🔑 Emoji key:
⚡ These sessions are 5-minute lightning talks
🔥 These sessions are “fireside chats” with featured speakers
🔑 These sessions are keynote or plenary sessions
Scroll down to view the text-only version of the schedule.
🗓️ DAY 1 — May 15, 2025
All session times listed below are in Mountain Time (MT).
8:30 a.m. MT
Registration and breakfast for all attendees
Attendees are invited to join us after signing in for breakfast and networking before the Summit programming officially begins.
Location: Atrium, Delta Hotels at Thornton, 10 E 120th Ave, Northglenn, CO 80233
9:30 am MT
Welcome to the 2025 Collaborative Journalism Summit
Description: Welcome message from the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University, the Gates Family Foundation, and the Colorado Media Project.
Speakers: Stefanie Murray, director, Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University; Thomas Gougeon, president, Gates Family Foundation; Kimberly Spencer, director, Colorado Media Project
Location: Main Stage
9:45 a.m. MT
Introduction to the Collaborative Journalism Resource Hub
Description: Meet the team of the new Collaborative Journalism Resource Hub.
Speaker: Amy Maestas and Delaney Butler, Collaborative Journalism Resource Hub
Location: Main Stage
10:00 a.m. MT
🔑 OPENING KEYNOTE: What Colorado news leaders have learned from years of collaboration
Description: Colorado has long been seen as a place on the cutting edge of transformation in local journalism, as more than 180 news outlets collaborate across content, community engagement, and capacity building. Hear from a panel of ecosystem leaders about the lessons learned and the outlook for the future.
Speaker(s): TK
Host: TK
Location: Main Stage
10:45 a.m. MT
⚡ LIGHTNING TALKS (5 minutes each)
⚡ How 8 news organizations collaborate to fill a Spanish-language news desert in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley
Speaker: Raleigh Burleigh, The Sopris Sun; Bianca Godina, Sol del Valle/The Sopris Sun
⚡ How the Wichita Journalism Collaborative leverages events to grow audience
Speakers: Kathy Lefler, Wichita Journalism Collaborative; Claudia Yaujar-Amaro, Planeta Venus Online; Amy DeVault, The Sunflower at Wichita State University
⚡ When choral music becomes journalism: How to tell better stories and reach new audiences with an arts + newsroom collaboration
Speaker: Keri Mitchell, Dallas Free Press
Location: Main Stage
11:00 a.m. MT
🔑 KEYNOTE: How MLK50 serves the people of Memphis by centering community impact
Description: MLK50: Justice through Journalism is one of the country’s leading nonprofit news organizations that reports at the intersection of poverty, power, and policy in Memphis. MLK50’s courageous reporting has erased nearly $12 million in medical debt for impoverished patients, increased wages for the lowest-paid minimum wage hospital workers, and stopped a private-equity-owned doctor’s group from unscrupulous medical collections lawsuits.
Speakers: Wendi Thomas, founding editor and publisher, MLK50; Ayanna Watkins, co-executive director, MLK50
Moderator/host: TK
Location: Main Stage
11:45 a.m. MT
🥙 LUNCH BREAK
Attendees are invited to return to the Atrium for an hour to eat lunch before the second half of Day 1!
Location: Atrium
12:45 p.m. MT
🔑 PLENARY: Press Forward: How the nation’s largest collaborative of media funders is working together to support the industry
Description: Press Forward is a national coalition investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms, close longstanding gaps in journalism coverage, advance public policy that expands access to local news, and to scale the infrastructure the sector needs to thrive. Learn how Press Forward partners are moving from individual grantmaking strategies to a shared vision and coordinated action.
Speakers: TK
Location: Main Stage
1:30 p.m. MT
⚡ LIGHTNING TALKS (5 minutes each)
⚡ Lessons from an issue-driven collaborative covering the impact of the food system on climate
Speaker: Jenny Splitter, Sentient
⚡ Calling in the village to help Detroiters recover their $$$
Speaker: Koby Levin, Outlier Media
⚡ Collaborative cross-border environmental journalism: Seeing the forest through the trees with the Earth Journalism Network
Speaker: Sam Schramski, Earth Journalism Network
Location: Main Stage
1:45 p.m. MT
BREAK
Take a short break while we get ready for the rest of Day 1!
Location: Atrium
2:00 p.m. MT
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
So you’ve mapped your local news landscape — now what? How to keep up the collaborative momentum
Description: With local news mapping projects exploding in the States and fostering collaborations, what can you do once they’re published to keep up the momentum? Learn how journalists, funders, academics, and others created the Colorado News Mapping Project in 2022 and how it became a Big Bang for future collaboration and iteration. We’ll offer concrete solutions for creating your own project and keeping active the partnerships that state news maps create with actionable guidelines and ideas.
Speakers: Corey Hutchins, Colorado College; Kareem El Damanhoury, University of Denver’s Media, Film & Journalism Studies department
Location: Pikes Peak
Coaching middle managers — the overlooked part of every great journalistic collaboration
Description: Editors who manage collaborative projects are key to their success. But their role is often overlooked. Open Campus works with editors and reporters at its 17 partner newsrooms every day and has spent the last year building an onboarding system aimed directly at editors. In this interactive session, we’ll share takeaways from our project and, as a group, brainstorm about the best ways to build buy-in across collaborations.
Speaker: Colleen Murphy, Open Campus
Location: Wolf Creek
Covering statehouses: How student reporters are collaborating to fill information gaps in state policy news
Description: In this panel, Richard Watts and Sarah Gamard from the Center for Community News discuss their recent report showing how statehouse student reporting initiatives have grown to more than 30 states and what the overall impact of student reporting programs has been. They will also share ideas for growing student reporting and collaborations that contribute to local news across the U.S.
Speakers: Richard Watts, Center for Community News; Sarah Gamard, Center for Community News
Location: Crested Butte
Funder table (private, pre-registration required)
Description: TK
Speakers: TK
Location: Greenhouse
3:00 p.m. MT
BREAK
Take a short break while we get ready for the final sessions of Day 1!
Location: Atrium
3:15 p.m. MT
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
How the Statewide News Collective devised a method to measure hard-to-track community impact
Description: Some types of impact are obvious — a news story produces a law enforcement investigation, an elected official resigns, or a legislator launches hearings into an issue or problem. But news organizations also produce more fundamental impacts that can be harder to observe. This is especially true at the state and local level. This session will explore how a guide that draws on insights from a 2024 research project that demonstrated the impact of three members of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism’s Statewide News Collective — New Hampshire Public Radio, Bridge Michigan, and Montana Free Press.
Speakers: TK
Location: Pikes Peak
Collaborating with academic experts and non-news partners to fill coverage gaps
Description: The Conversation works with academic experts to fill coverage gaps for newsrooms and is one of the world’s largest producers of Creative Commons content. On average, each piece of content it publishes finds 20 additional publishers. In this session, you’ll learn about its newest initiative, The Conversation Local, which takes that republication model to the next level by working in collaboration with local newsrooms to understand and fill their coverage gaps on topics like housing policy, environmental health, education, local history, and the arts.
Speakers: Emily Costello, Director of Local News + Collaborations, The Conversation US
Location: Wolf Creek
Respuesta Rapida: How Chicago media used AI and WhatsApp to reach migrant audiences
Description: The Alliance for Trust in Media will discuss Chicago Public Media’s innovative use of WhatsApp and other unconventional platforms to reach Chicago’s burgeoning migrant population, as well as how a collaboration with Meedan is allowing reporters at the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ to squelch rumors and verify information in rapid response to direct queries from audiences in two languages. The session will cover how AI was integrated with unconventional platforms to lighten the journalists’ workload, and what impact the effort had on its target audience with key takeaways on how other newsrooms might succeed in similar efforts.
Speakers: TK
Location: Crested Butte
4:15 p.m. MT
END OF DAY 1 PROGRAMMING
That’s all for Day 1, folks!
We’ll see you at 6:00 pm for the cocktail reception or tomorrow at 8:30 am for Day 2 of #CJS2025!
6:00 p.m. MT
🍸 COCKTAIL RECEPTION: Sponsored by Reynolds Journalism Institute at Rocky Mountain PBS
The cocktail reception for the 2025 Collaborative Journalism Summit is sponsored by Reynolds Journalism Institute and will take place at the Buell Public Media Center at Rocky Mountain PBS, located at 2101 Arapahoe St, Denver, CO 80205.
Location: Buell Public Media Center, Rocky Mountain PBS, 2101 Arapahoe St. Denver, CO 80205
Thanks to our sponsors (Day 2 schedule continues below):
🗓️ DAY 2 — MAY 16, 2025
All session times listed below are in Mountain Time (MT).
8:30 a.m. MT
Welcome back! Join the 100 Days of Dignity team for breakfast
Description: PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED FOR 100 DAYS OF DIGNITY MEETUP. Attendees are invited to join breakfast on us and to meet with the team behind the 100 Days of Dignity project before Day 2 of the Summit programming resumes.
Speakers: Joe Amditis, associate director of operations, Center for Cooperative Media; Bridget Thoreson, Chief Project Officer/Dream Wrangler, Hearken
Location: Atrium + Restaurant
9:30 a.m. MT
🔑 KEYNOTE: When systems fail: Grassroots coordination for immediate action including journalism as a community act
Description: Mutual aid often operates where institutional systems falter. In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, many people in Southern Appalachia struggled to access essential resources. Information was hard to find or not shared effectively. Communities were experiencing spotty cell and internet service, and social media didn’t reach everyone. These gaps in communication slowed down relief and recovery efforts. A small group of volunteers mobilized to find solutions. What needs to be done to get critical information to impacted communities out there? They first focused on technology for mutual aid, rapidly developing a lightweight website driven by Google Docs that could be easily accessed and navigated by folks with minimal cell and internet service. It became clear that Appalachia Relief filled a traditional gap that neither large nonprofits nor the government could fill. How can journalists fill similar gaps by acting as connectors, information hubs, or organizers? By using their networks to help new ones, journalists can build non-institutional, community-centered problem solvers that generate incredible stories.
Speakers: Micah Spain, Appalachia Relief; Jessica Maness, Resilience Relief and Recovery Reach, Inc.
Moderator/host: TK
Location: Main Stage
10:15 a.m. MT
⚡ LIGHTNING TALKS (5 minutes each)
⚡ Equipping your audience with evidence: How SciLine collaborates to ground journalism with sound science
Speaker: Elena Renken, SciLine
⚡ Community media coalitions: Best practices to support a healthy local news ecosystem
Speaker: Stepfanie Alfonso, California State University—San Bernardino; Valerie Kiebala, Solitary Watch
⚡ Reimagining public safety coverage through community collaboration
Speaker: TK
Location: Main Stage
10:30 a.m. MT
🔑 PLENARY: Community collaborations: How Charlottesville Tomorrow and The Jersey Bee partner with communities they serve
Description: Civic media organizations increasingly collaborate with the people or organizations they serve. Join us to hear from two local news organizations collaborating with the communities they cover and using partnerships to provide critical information, scale their resources, and make an impact.
Speakers: Simon Galperin, Executive Editor, The Jersey Bee; Ashley Harper, Product and Technology Officer, Charlottesville Tomorrow
Moderator/host: TK
Location: Main Stage
11:15 a.m. MT
⚡ LIGHTNING TALKS (5 minutes each)
⚡ How national newsrooms are designing useful open-access tools for local newsrooms
Speakers: Michelle Billman, partnership and engagement associate, The Marshall Project; Nicole Lewis, engagement editor, The Marshall Project
⚡ Best practices for collaborative journalism across prison walls
Speakers: Valerie Kiebala, Managing Editor, Solitary Watch; Juan Haines, Editor-in-Chief, Solitary Watch
⚡ Tracking impact: A scalable solution for story sharing
Speakers: Melanie Plenda, Executive Director, Granite State News Collaborative; Johnny Bassett, Founder and Developer, Plucky Works
⚡ Joining forces: Insights from the Utah College Media Collaborative
Speakers: Marcie Young Cancio, Executive Director, Amplify Utah
⚡ How the Climate News Task Force, founded with 11 newsrooms in 2025, aims to deepen collaboration and expand philanthropic support for climate media
Speaker: Emily Holden, Executive Director, Floodlight
⚡ The state of LGBTQ+ media in the U.S.: Hear early details and findings of a soon-to-be-released research report on LGTBQ+-owned media
Speaker: Penny Riordan, Director of Local News Fund and Collaboration, Local Media Association/Local Media Foundation
Location: Main Stage
11:45 a.m. MT
🥙 LUNCH BREAK
Take a 45-minute break to eat lunch (on us!) before we kick off the second half of Day 2!
Location: Atrium
1:00 p.m. MT
🔑 PLENARY SESSION: TK
Description: TK
Speaker(s): TK
Moderator/host: TK
Location: Main Stage
1:45 p.m. MT
⚖️ SAFETY STATIONS (Concurrent)
Legal checkup with ProJourn: Protect your news collaborative from legal risks (Pre-registration required)
Description: News organizations and collaboratives are concerned about potential legal risks and challenges they may face in a changing political landscape, including compliance with IRS requirements, governance issues, access to government records, and defamation claims. ProJourn, a program operated by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, is now offering “Legal Checkup” clinics to help alleviate these concerns and equip news organizations with the tools to be proactive about their “legal health.”
Speakers: TK
Location: Greenhouse
Safety station 2: TK
Description: TK
Speakers: TK
Location: Main Stage
Safety station 3: TK
Description: TK
Speakers: TK
Location: Crested Butte
2:30 p.m. MT
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
Building sustainable collaborations with freelancers
Description: At a time when a growing number of journalists and storytellers are being laid off and many newsrooms continue to shrink, freelancers on contract are filling in the gaps at media organizations. This session will address how their talents can be leveraged into ambitious reporting projects from the beginning, starting with ideation and fundraising through fair and ethical contracts and pay. The speakers will discuss what such collaborations with freelancers look like and how freelancers can better leverage and advocate for themselves. You’ll also see a demo of the Institute for Independent Journalists’ interactive online freelance startup guide, which helps answer the key questions for ramping up a side hustle into a full-time business.
Speaker(s): Ann Marie Awad, Editorial Director, The Institute for Independent Journalists; Ruxandra Guidi, Writer & Producer, Fonografia Collective
Location: Telluride
How to harness the power of collaborative listening to reach new audiences
Description: In this workshop, journalists will learn how to do effective deep listening in their communities and leverage the collective strength of their local news ecosystems to gather, share, and act on audience insights more systematically. Participants will leave this workshop with a set of tools and exercises to take back to their colleagues.
Speaker: Mollie Muchna, Project Manager, Trusting News
Location: Pikes Peak
Concurrent session 3: TK
Description: TK
Speaker: TK
Location: Wolf Creek
3:15 p.m. MT
🔑 CLOSING PLENARY: Collaborating with news and information creators and influencers
Description: TK
Speakers: Adriana Lacy, Founder, Influencer Journalism
Moderator/host: TK
Location: Main Stage
4:15 p.m. MT
THAT’S A WRAP!
Get home safe, and we’ll see you all again next year for the 10th anniversary of the Collaborative Journalism Summit!
Thanks again to our sponsors!