May 15, 2020

As the Center for Cooperative Media kicks off the second day of its conference, our members are prepared to showcase their excellent work in collaborative journalism.

We’re so pleased to see a strong showing of collaborative journalism from our members. Of the 17 programming sessions, including panels, lightning talks and coffee breaks, our members are featured on 11. In other words, nonprofit news is represented in 65% of this conference, which spans the entire journalism industry.

We’re thrilled that a representative from each of the three collaborations led by the Institute for Nonprofit News’ Amplify News Project — Seeking a Cure, From Rust to Resilience and Lens on Lightfoot — will be discussing their experience in a collaborative journalism project today.

INN members believe in the power of collaboration. Collaboration is a way for members to expand the reach and, potentially, the impact of their journalism. Additionally, collaborations often offer the organization new resources, financially or otherwise, and grow the social capital of newsrooms as the reporting introduces new audiences to participating outlets.

INN collaborations tend to be initiated by our members. Collaborations Leader Sharon McGowan has worked to establish a system of best practices for bringing together collaborations of nonprofit newsrooms and to support four high-quality journalism projects in the last 16 months.

The first series, Seeking a Cure: The Quest to Save Rural Hospitals, reached 32 states and more than 120 outlets, many of which would not have otherwise been able to publish high-quality reporting on rural healthcare. The reach from this project has spurred interest in additional collaborations, including Slammed: Rural Health Care and COVID-19, the recently launched project initiated by Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting.

You can hear from INN members directly about their experience in collaborative journalism today at the Center for Cooperative Media’s conference (Registration required):

• 9 a.m. ET: KCUR’s Donna Vestal will discuss her experience in public media collaborations as managing director of Election 2020: America Amplified and director of collaborations at KCUR.
• 10:30 a.m. ET: Frank Taylor, managing editor of Carolina Public Press and Stephanie Carson, news and community partnerships manager of Carolina Public Press, will discuss last year’s high-impact collaboration, Seeking Conviction. This statewide collaboration changed sexual assault laws in North Carolina.
• 11 a.m. ET: In “Lightning Talks,” Sandra Svoboda, program director of Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public TV, will discuss how a digital/newspaper media company and a public TV station continue to collaborate. Todd Reubold, publisher of Ensia, will highlight the Amplify-led series, From Rust to Resilience: what climate change means for Great Lakes cities. Asraa Mustufa, digital editor of Chicago Reporter, will highlight the Amplify-led series, Lens on Lightfoot: Seven independent newsrooms report on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s first year. Danielle Purifoy, race and place editor of Scalawag, will speak on her work. Terry Parris, engagement editor of THE CITY, will speak with EdNC.org’s Nation Hahn on their partnership to explore engagement toolkits and playbooks, focusing on creating a listening funnel that supports engagement and impact.
• 12:30 p.m.: Rachel Glickhouse, partner manager for ProPublica’s Electionland, and KCUR’s Vestal will speak on how U.S. news outlets are working together to cover political races and fight misinformation.
• 3 p.m. ET: Lyndsey Gilpin, editor and publisher of Southerly, will host “Rising temperatures, rising collaboration: How the climate crisis has spurred journalism partnerships around the world”
• 4:30 p.m. ET: Jennifer Hemmingsen, project manager for “Seeking a Cure,” will discuss the Amplify-supported collaboration for Iowa Watch.

There’s still time to drop in on yesterday’s conversations with transcripts and notes via Google Doc available here. Some members featured:

• Michael Davis, south regional manager of Solutions Journalism Network
• Lizzy Hazeltine, fund coordinator of the NC Local News Lab Fund
• Melanie Sill, senior journalism consultant of the NC Local News Lab Fund / Democracy Fund
• Angie Newsome, executive director and founder of Carolina Public Press
• Cierra Hinton, executive director and publisher of Scalawag
• Tina Griego, managing editor of The Colorado Independent
• Sarah Alvarez, editor of Outlier Media

Thank you to the Center for Cooperative Media for its excellent conference and thanks to all of our members for their inspiring work in collaborative journalism! If you’re an INN member and have an idea for a collaborative project, please reach out to sharon@inn.org or jonathan@inn.org.