Cooperation and sharing are the future of the local news ecology.

Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “All Media Party” (ID: Quanmeipai), author of Tencent Media.

It’s not hard to find that local news all over the world faces almost the same challenges: local daily newspapers have a serious shortage of funds, and the advertising space is empty; local TV stations may be able to maintain, but they also have the risk of being merged; local broadcasting is even more Needless to say.

There is a place in the Midwestern United States called Colorado, and Denver is its capital. Maybe you have never noticed it here. But in this land, hundreds of people of all kinds have gathered to make suggestions and act together for the future of local news.

This issue of the Media Group (ID:quanmeipai) shares the story of the Colorado Media Project. It takes a bit of time to tell this story, even though it has only just begun last year.

Save local news organizations, media communities or cures

Create a news community

A group of Colorado residents with diverse interests and backgrounds—student, journalists, entrepreneurs, city officials, and community members—are concerned about the future of local news. So they formed a close alliance.

The news community is at the heart of the project. This not only represents the connection between people, but also the cooperation between organizations. In the summer of 2020, the Colorado Media Project will be located on the third floor of Rocky Mountain PBS, becoming the largest newsroom in Colorado. A community of 75 people from nine news organizations will share space, equipment and ideas here.

“Our goal is to rebuild an old-fashioned mainstream newsroom, but the internal architecture is completely different – each department remains independent and works together,” said Laura Frank, vice president of news at Rocky Mountain PBS.

Now is a good time for us to change community engagement.When the traditional business model dominates, we don’t need to participate in the community model at all.We must take this opportunity well. I have beenJoking with the participants, saying that this project is a unicorn company that the people of the country are looking forward to. “Project director Nancy Watzman said this.

The Colorado Sun’s Eric Lubbers also expressed the same idea: “We should let go of the highs we have had and think deeply about what is the unrealized demand and how to solve them.”… . We used to do this too, but now we are in the team.”

List of whimsical projects

The promotion guidelines for Colorado project members are: What else we could do. These “we can still do” ideas are collected and listed, and a large number of research and explorations are conducted by consulting firms, researchers, project managers and consultants, and then step by step into the project, towards their ultimate goal – reconstruction Local news ecosystem.

Local News “One Card”

A skiing card is very popular among Colorado residents because it allows people to experience skiing in different venues, and exploring New Snow Mountain is so easy.

User research at the Colorado Project shows that the number of residents interested in local news is very large, with about one million users willing to pay. But the local media is getting more and more fragmented, and local news reports are getting more and more difficult to get attention. Inspired by the ski universal card, they launched the “one card” of local news – the “Marketing and Member Piloting” project. This project was generously funded by the Membership Puzzle Project.

Save local news organizations, media communities or cures

How a member plays in a news organization character of? Funder members Emily Goligoski and Matt Thompson wrote in a recent report: “Members are not just another way to subscribe… This kind of participation has a greater motivation to project what they want in civil society. What to see in. In other words, the member is not “I paid for it, so I got it”, but the way I expressed support for the institution or cause I trust.

The project is waiting for five adventurous Colorado news media to join. They look forward to working together to increase the market share and profits of all members as a whole. At the same time, I am also eager to attract a batchA leading figure in the Colorado community with a strong sense of belonging and commitment to enhance people’s sense of belonging and commitment to local news. Readers can purchase news on a bunch of websites without having to buy a single card.

However, this type of collective payment and income sharing may also create tensions in local markets. Participants must be thoughtful. Lubbers said: “The key is, what happens when you control a group of organizations with completely different ownerships? You have to figure out what happens if you share revenue? These questions are waiting to be answered.”

Culture and Art News Alliance

Denverite is a member-funded news organization. It is a local media that is “cut and curious about our ever-changing cities.” Previously, Spirited Media announced that it would sell the independent local website.

The Denver was acquired by Colorado Public Radio (CPR) because of the matchmaking of the Colorado Media Project. Part of the latter’s funding is provided by local foundations, and the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation is one of them. A few years ago, it provided funding to CPR to promote coverage of Colorado’s local art and culture.

Foundation President Gray Steuer said in an interview that culture and art have always been the main funding area of ​​the foundation, but it is always difficult. Because of this collaboration, the leadership before CPR changed his mind, and the Denver people also said that because the fund is willing to re-focus on art reports, the Foundation even considered opening up its own news channels.

“Although the art of local art news is shrinking, Colorado’s art is still developing vigorously…... We want to use these jobs to listen carefully to what culture and art are from the community. Report the missing parts and work together to plan ways for news organizations to better serve this need. The Colorado Media Project wrote on the official website.

Now, Steuer is proud to participate in all of CMP’s lectures and conferences for local foundations. He said: “This seems to tell us that we should not attempt to ‘solve’ the challenge of cultural news in a vacuum.

Save local news organizations, media communities or cures

Although it sounds a bit old-fashioned, but tell the truth No institution will be willing to move out of Colorado at this moment.State. They hope to advance and retreat together, and this project helps them achieve their desire for teamwork. Stewart Vanderwilt, the new president of CPR, said: “The current situation is that we are building a long-term relationship for the purpose of making suggestions and determination. I think this kind of good-neighborly approach does have long-term value.”

Third-party is strong backing

A news agency is crying poorly, certainly not news. When the Washington Post was laid off in large numbers, it was ironic that someone who dismissed the editorial photos into a silhouette. So, how can the Colorado Media Project secure funding for local news that is already in crisis?

The leader of this team is Nancy Watzman. In April of this year, after leading the Knight Commission to some results, she joined the project full time. The results of the Knight Commission allowed the Knight Foundation to spend millions of dollars to deliver on the promise of rebuilding the local news ecosystem. Now, she is responsible for coordinating journalists, foundations, academics and several other partners to explore the forefront of local news in Denver and Colorado. The Gates Family Foundation, the Democracy Fund, the local Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, and the recent membership puzzle project—The four agencies provided nearly 200 to the Colorado Media Project. Ten thousand dollars, used to generate and test new styles of local news.

The Colorado Media Project has made some progress, including research on 2,000 news consumers in Colorado (and their willingness to pay for news), the Colorado Sun’s 10-year business plan to support Denver The site incorporates funding from Colorado Public Radio, a new APP prototype, and an analysis of the state of Colorado’s nonprofit news. All research is shared with the public because it is made by a neutral third party (Denver University, an independent consultant, a third-party consulting firm) – it is not unique to any news media.

Melissa Davis, vice president of the Gates Family Foundation, wants to make it clear that no entity owns or controls the project. “Our character is standing at a height of 10,000 feet overlooking the whole picture.We are working hard to support the actual work and reflect on ‘We are as tolerant as possible, as much as possible, And focus on the community as much as possible?‘”

How do you bring all the reporters together? How do you decide which institution to go for?adventure? The “Colorado Media Project” is not only a generic name, but also a neutral third party. The same is true of foundations dedicated to promoting the development of local journalism and charities. Several of the key members interviewed agreed that the Colorado media project as an entity, his value is to ensure that this is a cooperation, not a self-sufficient resource robbing of either party.

Save local news organizations, media communities or cures

Is the Colorado project worthy of emulation elsewhere? This requires some specific factors to achieve the goal: an anchoring foundation that is willing to invest time and money;a third party who is familiar with the local situation and happens to be an expert in this area; A university that can hold meetings, fund research, and the patience and motivation of all participants.

“This doesn’t require a lot of money, it just needs a bunch of different people to work together.” The Colorado Media Project starts with a tiny action like “What else can we do?” to find out what local media people should do, the gap. where is it. It sounds like rebuilding the local journalism ecosystem is a bit high, but the guarantee of sufficient funds and neutral attitude makes this goal truly accessible.