One Type of Collaboration Spot.Us Enables
Two of Spot.Us’ more recent and ambitious projects share a significant and exciting development. “Collaboration” is a buzz word in journalism and I am one of its biggest proponents. There are some occasions where collaboration is just that – a buzz word, something that gets in the way or producing meaningful journalism and can be a nightmare (herding journalists is probably akin to cats).
But on other occasions collaboration can be an enabler.
Last night Oakland Local, KALW, New American Media, Placeblogger and Spot.Us came together to share resources to provide independent coverage of the Johannese Mehserle trial in Los Angeles.
Placeblogger, the largest searchable index of local weblogs, will be funding an investigative reporting project at Oakland Local, an online community news site based in Oakland, CA. Along with their partners New America Media, Spot.Us and KALW/Crosscurrents, Oakland Local has hired journalist Thandisizwe Chimurenga to cover the trial of Johannes Mehserle, a former transit police officer. Mehserle is on trial for the shooting of Oscar Grant, a 22 year old Oakland resident.
Oakland Local founder Susan Mernit says, “People in Oakland are very concerned about whether this is going to be an unbiased trial. It seemed really important to provide thorough, independent coverage of this story on an ongoing basis.”
You can read more at Placeblogger.
What does this represent?
Aside from New American Media – none of these organizations have the resources to hire an independent reporter to cover this trial. But together… they do. That’s the collaboration that is going on here. It isn’t necessarily editorial (although editorial collaboration will happen since we are all sharing a reporter), instead it’s a sharing of resources. Combined we have the ability to hire a reporter to stick to this trial which is of interest to anyone in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
Similarly: There are many reporters that work for small organizations like Oakland Local, KALW, New American Media, etc and would cover a trial like this for one of them. In doing so, however, the reporter can only expect to get paid $250 (give or take). That isn’t because the organizations don’t want to pay more – it’s simply a matter of resources. But by sharing content and pooling resources the reporter AND the organizations benefit. They can keep a reporter on the story longer, the reporter is paid for their time and the impact of the piece will be greater.
This is very similar to our UC Regent investigation. This is a collaboration of weekly newspapers that don’t have the full budget to keep Peter Byrne on the story to do the kind of in-depth reporting that he has been doing but together and with members of the public have been able to follow the UC budget cuts and investigate the UC regents. A positive development indeed.
In both the Mehserle trial and the UC regent investigation Spot.Us has created a platform that allows these various partners to come together. We are an independent third party that is looking out for the interest of all parties. We create a transparent space where money is accounted for publicly. All these things enable this type of collaboration to happen smooth and fast. And that – pushes boundaries.
People looked at McSweeney’s Panorama as a moment for independent publishers. Spot.Us played a small role and we were very honored to. But I disagree. The startup capital needed and the margins don’t match. I am a big believer in starting small and iterating. What these two projects represent is something real and tangible in independent media. Anyone (with or without Spot.Us) can corral simpatico organizations to try this kind of collaboration. Whether or not you open it up to the public as well (via Spot.Us to donate) is a side issue.
So where are you based? What is a friendly sister organization? And most importantly – what is an ongoing story that both of you are interested in covering?
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Keep up the great work David and all!
K