Project Optimist

Mission

Project Optimist strives to engage residents of greater Minnesota to help them collaborate across common divides, tackle seemingly intractable problems and grow more optimistic about the future of their communities, region and world.

Project Optimist does this by tapping Minnesota’s creative and independent talent to produce solution-focused stories and local art to inform and inspire. We provide training and spur conversations in support of media literacy, community problem solving, community journalism and democracy.­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

About our journalism

Project Optimist is a solution-focused news organization founded in central Minnesota that serves residents across greater Minnesota. The organization works to:
fill coverage gaps, build trust in news and between different communities, and
engage residents on important and difficult issues.
We do this with explanatory and solutions journalism, community engagement in person and online, and through attention to user experience and incorporation of art.
Our primary beats are the environment, business, social issues, and art.
We have two personas in mind when we think of our audience. The first is a millennial or a member of Generation Z, whom we call “Daring Dana.” She is someone from a diverse background who doesn’t see people from her community represented by traditional media outlets. Daring Dana values solutions journalism because she wants to see what other communities are doing to tackle problems and find potential avenues for action. She appreciates visuals and gets much of her news from social media. She doesn’t care about traditional opinion content (think of the Op-Ed pages of newspapers).
The second audience persona is a baby boomer or member of Generation X. She is known as an “Inspired Infovore.” Our Inspired Infovore craves more positive news, more local news, and more print options. While we don’t have plans to pursue a print product, we do think solutions journalism can fill the need Inspired Infovores have for positive news. And with the loss of small news outlets across greater Minnesota, we help fill coverage gaps.