RNS — Religion News Service (RNS) was selected for the second cohort of the JournalismAI Innovation Challenge, a competitive global program funded by the Google News Initiative and run by JournalismAI, an initiative of Polis, the journalism think tank at the London School of Economics and Political Science. RNS is the only North American outlet of the 12 publishers chosen to receive funding to use AI technologies to improve their audience intelligence and grow revenue.
RNS will use the $50,000 grant to prototype an AI-supported system that will help RNS capture, analyze, and communicate the real-world impact of its journalism. Nonprofit newsrooms, such as RNS, are increasingly asked by funders to demonstrate their public value, yet the effects of reporting—how stories inform civic participation, shape policy conversations, or help readers navigate complex questions of belief—often surface informally and are lost before they can be analyzed or used.
With the grant, RNS intends to build a Slack workflow that prompts staff to record examples of impact as they occur, while an AI model extracts, analyzes and organizes key details to reveal patterns. Another AI model will scan newly published RNS stories, flagging potential indicators of impact, such as expert citations or engagement spikes, and initiate a Slack conversation to validate or refine the assessment. A dashboard will incorporate audience analytics, social-platform engagement, story shares, and partner republishing data, allowing RNS to explore how impact signals and audience behaviors intersect—informing editorial planning, donor communications, and future revenue strategy.
“By giving us tools to capture and analyze impact in real time, RNS will be able to better communicate our value to funders, sharpen our understanding of who we serve, and build a sustainable future for the kind of journalism that serves everyone, regardless of faith or background,” said Deborah Caldwell, CEO and Publisher of RNS.
The system will organize impact into categories, such as policy influence, community action, civic dialogue, audience understanding, institutional accountability, and story amplification through sharing and republishing. The categories will be reviewed and refined during the project’s early phase, grounded in real examples of how RNS reporting has served readers and communities since the organization’s founding in 1934.
The nine-month JournalismAI Innovation Challenge program provides grants, along with mentorship, technical coaching, and access to a global peer-learning network. The 2025 cohort includes publishers from Brazil, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, the Philippines, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Taiwan, and the United States. Projects span churn prediction, content personalization, archive intelligence, subscriber engagement, and impact measurement.
As part of the program, RNS will document its development process and share an implementation guide, technical documentation, and an open case study so other mission-driven newsrooms can build their own impact intelligence systems. A working prototype is expected by October.
###
Religion News Service is an independent, nonprofit, award-winning source of global news on religion, spirituality, culture, and ethics, reported by a staff of professional journalists. Founded in 1934, RNS seeks to inform readers with objective reporting and insightful commentary and is relied upon by secular and faith-based news organizations around the world. RNS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Religion News Foundation. Learn more at rns.org.
The JournalismAI Innovation Challenge is a program designed by JournalismAI, an initiative of Polis, the journalism think tank at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and supported by the Google News Initiative. It funds small and medium-sized news publishers to prototype AI tools that enhance audience intelligence and revenue growth. The second cohort supports 12 publishers from 11 countries. Learn more at journalismai.info.
Contact:
Trish Rodriguez Terrell
Chief Development Officer
[email protected]
