The 2024 Collaborative Journalism Summit took place in Detroit on May 9 and 10. Industry collaboration is one of LMA’s four pillars, and LMA staff attended and presented at the conference. Here are four takeaways from our team about the state of collaboration.
Collaboratives are focusing more on raising revenue
The journalism funding movement Press Forward was on many attendees’ minds as collaboratives shared successes and challenges on the path to sustainability. Most collaborative members who spoke said a majority of their revenue comes from philanthropic support and events. Some collaborators have found a long-term revenue stream through affiliation with a university that allocates a faculty position to manage the collaborative. LMA staff also presented a session on branded content as a revenue opportunity for collaboratives.
– Penny Riordan, director of business strategy and partnerships, LMA
Distribution is still a challenge
Anyone working in collaborative journalism knows that getting the content to a broader audience is one of the biggest challenges we still haven’t solved. Collaborations made up of different newsrooms are unlikely to have the same CMS (Content Management System), so sharing content can be a challenge. Dave Gehring, CEO and co-founder of Distributed Media Lab, presented his tool, which some California newsrooms are using to share content across the state. Andrew Haeg, the network product manager at the Institute for Nonprofit News, shared a new tool that they were developing called On the Ground. Some collaboratives have also used The Associated Press tool called StoryShare. While all of those tools are great options, there still isn’t consensus on one, and the needs of each collaborative are different.
– Penny Riordan
Collaboratives are committed to getting out the vote
Another major discussion topic was how to arm marginalized communities with the information they need for the consequential election in the fall. Lisa Snowden of the Baltimore Beat and the Baltimore News Collaborative shared the incredible Youth Voter Guide, where teens who are preparing to vote in their first election shared their concerns and thoughts on the issues. Claudia Yaujar-Amaro of AB&C Bilingual Resources and Emma Restrepo of 2 Puntos Platform also shared how the Latino News Collaborative is working on encouraging electoral participation among Latino communities. This gave me inspiration on how to tackle election issues that are affecting the LGBTQ+ community and hopefully help fire up a young queer voter base that is feeling disaffected and frustrated with the current state of affairs.
– Dana Piccoli, managing director of News is Out
Collaboration can help newsrooms dig deeper
Investigative reporting is expensive to produce, but collaboration can help newsrooms dig deeper despite lack of staffing and funding. Gerard Ryle, executive director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), has led some of the biggest global journalism collaborations in history. That includes the Panama Papers, a gigantic leak of 11.5 million-plus records that exposed an elaborate system hidden by offshore companies.
“I realized that if I could find what were going to be great stories and then go to media partners and convince them that they had to work with us, that I would get all of their resources,” Ryle said in a fireside chat with Kevin Hall, North America editor of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
The Panama Papers proved it takes a network to fight a network. And the “lone wolf” model — one journalist working a leak, digging alone and getting all the glory — is becoming displaced with a more collaborative approach, including ICIJ, OCCRP, ProPublica and CalMatters.
“Now collaboration is not even a second thought,” Hall said. “It’s assumed it’s going to happen.”
– Rob Collins, executive director of Oklahoma Media Center