Collaborative Journalism

How you can partner to increase resources, reach, access and influence

First, some background on your panelists

• Heather Bryant, Project Facet
• Building infrastructure to create and manage collaborative projects, teams and contributor networks
• Consulting on collaborative workflows, technology and best practices for collaborative project management
• Building a directory of collaborative news organizations
• Collaborative Journalism Slack
• Stefanie Murray, Center for Cooperative Media
• Collaborative Journalism Summit.
• Funding reporting projects through Rita Allen Foundation and Democracy Fund grants.
• Research paper ‘Comparing Models of Collaborative Journalism.”
• Launching collaborativejournalism.org and building database of projects..
• Andre Natta
• 2018 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford
• Research into regional journalism, culture, and audience engagement/collaboration
• Hyperlocal publisher 10+ years
• #wjchat / #jcarn

What is collaborative journalism?

From ‘Comparing Models of Collaborative Journalism’:

“We define collaborative journalism as a cooperative arrangement (formal or informal) between two or more ... organizations, which aims to supplement each organization’s resources and maximize the impact of the content produced.”

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Working together in the public’s interest, instead of independently in our own interest.

Why collaborate?

According to Heather Bryant, founder of Project Facet, collaboration can expand your:

• Resources
• Diversity
• Expertise
• Reach
• Access
• Power and influence
• Credibility and trust
• Audience attention

Examples of collaborative journalism

Documenting Hate: ProPublica-led effort to collect information about local hate crimes and help local news orgs tell those stories.

Small towns, big change: Solutions Journalism Network-coordinated effort in Colorado and New Mexico involving seven news orgs examining long-term threats to small towns.

Voting Block: New Jersey-based collaboration focusing on governor’s race, involving 25 news orgs.

SCATV and Scout Magazine: Scout Magazines and SCATV joined forces to create multiplatform stories in one of New England’s most densely populated communities

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Tell us about your collaborations.

Models of collaboration

In our report, “Comparing Models of Collaborative Journalism,” the Center for Cooperative Media identified six models of collaboration.

We found that what makes most collaborations unique has to do typically with two key variables: the duration of the project and the level of integration between the organizations.

In other words, longer projects where multiple organizations are working very closely together are more difficult -- and more rare -- than shorter term projects where groups are working mostly independently.

Collaborations are most successful when partnership is used to accomplish something that couldn’t be done alone.

How do you do it?

Tips to consider and questions to ask yourself:

• What are you trying to accomplish through collaboration?
• How are you going to find the right partners?
• How will you approach establishing expectations and agree upon deliverables?
• How will you approach aligning publishing workflows and timing?
• How will you establish shared quality standards and “two-factor publishing”?
• How will you plan for busy schedules and maintaining communication?
• How will your organization reflect and assess the collaboration afterward?

What do you think?

What do you want to know more about?

What could help you do this successfully?

Contact info + other resources

Heather Bryant: @hbcompass, heather@projectfacet.org, projectfacet.org

Stefanie Murray: @stefaniemurray, murrayst@montclair.edu, collaborativejournalism.org

Andre Natta: @acnatta, acnatta@stanford.edu, carnivalofjournalism.org

Collaborative News Slack: bit.ly/collaborativeslack

Link to additional resources from ONA: bit.ly/ona17collabnotes

Tell us about your collaborative projects! The Center for Cooperative Media is working with Melody Kramer now to build a database of collaborative journalism projects. Add yours: bit.ly/collabj

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