happenstance, another editor of the East Coast was thinking about the same thing. We collaborated and rolled out the changes to the entire USAToday network, using a train the trainers model (newsroom editors training everyone else). 

The changes included completely removing police blotter — our newsroom had not blotter, but many smaller papers did — while also removing mug shots, and centering coverage around community, as opposed to competition and press releases. 

The change was lauded by our audience, so much so it garnered a shoutout on John Oliver’s show. 

I wrote a column to describe the changes, and a couple media industry news outlets covered the changes.