The International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors (ISWNE) and the Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media at Kansas State University are seeking proposals for papers that provide insight and guidance on general issues and/or everyday problems that confront community newspapers and their newsrooms, with particular reference to weekly general-interest publications with circulations under 10,000.

This competition is an extension of the Center’s former “Newspapers and Community-Building Symposium,” co-sponsored for 20 years by the National Newspaper Association (NNA) and its foundation. The competition’s ultimate goal is to engage academicians and community newspaper journalists in productive “conversations about community journalism.”

Proposals will first be peer-reviewed by faculty with expertise in community journalism. Final selection of the papers to be written will be made by a panel of working and retired community journalists who will evaluate the proposals on the basis of their potential value to newsrooms.

Completed papers will undergo a final academic peer review prior to publication in an issue of ISWNE’s Grassroots Editor. The schedule has been set up to ensure publication of all accepted papers by January 2027 or sooner.

Proposals from graduate students are especially encouraged, as are proposals with an international focus, or reflecting an international perspective on community papers’ newsrooms.

One paper will be selected by the community journalists panel for presentation at the 2026 ISWNE conference tentatively scheduled forJuly 15-19 in Cardiff, Wales. ISWNE and the ISWNE Foundation will provide the author with a complimentary conference registration as well as $250 toward travel. The paper’s author will be expected to make whatever arrangements are necessary to attend this conference or to present on Zoom.

A second place paper also will be selected and the authors of both top papers will receive complimentary one-year memberships in ISWNE.

Focus: Papers should deal with topics relevant to the newsrooms of community weeklies, particularly those with small staffs and circulations under 10,000. The papers should provide useful guidance on general issues and/or everyday problems that such newsrooms may face.

Examples could include legal, political, or ethical issues; alternative print/digital integration models; or surveys to determine successful techniques for staff recruitment/retention, for boosting online presence or to elicit “best practices” for special editions. Roundups of how states handle Sunshine Law violations or how papers train young reporters to be alert for such violations would also be of interest. So would explorations of new ways to convey information to a local audience (e.g., using AI) and how to monetize them. These, of course, are only some of the many areas on which research could focus.

Note that ISWNE members have access to the organization’s Hotline, where topics of current interest to weekly newsrooms are regularly discussed. Non-members may request temporary access by contacting Executive Director Chad Stebbins at cstebbins@mopress.com. This is one way to focus Proposals and the resulting papers on issues of concern to community weekly newsrooms.

Most successful proposals will deal with applied research, although theoretical papers that provide the basis for further applied research also are acceptable, as are general research topics that establish a clear connection to newsroom issues.

Guidelines for Developing Proposals: Proposals should be limited to a maximum of two pages. These proposals should explain clearly and concisely how the final papers will be of practical use to community weekly newsrooms. They should note any prior work on which they will build or which they will assess critically.

Proposals will be evaluated on the relevance and importance of the topic and on its value to newsrooms. Other criteria include originality, clarity of the writing, appropriateness of the methodology to be used, the likelihood that valid conclusions will be reached and the choice of materials that will be used to document the paper’s conclusions/support its recommendations.

Suggested Length for the Paper: 2,500 to 6,000 words.

Logistics for submission: Proposals should be submitted electronically to Huck Boyd Center Director Sam C. Mwangi at scmwangi@ksu.edu. The proposal itself should contain nothing that would identify the author. It must be accompanied by a separate title page containing full author contact information (name, email-address, mailing address, university and/or professional affiliation and phone number). These two items must be emailed by Nov. 3, 2025.

Other Dates:

• Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by Dec. 1, 2025.
  
• Completed papers are due to scmwangi@ksu.edu no later than March 15, 2026.
  
• The author of the paper selected for presentation at the 2024 ISWNE conference will be notified by April 15, 2026; peer review comments will be provided as soon as possible.
  
• Changes suggested by the second peer review will be sent to all other authors by July 31, 2026 for use in preparing the final version of their papers.
  
• Final versions of the papers should be sent electronically to Chad Stebbins at cstebbins@mopress.com by Sept. 15, 2026.
  

ISWNE was founded in 1955 to promote high standards of editorial writing, facilitate the exchange of ideas and foster freedom of the press in all nations. It aims to help members of the weekly press improve their editorial writing and news reporting and to encourage strong, independent editorial voices. Chad Stebbins has been ISWNE’s executive director since 1999.

The mission of the Huck Boyd National Center for Community Media, established in 1990, is to serve and strengthen local newspapers, radio stations, online media and other outlets that play a key role in the survival and revitalization of small towns in the United States. Gloria Freeland was the Center’s director from 1998 until her retirement in 2020. Sam C. Mwangi is the new director.