This field guide was produced as the capstone project for the CUNY Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership in May 2026. It draws on more than 30 interviews conducted over six months, alongside published research.
Interview subjects include leaders from: 60 Minutes, Contexte (France), El Vocero (Puerto Rico), Epicenter NYC, Enterprise Newspapers, Gannett, Influencer Journalism, the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California Berkeley, The Jersey Bee, Long Lead, Lupa (Brazil), Malaysiakini (Malaysia), The Marshall Project, Media Growth Partners, Microsoft, MPR News, NBC News, New York Magazine / Vulture, Noosphere, Outlier Media, PRX, QCity Metro, Reuters, Texas Tribune, This American Life, The Trace, and others who requested to remain unattributed.
Quotes and organizational details have been used with permission. Material marked as sensitive has been reviewed by relevant interview subjects prior to publication.
Sumi Aggarwal is an investigative reporter, editor and media strategist.
At The Intercept, she served as chief strategy officer, helping lead the organization’s pivot from billionaire-backed outlet to independent nonprofit, launching a newsletter and podcast, expanding the audience and co-founding the Press Freedom Defense Fund.
She was previously editor-in-chief at Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, where she led a team of 50 journalists across multiple platforms. Under her leadership, the newsroom produced award-winning investigations that resulted in policy changes and real-world impact.
Before Reveal, Aggarwal spent nearly a decade at CBS News’s 60 Minutes as a producer, working on stories including an investigation into a 50-year-old civil rights murder, a historical account of an Egyptian double agent and a deep dive into the science of sugar. She has also worked as a booking producer at the Today show and led executive communications for Google’s Search and Maps teams.
Aggarwal was an adjunct professor at the City College of New York, where she helped establish the broadcast journalism curriculum. She is the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, several News Emmys and an Edward R. Murrow Award, and has served as a judge for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Magazine Awards. She serves on the boards of Type Media Center and A Future for Every Child.
She began her career at her hometown newspaper and worked at television stations on the West Coast. She holds degrees from the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Reuters Institute — The Changing Shape and New Economics of News Podcasting
Semafor — Versant Niche Audience Strategy
CNBC — YouTube Advisors and Top Creator Viewership
New York Times — Audience Deputy, Off-Platform (job listing)
New York Times — Audience & AI Job Listing
Local News Playbook — FT Strategies / Knight Foundation
DARIA Framework Playbook — Applying Impact Metrics in Newsrooms
Tow Center — Journalism Zero
Digital Content Next — Direct Audience Engagement and Google Zero
Digital Content Next — Strategies to Help Newsrooms Build Trust with Audiences
Reynolds Journalism Institute — How Enhanced Audience Engagement Helps Sustain Newsrooms
Reuters Institute — Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2026
Pew Research Center — America’s News Influencers (2024)
Pew Research Center — Google AI Summaries and Publisher Click-Through Rates (2025)
The Economist — AI Is Killing the Web
Growtika — Internet’s Most-Read Tech Publications Lost 58% of Traffic
INMA — 8 Ways Newsrooms Can Increase Audience Engagement
INMA — Personalisation in Financial News Increases Engagement
INMA — The Economist’s Shift to Vertical Video
INMA — President Gert Ysebaert on the Challenges and Opportunities of the News Industry
INMA — AI Helps the CNA FAST App Build Greater Loyalty
INMA — Südwest Presse Boosted Google Discover Reach 300%
INMA — Digital Detoxes and the Death of Clickbait
INMA — Daily Maverick Connect Builds Community
INMA — Key Newsroom Insights from the CEO Roundtable
Elements of Audience Engagement for Journalism
Semrush — Be Everywhere Search Happens
Reuters Institute — Digital News Report 2025
Reuters Institute — Understanding Young News Audiences
News Can Help! (academic)
News Brand Attribution in Distributed Environments (academic)
User Perspectives on News Personalisation (academic)
Young People and News: A Systematic Literature Review (academic)
Roadmap for Local News
The Media Stack — The New York Times Is Becoming a Subscription Service for Other News Orgs
LION Publishers — Centering Audience Grows Publisher Revenue
Press Gazette — Top 50 US News Websites Traffic Report
The Next Media Business Will Not Sell Truth
Matt D. Pearce — You Couldn’t Create a More Anti-News Internet If You Tried
Press Gazette — Beyond Websites: People Inc Grows Digital Revenue Despite Google
New York Times — Meta Is Dying. It’s About Time.
CNTI — US Independent Information Providers: Professionally Diverse, Mission-Driven
International Journalism Festival 2026 — A 101 Guide to Doing Serious Journalism That Brings a Smile
Objective Journalism — Journalists Aren’t the Only Ones Sharing the News
Suwali — AI Chatbot for News
Reynolds Journalism Institute — Putting Stories of People with Intellectual Disabilities on the Agenda
Restructured News — All Too Well
Gazzetta — Nobody Hired You
News Pain Points — Why Newsrooms Keep Producing News Nobody Asked For
The Rebooting — What’s Working in Audience Strategies
International Journalism Festival 2026 — After the Reader: What Comes Next for News in an AI-First World
JSK Fellows — What Learning to Save Lives Taught Me About Saving Journalism
JSK Fellows — From “Something Else” to Something Specific: Journalist As Creator
LinkedIn — Opting Out of AI Overviews Won’t Bring the “Good Old” Google Back
News Pain Points — The Metric That Lied to Newsrooms
Digiday — Subscriptions Are Rising at Big News Publishers
Newzdash — 2026 News SEO Trends & Predictions
Newsfix — The Four Essential Functions of News
After the Feed: Trust, Connection, and the Next Era of Social Technology
Why I Built the New Standard
TechCrunch — Google Search As You Know It Is Over
Medill Local News Initiative — State of Local News 2025
Medill Local News Initiative — News Deserts and Social Media Survey 2026
Civic Information Needs Census 2026
Google — Search I/O 2026 Announcement