Today, September 30, is the final day to register for the 2026 NENPA Leadership Summit and Awards Luncheon, October 8–9 at the Publick House Historic Inn in Sturbridge.
This year’s Summit brings together an exceptional group of journalism leaders for a day focused on what’s next for local news—from putting AI to work thoughtfully to building sustainable news organizations and considering what journalism itself needs to become next.
AI and What’s Next: Building the AI-Ready News Organization
We’ll open the Summit with a practical look at how news organizations can move from experimenting with AI to building a thoughtful organizational strategy. Suzanne Perron, Senior News Partnerships Manager at Google, will moderate presentations from members of the NENPA–Google News Initiative AI Growth Lab: Nate Thompson, News Planning Editor at Maine Trust for Local News; Ritika Giri, Consumer Marketing Manager at The Keene Sentinel; and Cecily Weisburgh, Executive Editor-Digital at The Keene Sentinel. They’ll share projects they’ve been developing, what they’ve learned and where they see opportunities for AI in their organizations.
Aimee Rinehart, formerly Senior Product Manager for AI Strategy at The Associated Press and now with Frontier Collective, will then broaden the conversation to how news organizations can prepare for AI through stronger data infrastructure, AI literacy, verification, knowledge systems and organizational strategy.
Innovative Newsroom Leadership: Leading Local News through Change
P.J. Browning of The Post and Courier, Lauren Gustus of The Salt Lake Tribune and Karen Bordeleau of The New Bedford Light will bring perspectives from three very different news organizations for a candid conversation about what’s working, what isn’t, and what they’re trying next as they explore new approaches to audience growth, revenue and sustainability.
Liz White Notarangelo of the Local Media Association will guide the conversation, drawing on her work with publishers and news organizations navigating transformation and new models for journalism.
Looking Ahead with Tom Rosenstiel
Following the Awards Luncheon, in the afternoon, Tom Rosenstiel, co-author of The Elements of Journalism and author of the new book The Next Journalism, will take a broader look at the future of the profession and what journalism needs to become next—exploring how journalism can become more useful, trustworthy and connected to the people and communities it serves.
Celebrate New England Journalism
Today is also the last day to register for the NENPA Awards Luncheon on Friday, October 9.
The luncheon will bring the New England news community together to celebrate outstanding journalism, leadership and service.
We’ll recognize this year’s New England Newspaper of the Year Awards, Publick Occurrences Awards, Allan B. Rogers Editorial Award, New England First Amendment Award, A-Mark Prizes, AP Sevellon Brown New England Journalist of the Year, Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award and The Cornerstone Award.
Whether you’re joining us for the full Leadership Summit or coming to Sturbridge to celebrate colleagues and this year’s honorees at the Awards Luncheon, today is your last chance to register.