Join us in Detroit for the
2024 Collaborative Journalism Summit!

COLLABORATION

🔑 Emoji key:

🎥 These sessions will be streamed live on YouTube via DPTV
⚡ These sessions are 5-minute lightning talks
🔥 These sessions are “fireside chats” with keynote speakers

🗓️ DAY 0 — May 8, 2024

1:00 p.m. ET
Pre-conference workshop: Collaboration policy | INVITE-ONLY

Heather Bryant will lead the final workshop in a cumulative series on building collaborative journalism policies. Members of the working group, launched at the 2023 Collaborative Journalism Summit, will be invited to attend.

4:00 p.m. ET
Volunteer at Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries | SPACE LIMITED

The Center for Cooperative Media has partnered with Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries to offer a volunteer opportunity to CJS attendees. Through this partnership, DRMM will arrange a service opportunity for Summit attendees and Detroit-based partners to assist with meal service at the Emergency Shelter and Transitional Housing facility.

Click here to volunteer. If you can’t do that, please consider supporting DRMM by purchasing an item from its Amazon wish list.

Location: 3535 Third Ave., Detroit, MI 48201

6:00 p.m. ET
Reception: Welcome to Detroit! | PRE-RSVP REQUIRED
Sponsored by The Kresge Foundation and the New York/Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative

If you plan to be in town on Wednesday evening, please join us and our Detroit-based partners at a “Welcome to Detroit” reception at the Detroit Historical Museum. The reception is sponsored by The Kresge Foundation and the New York/Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative. Space is limited and an RSVP is required, which can be obtained through registration for the Summit.

Sponsors: The Kresge Foundation and the New York/Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative

Presenting partners: Society of Professional Journalists — Detroit chapter; Detroit National Association of Black Journalists; Asian American Journalists Association — Michigan chapter; and New Michigan Media

Location: 5401 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48201

🗓️ DAY 1 — May 9, 2024

8:00 a.m. ET
Registration opens

Sign in and enjoy a light breakfast on us!

Location: McGregor Memorial Conference Center, 495 Gilmour Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

9:00 am ET 🎥
Welcome to the 2024 Collaborative Journalism Summit

Speakers: Stefanie Murray, director, Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University; Elizabeth Stoycheff, associate professor and head of journalism, Wayne State University; Rich Homberg, president and CEO, Detroit Public Television

Location: Wayne State University Community Arts Auditorium (adjacent to McGregor), 450 Reuther Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

9:05 a.m. ET 🎥
The 2024 State of Collaboration

Speaker: Stefanie Murray, director, Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University

Location: Wayne State University Community Arts Auditorium (adjacent to McGregor), 450 Reuther Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

9:15 a.m. ET 🎥
🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: Gerard Ryle, director, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Description: Gerard Ryle is the Pulitzer Prize and Emmy-award-winning director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington, D.C. He led the worldwide teams of journalists who worked on the Offshore Leaks, the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, FinCEN Files, and Pandora Papers investigations – the six biggest collaborations in journalism history. The work of he and his colleagues forced the downfall of four world leaders – the Prime Ministers of Pakistan, Iceland, Malta, and the Czech Republic – and prompted government inquiries and legislative reform across the world. Many people went to jail as a result of these reports. During this fireside chat, Gerard will talk about what it’s like to run some of the world’s largest — and most impactful — collaborative journalism projects.

Speaker: Gerard Ryle, director, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)

Host: Kevin Hall, editor, North America, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)

Location: Wayne State University Community Arts Auditorium (adjacent to McGregor), 450 Reuther Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

10:15 a.m. ET 🎥
LIGHTNING TALKS (5 minutes each)

⚡ Strengthening science journalism through collaboration: Through its State of Science program, national radio show Science Friday has partnered with stations large and small, in urban and rural markets to ensure that its national audience has access to science news from local stations, including the voices of those directly affected by the issues.

Speaker: Kathleen Davis, producer, Science Friday

⚡ Great Lakes Journalism Collaborative: The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; Michigan Public, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; and The Narwhal who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.

Speaker: Anna Sysling, host, Great Lakes Now

⚡ The Latino News Collaborative: How five Latino newsrooms from Chicago, Pennsylvania, and Kansas worked together to explore the issue of electoral participation among Latino communities. This consortium of hyperlocal news outlets designed a survey to measure interest in voting among Latino populations in their localities, including questions specific to regional informational needs and specific community groups, such as Latinos with or without United States citizenship, first or second-generation immigrants, or both.

Speaker: Claudia Yaujar-Amaro, owner, AB&C Bilingual Resources; Emma Restrepo, CEO and editor-in-chief, 2 Puntos Platform 

⚡ Behind the Philly Story Fest: In 2023, Back Pocket Media produced the inaugural Philly Story Fest to bring the community together to celebrate its stories — stories that embrace the city’s virtues while still acknowledging its vices. It was a multi-day festival featuring a mainstage storytelling event, a documentary film screening, a local art showcase and more. The festival was a collaboration between Back Pocket Media and eight local newsrooms, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, Billy Penn and Philly Mag. Journalists reimagined their work for the stage, adding elements that you wouldn’t be able to find on the printed page, things like text messages, photos, animations and even a live band.

Speaker: Tay Glass, executive producer, Back Pocket Media

Collaborating on climate change for local impact: Climate change is both a global issue and a profoundly local one. In 2023, six newsrooms came together to explore flooding-related issues in Chicago, Milwaukee, Minnesota and Detroit. Working together uncovered potential solutions and generated wider attention for the challenges facing each community. This session will discuss localizing regional climate issues and how to build community impacts into your reporting from the start, and share where this group is headed next.

Speaker: Nissa Rhee, cofounder and executive director, Borderless Magazine

Location: Wayne State University Community Arts Auditorium (adjacent to McGregor), 450 Reuther Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

10:45 a.m. ET
BREAK

Take a break and get ready for the rest of the day!

Location: Hallway outside Wayne State University Community Arts Auditorium (adjacent to McGregor), 450 Reuther Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

11:00 a.m. ET 🎥
Using collaborative power to correct false narratives

Description: A panel of Outlier Media’s partners will discuss the work of the collaborative newsletter Streetlight, which aims to rethink how public safety is covered in cities like Detroit. Streetlight shares engaging and critical deep dives at the intersection of safety, justice, and policing in the city. It isn’t a rundown of the latest crime headlines — instead, it includes explainers, data, and key stories residents need to help build a safer Detroit.

Speakers: Christine Ferretti, Bridge Detroit; Kennan Oliphant, WXYZ; Jerome Vaughn, WDET; Lori Higgins, Chalkbeat; Sarah Alvarez, Outlier Media; Nina Ignaczak, Planet Detroit

Moderator: Erin Perry, Outlier Media

Location: Wayne State University Community Arts Auditorium (adjacent to McGregor), 450 Reuther Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

12:00 p.m. ET
LUNCH BREAK

Relax and get some food!

Location: McGregor Memorial Conference Center, 495 Gilmour Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

1:00 p.m. ET | 🎥
How community colleges are fueling local news ecosystems

Description: Community colleges across the country can play a critical and catalyzing role in local news. By equipping more people to participate in gathering and sharing reliable information – particularly those who have historically been excluded from, and harmed by, legacy media – community colleges can function as collaborative hubs that connect people in their communities with opportunities to get involved in the local news ecosystem. We’ll hear how Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland is working with Neighborhood Media Foundation, Signal Cleveland, and the Journalism + Design lab at The New School on a variety of programming to nurture more grassroots journalism in the city and discuss how others can adopt similar models.

Speakers: Cole Goins, Journalism + Design at The New School; Erika Bell, Cuyahoga Community College; Helen Maynard, Signal Cleveland; Rich Weiss, Neighborhood Media Foundation

Location: Wayne State University Community Arts Auditorium (adjacent to McGregor), 450 Reuther Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

1:30 p.m. ET | 🎥
How can journalism and advocacy organizations productively partner while maintaining journalistic integrity

Description: Cross-field collaboration between journalism organizations and civil society groups is becoming more common, especially when the partners share community impact goals. This panel will discuss how Planet Detroit has established partnerships with mission-aligned advocacy organizations while maintaining its journalistic integrity.

Speakers: Nina Ignaczak, founder and editor, Planet Detroit; Laprisha Berry Daniels, Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice; Angela Lugo-Thomas, Keep Growing Detroit and Belle Isle Concern; Jeff Gearhardt, research director, Ecology Center; Ken Paulman, senior editor, Energy News Network; Raquel Garcia, Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision

Location: Wayne State University Community Arts Auditorium (adjacent to McGregor), 450 Reuther Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

2:00 p.m. ET
BREAK

Take a break!

Location: McGregor Memorial Conference Center, 495 Gilmour Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

2:15 p.m. ET
CONCURRENT SESSIONS

⚒️ TV as your powerful partner: Explore what a television partner can contribute to a cooperative project
Making a video an essential component of stories can add life, vibrancy, immediacy, and perspective that the written word by itself can’t always capture. There is a considerable amount of research that shows that television is how many Americans consume news, and digitally based video massively expands that audience. Collaborating with your local television station — whether public or commercial — is a great way to build rich, compelling video components into your work. This panel will discuss how that’s been done successfully in Detroit.

Speakers: Zosette Guir, manager of content operations, One Detroit and American Black Journal; Orlando Bailey, engagement director, Bridge Detroit; Pastor Barry Randolph

Moderator: Ed Moore, Detroit Public Television. 

Location: Room FGH

⚒️ How to build a statewide collaborative distribution network — and monetize it
This session will discuss how local publishers are collaborating to grow and engage audiences through owned and operated syndication networks and how those networks are designed to provide new revenue to local news publishers that participate in the network.

Speaker: David Gehring, CEO, Distributed Media Lab

Location: Room BC

2:45 p.m. ET
CONCURRENT SESSIONS

⚒️ How to build inclusive global collaborations (and break the extractive journalism cycle)
There is a growing enthusiasm for cross-border collaboration. But are we developing models of collaboration that recreate — rather than challenge – historic power imbalances between journalists in the Global South and Global North? International journalism has a long history of extractive practices, from exploiting “fixers” to failing to credit local outlets. But even the most well-intentioned global collaborations can fall into some of the same patterns. Lighthouse Reports and Unbias the News, two organizations that confront these questions on a daily basis, will share lessons from their work and discuss how to create more inclusive cross-border collaborations.

Speakers: Fahim Abed, Afghanistan editor, Lighthouse Reports

Moderator: Melissa del Bosque, U.S.-Mexico investigations editor, Lighthouse Reports

Location: Room FGH

⚒️ Behind Oklahoma Media Center’s ecosystem-wide polling, listening and engagement project
This panel will discuss the groundbreaking results of a qualitative study based on scientific data about Oklahoma’s news ecosystem, which was followed by coaching and funding based on that research and designed to increase trust in local news. Hear from the nonprofit Oklahoma Media Center and two community researchers who are building a network to help sustain local news.

Speakers: Allyson Shortle, associate professor, University of Oklahoma; Rosemary Avance, assistant professor of media and strategic communications, Oklahoma State University

Moderator: Rob Collins, executive director, Oklahoma Media Center

Location: Room BC

3:15 p.m. ET
BREAK

Take a break!

Location: McGregor Memorial Conference Center, 495 Gilmour Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

3:30 p.m. ET
WORKSHOPS

⚒️ Pitfall-proof collaborations: Turn struggles into strengths with this learning framework
Description: We’ve all heard it: collaborations are hard. They take more time and resources than they’re worth. Communication breaks down, equity is a constant challenge, and everything takes longer than expected. This can all be true. But a research-backed framework from the field of education shows us that, with the right approach, the challenges inherent in collaboration aren’t bugs, but features. A learning-based approach to collaboration project management can flip the script for newsrooms, allowing us to avoid time- and resource-draining pitfalls and ensure our struggles make us stronger. The Learning Pit® framework by James Nottingham is a powerful roadmap built on pioneering concepts in educational psychology. In this session led by INN Director of Collaborations Bridget Thoreson, you’ll hear from leaders of INN collaborations about specific challenges that informed their future work.

Speakers: Bridget Thoreson, director of collaborations, Institute for Nonprofit News; Dianna Hunt, national editor, ICT; Ken Paulman, director, Energy News Network; Nina Ignaczak, founder, Planet Detroit

Location: Room BC

⚒️ How do you take your collaboration to the next level, and what is the journey to sustainability?
Description: This session will feature several advanced collaboratives to answer the question that increasingly faces collaborative participants: how do you take your collaboration to the next level, and what is the journey to sustainability? Not everyone’s journey is the same when it comes to sustainability, so collaboratives will be highlighted that have taken different paths, accomplished different milestones, and faced different challenges. Project managers from each collaborative will tell the story of how their collaborative began and got to this point (including both pitfalls and successes). They’ll also share their biggest learnings and accomplishments.

Host: Delaney Butler, collaboratives manager, Solutions Journalism Network

Speakers: Heather May, director, Great Salt Lake Collaborative; Chris Rudisill, director, Charlotte Journalism Collaborative; Monica Williams, director, New York Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative; Kathy Lefler, coordinator, Wichita Journalism Collaborative

Location: Room FGH

6:00 p.m. ET
RECEPTION: THIRD MAN RECORDS | PRE-RSVP REQUIRED

Join us for the welcome reception at Third Man Records, sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute! You must have RSVP’d in advance to attend this reception. Space is limited, and attendees who did not RSVP will not be allowed entry.

Location: 441 W Canfield St, Detroit, MI 48201

Thanks to our sponsors (Day 2 schedule continues below):

🗓️ DAY 2 — MAY 10, 2024

8:30 a.m. ET
Welcome back! Registration opens

Sign in and enjoy a light breakfast on us!

Location: McGregor Memorial Conference Center, 495 Gilmour Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

9:00 a.m. ET 🎥
🔥FIRESIDE CHAT: Candice Fortman, executive director, Outlier Media; hosted by Ryan Sorrell, founder, Kansas City Defender

Description: The future of local news is community-rooted and collaborative, and few people know this more intimately than Candice Fortman. Fortman, a Detroit native, is the executive director of one of the country’s most innovative news organizations, Outlier Media. During this fireside chat hosted by Kansas City Defender founder and publisher Ryan Sorrell, Fortman will talk about how the needs of Detroit’s communities drive every decision at Outlier, and what truly being in partnership with a community means to her and her team.

Speaker: Candice Fortman, executive director, Outlier Media

Host: Ryan Sorrell, founder and publisher, Kansas City Defender

Location: Wayne State University Community Arts Auditorium (adjacent to McGregor), 450 Reuther Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

9:45 a.m. ET 🎥
⚡ LIGHTNING TALKS (5 minutes each)

How to create contextualized coverage about forced migration, foreign policy, and human rights: Collaborative investigative journalism across the U.S.-Mexico (Global North-South) Border
Researcher Kirsi Cheas will showcase exemplary manners in which Central American and Mexican investigators merge boundaries between journalism, activism, and academia, integrating ideas, methods, and formats from these professions in the collaborative process while simultaneously being committed to rigorous and transparent factual reporting. These skills have developed in Central America and Mexico due to the dangers affecting independent journalists and critical thinkers in the region, as these professionals have had to join forces to protect one another. The talk will explore why it is useful for U.S. journalists to learn more collaborative and integrative skills from their Mexican and Central American peers.

Speaker: Kirsi Cheas, Postdoctoral researcher, School of Communication, University of Vaasa, Finland

Collaboration in action: Transforming challenges into opportunities for Baltimore youth
In this pivotal election year, the Baltimore News Collaborative seeks to engage young people in its election coverage, initially focused on Maryland’s primary election in May. Discover the origins and purpose behind the collaborative as partners discuss the motivations that led to the formation of this impactful alliance and what’s ahead as the group pursues transformative journalism.

Speaker: Lisa Snowden, editor-in-chief and cofounder, Baltimore Beat

Great Salt Lake Collaborative: How to move your established collaborative into the classroom and create meaningful journalism with student journalists
The award-winning Great Salt Lake Collaborative has been covering the environmental crisis of the shrinking Great Salt Lake since 2022. In its third year, it partnered with the University of Utah to create a capstone journalism class focused on covering the lake. Students are learning from lake experts about what is at stake. They’re hearing from Great Salt Lake Collaborative journalists and they’re reading, watching and listening to GSLC journalism. And then they are going out and reporting on how the lake is impacting residents that we don’t often hear from: west-side communities in Salt Lake and Tooele counties and tribal members — after conducting listening sessions with members of those communities. Inspired by the GSLC, faculty at the University of Utah also created a historical cross-campus collaborative bringing together student-led newsrooms from four public Utah universities and colleges. Student journalists participating in this first-ever Utah College Media Collaborative produced multimedia content looking broadly and in-depth at stories around guns on Utah college campuses.

Speaker: Heather May, director, Great Salt Lake Collaborative; Marcie Young Cancio, Clinical Assistant Professor of Journalism at the University of Utah

How U.S. Democracy Day is approaching the 2024 election
U.S. Democracy Day is a national pro-democracy news collaborative focused on shifting the way journalists cover politics and policy in the United States, with a centralized effort around democracy-focused reporting on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy. This year, the collaborative is offering mini-grants along with webinars and training in partnership with Democracy/Election SOS.

Speaker: Beatrice Forman, coordinator, U.S. Democracy Day

How Grand Valley State University’s Student Reporting Labs are inspiring local collaboration
Through its Student Reporting Labs program, PBS NewsHour collaborates with dozens of K-12 schools across the country. Through SRL, students and teachers learn to create short broadcast news stories in PBS’ unique style that investigate issues and events important to young people, and which are then considered for presentation on national and local public media outlets. During this session, representatives from Grand Valley State University’s Student Reporting Labs will discuss its first-of-its-kind collaboration between PBS Newshour, WGVU Public Media, and three GVSU programs.

Speakers: Mallory Patterson; Grand Valley State University; Dakota Hendren, Grand Valley State University

Location: Wayne State University Community Arts Auditorium (adjacent to McGregor), 450 Reuther Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

10:30 a.m. ET
BREAK

Take a break!

Location: Hallway outside Wayne State University Community Arts Auditorium (adjacent to McGregor), 450 Reuther Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

10:45 a.m. ET 🎥
🔥 FIRESIDE CHAT: StoryCorps’ Chris Norris about its One Small Step initiative
SPONSORED BY THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING

Description: StoryCorps’ One Small Step initiative is “an effort to remind the country of the humanity in all of us, even those with whom we disagree.” Through the program, strangers with different political views come together to record a 50-minute conversation — not to debate politics — but to get to know each other as people. Audio recordings of each interview are archived at the Library of Congress. During this fireside conversation, Chris Norris, a longtime journalist in Philadelphia who now works at StoryCorps, will discuss how the project can be replicated and scaled nationally, how it can drive community and civic engagement, and how journalists can help promote the kind of storytelling it encourages.

Speaker: Christopher Norris, strategic adviser to the CEO, StoryCorps

Host: Kathy Merritt, senior vice president, Radio, Journalism and CSG Services, Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Location: Wayne State University Community Arts Auditorium (adjacent to McGregor), 450 Reuther Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

11:30 a.m. ET
How the Every Voice, Every Vote Coalition is catalyzing civic engagement following the most significant election in Philadelphia’s recent history
SPONSORED BY THE LENFEST INSTITUTE FOR JOURNALISM

Description: Every Voice, Every Vote (EVEV) started as a citywide movement of community groups and media organizations working to elevate Philadelphia’s diverse voices and promote civic action in advance of the city’s 2023 Municipal election. During this session, members will discuss how they are transitioning the collaboration to focus on civic engagement and education. Collectively, the EVEV coalition worked to ensure that the issues that matter most to all of Philadelphia’s communities were front and center in the election and now how to sustain that focus. To best equip the city, EVEV partners are providing residents with high-quality journalism, civics education, community conversations, civic education & engagement guides, and in-person and virtual events through its partnership with 50+ media and community partners.

Speakers: Shawn Mooring, Head of Philadelphia Programs, The Lenfest Institute for Journalism; Portia Fullard, Community Partnership Consultant, The Lenfest Institute for Journalism; Arun Prabhakaran, President, Urban Affairs Coalition; Monique Curry-Mims, Publisher, Generocity

Location: Wayne State University Community Arts Auditorium (adjacent to McGregor), 450 Reuther Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

12:15 p.m. ET
LUNCH BREAK

Relax and get some food!

Location: McGregor Memorial Conference Center, 495 Gilmour Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

1:15 p.m. ET 🎥
How the New Michigan Media collaborative supports local ethnic media with editorial and business support

Description: This panel will explore how the New Michigan Media ethnic media collaboration has helped improve the journalism, community leadership, advocacy, and finances of the participating organizations, as well as the challenges of keeping such a culturally diverse collaborative working together.

Speakers: Iqbal Fardous Hossain, editor and publisher, Bangla Shangbad Newspaper; Osama A. Siblani, publisher, The Arab American News; Elias M. Gutierrez, founder and publisher, Latino Detroit

Host: Dr. Hayg Oshagan, Director, New Michigan Media

Location: Wayne State University Community Arts Auditorium (adjacent to McGregor), 450 Reuther Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

2:00 p.m. ET
BREAK

Take a break!

Location: McGregor Memorial Conference Center, 495 Gilmour Mall, Detroit, MI 48202

2:15 p.m. ET
CONCURRENT SESSIONS

⚒️ Behind the scenes of The NarcoFiles, with more than 40 media outlets in 23 different countries
NarcoFiles, a project in which more than 40 media outlets from 23 different countries participated, revealed how organized crime has developed new strategies to develop its business by using different mechanisms to launder money, market its product using front companies, and traffic drugs through ports, using new technologies. It is the largest investigation of its type to emerge in Latin America. The project originated with an unprecedented leak of 13 million emails from the Colombian Attorney General’s Office.

Speakers: Kevin Hall, editor, North America, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project

Location: Room FGH

⚒️ As collaboration and redistribution grow, there is no common platform for how we share our stories with each other. Why not?
As collaboration and redistribution grow, there is no common platform for how we share our stories with each other. Why not? What are we all using now and how can we make it simpler? Why is so much philanthropy going into CMS tools to help us build websites but so little going into models for sharing content? This session will explore those questions and share solutions being used in the field now.

Speakers: Dee J. Hall, editor-in-chief, Floodlight News; Tegan Wendland, editorial director, Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk; Andrew Haeg, network product manager, Institute for Nonprofit News

Moderator: Emily Holden, founder, Floodlight News

Location: Room BC

2:45 p.m. ET
CONCURRENT SESSIONS

⚒️ How the Fund for Equity in Local News has carefully grown its collaboration
The Fund for Equity in Local News is a unique fiscally-sponsored collaboration of three associations supporting local, identity-based publishers (the National Association of Hispanic Publishers (NAHP), the National Newspaper Publisher Association aka “The Black Press” (NNPA), and the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN). Once completely distinct organizations, the three associations have built a collaborative that now manages training programs, grantmaking, staff and tools for its 500+ member publishers. This session will discuss how they built trust and working relationships, how they have collaborated on tools and projects, and how they balance cultivating individual institutional relationships with funders/sponsors with the needs of the collaborative.

Speakers:  Todd Stauffer, Executive Director, Association for Alternative Newsmedia; Ron Burke, National Marketing and Constituency Development Director, National Newspaper Publishers Association; Ellen Meany, Executive Director, Alternative Newsweekly Foundation; Alvaro Gurdián, President, National Association of Hispanic Publishers

Moderator: Ashley Woods Branch, executive director, Fund for Equity in Local News

Location: Room BC

⚒️ Branded content as a collaboration revenue opportunity
During this session, you’ll hear about success stories of branded content campaigns from collaborations News is Out and Word in Black, including such corporations as AARP to Wells Fargo and beyond. Speakers will discuss vest practices, lessons learned and advice for others moving forward.

Speakers: Dana Piccoli, editor, News Is Out; Penny Riordan, director of business strategy and partnerships, Local Media Association; Tanisha Leonard, president, Pitch Black

Location: Room FGH

3:15 p.m. ET
WORKSHOPS

⚒️ Building collaboratives like products: How groups are working together to accelerate collaborative journalism in North Carolina
Description:
In this session, representatives from the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative and the North Carolina Local News Workshop will examine how to approach collaborative building like you would product development. This includes the process of identifying needs through community listening and multi-point assessments, getting partner input and getting partners on board, and designing products both locally and state-wide that are connected. Speakers will share how to look at a collaborative through a standard product life-cycle: product introduction, growth, maturity — and even decline — and how to use modeling to expand our impact both locally and state-wide in hopes of increasing investment in local journalism.

Speakers: Chris Rudisill, director, Charlotte Journalism Collaborative; Shannan Bowen, executive director, North Carolina Local News Workshop

Location: Room FGH

⚒️ The currency of impact
Description: In partnership with the Reynolds Journalism Institute, URL Media has built a model for a new approach to measuring the value of engaged, loyal, diverse audiences. Our impact tracker prioritizes community engagement over clicks; responsiveness over shares; and behavioral change to create innovative metrics for success. In this workshop, we will walk you through how the tool and trust of audiences can disrupt your advertising to gain new and different dollars based on the depth and breadth of your community impact.

Speakers: Kat Duncan, director of innovation, Reynolds Journalism Institute; Sara Lomax, Co-founder and President, URL Media

Location: Room BC

4:15 p.m. ET
That’s a wrap!

Safe travels home!

Thanks again to our sponsors!