Solutions journalism (SOJO) is being enthusiastically endorsed by news organisations around the world and there is now an established body of literature that evidences its positive impact on audience emotions (McIntyre 2020), engagement with the news (Meier 2018), public knowledge (Curry and Hammonds 2014) and psychological empowerment (Zhao, Jackson and Nguyen 2021).  

Such research suggests that further newsroom integration of SOJO may have both commercial and public service benefits. Yet, we know much less about the conditions under which SOJO is successfully (or not) integrated into newsroom practices, especially outside of the most well-resourced national newsrooms (Bro 2019). 

In this presentation, I will reflect on our experiences of a project, partnered with the Solutions Journalism Network and Newsquest (owner/ publisher of over 120 local news brands), where we trained and then mentored 62 local journalists from across England and Scotland in solutions journalism practice. I will outline several structural factors that determine the successful implementation of SOJO, then document the model(s) of SOJO that emerged in response to the prevailing working conditions of local journalism. Finally, I use these findings as a point of reflection on what normative and practical models of SOJO the industry and the academy wish to pursue.