This story is part of an ongoing series exploring north central Ohio's workforce trends and how different organizations, including businesses and schools, are adapting to current challenges. Thanks to our presenting sponsor, Gorman-Rupp Company for its ongoing support of trusted independent local journalism.
ST. LOUIS — Richland Source and Ashland Source earned a national award Wednesday night for their work connecting north central Ohio students, businesses, and educators around the future of the local workforce.
The two newsrooms co-won the Community Engagement Award in the Large Revenue Tier for the Tomorrow’s Talent solutions journalism project, an honor that came during the 2025 Local Independent Online News Publishers’ Sustainability Awards in St. Louis.
The award, part of the Independent News Sustainability Summit, honors excellence in journalistic impact through intentional, systematized approaches to community engagement.
An independent panel of judges praised the Tomorrow’s Talent project for showing, “how a news organization can bring localized data to life through narrative storytelling, segmented distribution plans, and in-person conversation to foster community engagement and action around an issue that impacts many people with different backgrounds and perspectives.”
This year marked the seventh-annual ceremony, where 21 LION members were selected winners across 10 categories.
Source Media Publisher Jay Allred said the honor was more than just a win for the Source.
“Against a stacked field of the best work in the country, it’s a win for what the staff of the Source and our readers have built together day after day, year after year,” he said.
“It’s a win for trusted independent local journalism made by and for the community it covers. We could not be more grateful for the time, trust, investment and engagement from everyone in our community. This is your win just as much as ours,” Allred said.
Allred and Source Media Managing Editor Larry Phillips both thanked the Newsroom Partners who funded the reporting project.
“We thank the independent judges for their recognition, to Source colleagues for their support, to community funders for their trust and financial support and most of all to the community,” Phillips said.
(Funding for Tomorrow’s Talent was made possible by the businesses and organizations below.)
“The fact local businesses and organizations joined us in this work — trusting us with their dollars to do something impactful, allowed us to do what we did and make it all freely accessible to everyone,” he said.
Launched in 2024, Tomorrow’s Talent set out to answer two critical questions: Why is postsecondary education attainment so low in north central Ohio, and how does that affect the local economy and workforce?
Reporter Katie Ellington Serrao and former Source reporters Grace McCormick and Mariah Thomas led the work, producing more than 20 stories since April 2024 that examined workforce challenges and opportunities.
To capture voices often left out of the conversation, the team surveyed more than 1,100 high school students across 10 schools and nearly 100 local business leaders.
THE WINNING PROJECT:
The student survey asked about career goals, job preferences and attitudes toward higher education. Responses represented nearly 20 percent of the eligible student body and exceeded the response rate of a typical Gallup poll. Business leaders shared perspectives on hiring, retention and perceptions of the upcoming workforce.
To make the information accessible, the Source team built a public data dashboard that allowed anyone to explore survey results by grade or county. Stories were paired with charts and infographics, then distributed through newsletters and social media platforms.
The work extended offline, as well. More than 70 people attended a community event where findings were presented and participants received tailored print materials for students, educators, business owners and parents.
The event sparked immediate connections — including new partnerships between schools and local businesses — and drew praise from educators who valued having local data to share with families.
Dorey Diab, president of North Central State College and a project sponsor, said the series helped “strengthen our community’s understanding of the importance in raising the education attainment and learning.”
The project’s impact also reached outside the region. Officials from OhioMeansJobs Licking County adapted the Source’s model for their own programming, and other institutions have cited or shared the findings since.
“Our community is better equipped to understand how to attract and retain young workers — but also how to support high school students as they navigate career exploration,” the reporting team said. “While our findings specifically explored the tri-county area, they have far wider implications and potential solutions for rural communities across the country.”
The newsroom extended thanks to the independent judges for their recognition, to Source colleagues for their support, and most of all to the community — the students, educators, employers and workforce experts who trusted the team with their perspectives and empowered them to tell the story.
Thanks to Gorman-Rupp Company, Spherion, North Central State College, Ashland County Community Foundation and The Ohio State University Mansfield for their generous support of trusted independent local journalism.