Creating a Thriving Digital Community

September 11, 2025

Are you looking to cultivate a thriving online community for your audience? Healthy digital communities are more than a collection of “likes” or followers – they’re inclusive, uplifting, and collaborative spaces that involve direct partnership between media professionals and members of the public. This session will introduce concrete tools for starting a new digital “public space,” practices to improve social trust and belonging in your online community, and strategies for establishing meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships with audience members online.

In 2023, KQED launched an innovative digital community on Discord to reimagine social media and strengthen public conversation across the Bay Area. We’ll share lessons learned from that launch, case studies from our California newsroom partners, and insights that apply across digital media platforms and station sizes.

Panelists

Francesca Fenzi

Francesca Fenzi

Francesca Fenzi, Digital Community Producer at KQED, is a journalist and producer focused on making news media as transparent, participatory, and community-driven as possible. She helps to produce Forum, KQED's daily live public affairs show, reports audience-first digital news, and manages KQED's community on Discord – connecting listeners with journalists, subject matter experts, and each other online.

Ethan Toven-Lindsey

Ethan Toven-Lindsey

Ethan Toven-Lindsey is the VP of news for KQED. Before he came to KQED, he worked at WBUR and NPR on the midday newsmagazine Here & Now, in Boston, where he was the show’s senior managing editor. In 2009, Ethan won a Peabody Award for his work as a correspondent for Oregon Public Broadcasting, on a year-long project called Hard Times, documenting how people were responding to the financial crisis. Ethan received his bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley in 2000, with a major in English literature.