Learnings from KQED’s Discord Community
Learnings from KQED’s Discord Community
Reflections on building digital spaces for public media
Impact Architects partnered with KQED to evaluate its experiment in building a digital community on Discord for listeners of Forum, the station’s live, call-in program. The project, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, offered a chance to see how a legacy public media organization can test new ways of connecting with audiences — extending the conversation beyond broadcast and into more interactive, participatory spaces.
Our role was to help KQED learn what worked and what didn’t, and to generate insights that might guide other newsrooms exploring similar experiments. Over two years, we conducted surveys to understand what motivated members to participate and how the online community evolved. Ultimately, this experiment perhaps previews the future of digital community-building for local news.
What was KQED’s Discord Community experiment?
The core idea behind the project was to use Discord, a free group chat app that comes with a lot of creative functionality, to create a space for conversation and to build community. It launched in the summer of 2023 and was initially centered on the talk show Forum as a pilot for the server.
The timing was significant. As platforms like Twitter changed under new ownership, newsrooms were re-evaluating where and how to build meaningful audience relationships. Other news outlets have done similar things — the investigative news outlet Bellingcat has a big Discord community, for example — but what’s really interesting about KQED’s community is that it’s local and place-based. Most if not all community members we surveyed were either current or former Bay Area residents and many were interested in the server because of the local element (learning about local events, history, civic life etc.). The local nature also allowed KQED to do some in-person events, which survey respondents generally seemed excited about and, in some cases, specifically asked for.
How did we approach the work?
Impact Architects served as an independent learning partner, helping KQED assess the user experience and understand what digital community-building on Discord could realistically achieve (and on what timeline). Over two years, we conducted periodic community surveys co-designed with KQED. The initial surveys focused on understanding who was in the community and how they got there. We asked about their current relationship with KQED–are they members? Radio listeners? Website readers?–as well as their participation in other online communities. The next set of surveys focused on engagement and community building, both independent of KQED’s facilitation and in concert with it.
The final surveys focused on the ultimate value community members saw for themselves and others. One consideration here was whether or not community members would be willing to either increase their membership level or contribute a yearly donation in order to keep the space free and accessible to all. In other words, the question was whether or not the public media model of membership could be applied to a digital space.
Just as importantly, we built in regular check-ins with the KQED team, meeting about once every two weeks. These meetings were crucial for surfacing learnings, insights, and challenges over the course of the partnership.
What challenges did we face?
Figuring out what a strong sample of survey respondents was, as the number of registered members in Discord did not reflect the number of active users. We started with the 90–9–1 principle, which is that in a digital community about 90% of users are lurkers, about nine percent contribute a little bit, and one percent comprise most of the activity. From there, we only accounted for users who logged in to Discord, excluding those who were registered but could not be considered lurkers. And indeed, our surveys found that most respondents were not that active in conversation but still found value in the community space.
What did we learn about engagement?
Community members frequently stepped forward to assist with moderation and discussion. KQED’s recruitment of volunteer “community stewards” — experienced Discord users familiar with platform culture — helped maintain a civil and inclusive environment.
The most promising moments came when members began initiating and sustaining conversations without staff intervention, signaling shared ownership of the space. Moderating divisive topics and sustaining momentum over time proved more difficult, reflecting challenges common to digital communities.
What broader lessons does this hold for audience engagement?
Audiences are no longer confined to traditional platforms, and public media must meet them where they are. The Discord experiment showed that digital spaces can extend, not replace, KQED’s mission to provide accessible information and foster civic dialogue. It also demonstrated how intentional design and facilitation can translate the values of public service media into new community environments.
What should other newsrooms take away from this experiment?
It’s smart to begin with a focus. Because KQED began with an emphasis on Forum, they were able to target a specific subset of their audience for recruitment and center conversation around a few topics at a time. This allowed KQED and the community to find a rhythm. The thinking was that if they had started as a general place for KQED audience members to gather, conversation might have been either too sluggish or too overwhelming.
Where to learn more:
Why this matters:
As audience behavior keeps shifting, projects like KQED’s Discord experiment are reminders that journalism’s future depends as much on listening and participation as reporting itself. They show how journalism can live in spaces where people gather, share, and build relationships. Evaluations like this one help turn experiments into insights — so that the next newsroom, public media station, or local outlet can build on what’s been learned and keep evolving how journalism serves its communities.