First path: education can work wonders
The first path would be to develop a crash course on SoJo for all members of the organization, from leadership/administration to editorial to commercial. There is an aspect of SoJo that fits the needs of evolving, constantly challenged newsrooms, and each person responsible for managing the various areas in these organizations needs to understand how the SoJo mentality/reporting can impact their areas: from regaining the trust of the usual audience, to gaining the trust of the youngest audience, to increasing revenue.
Second path:
Present successful SoJo stories to the editorial team: What similar stories can we find that come close to addressing a pain point in our own community? How was this solution to the problem reported? What impact did it have on the audience? What was the reaction of the audience?
Using specific examples to teach the editorial team can motivate them to start working on SoJo, rather than just being asked to change the approach.