The Economic Opportunity Lab, One Year Later — with Dana Piccoli

Local newsrooms are often asked to cover the economy — but rarely have the tools to cover economic mobility at a granular, data-driven level. One year ago, Local Media Association, Comcast NBCUniversal, and Opportunity Insights launched the Economic Opportunity Lab to change that.

In this episode of Keep It Local, host Ryan Welton talks with Dana Piccoli, Managing Director of News Is Out and Project Manager of the Economic Opportunity Lab, about what the first year produced: original reporting from 48 newsrooms and 10 NBC Telemundo stations across five regions (Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami, the Bay Area, and DC/Baltimore), and a new, free playbook for any newsroom, chamber of commerce, or city government that wants to do similar work in their own community.

They dig into how newsrooms partnered directly with researchers from Opportunity Insights to translate dense data — including the Opportunity Atlas — into personal, place-based stories on housing, education, and employment. Dana shares the story behind one of the Lab's most impactful pieces, a report on credit scores in Baltimore's Black community by the AFRO's Victoria Mejicanos, which prompted local bankers to convene a session to address the findings. She also talks about the role of trust and vulnerability in reporting on personal finances, and why public listening sessions were central to several newsrooms' approach.

The conversation closes with a look at what's next: making the playbook a living resource, helping communities find funding for similar collaboratives, and a reminder of News Is Out's LGBTQ+ media mapping project, which tracks coverage gaps for queer communities nationwide.

In this episode:

Introducing the Economic Opportunity Lab and its one-year markThe scope: 48 newsrooms, 10 NBC Telemundo stations, 5 regionsWhat's in the new playbook — and who it's forCommon threads in the reporting: housing, education, employmentWorking with Opportunity Insights and the Opportunity AtlasThe Afro's credit-score investigation and its real-world impactBuilding community trust through listening sessionsCovering economic opportunity in the LGBTQ+ communityNews deserts, the $1 billion cost of losing local news, and why it matters most for marginalized communitiesWhat's next for the Lab

Links:

Economic Opportunity Lab Playbook: https://playbook.economicopportunitylab.com/eolContact Dana Piccoli: dana.piccoli@localmedia.org

Guest: Dana Piccoli, Managing Director, News Is Out; Project Manager, Economic Opportunity Lab

Host: Ryan Welton, Local Media Association