Journalism collaboration boosts coverage of three Florida counties

A brand new journalism collaborative primarily based at WUSF in Tampa, Fla., goals to develop coverage of three close by counties by offering reporting to native public and business retailers and inspiring additional content-sharing.

Announced in September, the Community News Collaborative will concentrate on DeSoto, Manatee and Sarasota counties. Its multimedia reporting will zero in on regional points at present receiving little consideration from media retailers, resembling training, social justice and underrepresented communities. 

The Barancik Foundation, a Sarasota-based basis, contributed $600,000 to launch the collaborative. The grant will assist create a workforce of an editor and 4 reporters in WUSF’s newsrom who will present content material to 12 public and business retailers, together with The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, The Bradenton Herald and WEDU PBS in Tampa. 

Discussions about such an initiative started internally on the Barancik Foundation three years in the past, based on Matthew Sauer, collaboration and affect officer. The funder was involved as sources waned to assist native journalism. With media retailers serving because the spine of communities, “the fear was just that we would lose that critical underpinning … and so we wanted to do something to supplement that,” Sauer stated.

After becoming a member of the muse in June 2021, Sauer started brainstorming concerning the concept with native retailers. Many of them initially needed positions funded of their newsrooms. But Sauer stated the muse needed to “lift all boats” with a collaboration that might serve a number of organizations. 

Sauer stated he hopes the CNC will concentrate on communities resembling Newtown, a majority-Black city north of Sarasota that will get little media consideration. He additionally needs to see Spanish-speaking reporters employed to cowl the rising Hispanic group in rural DeSoto County. The CNC will present experiences to Spanish-language radio stations owned by Solmart Media.

“I think it’s very important to bring those communities into the fold and get their issues covered,” Sauer stated. “There’s a lot of need there.”

WUSF already employs two full-time reporters in Sarasota and Manatee counties, whose experiences are shared with different public media stations within the state. But the CNC will develop the community to incorporate business companions as effectively. Its content material can be free to members, who may also be inspired to share reporting with one another. 

“This project aims to get people in the news media closer in touch with each other so that they can share coverage of issues,” stated WUSF GM JoAnn Urofsky. 

Sharing journalism among the many member retailers looks like a “natural” step, stated Jack Conely, VP of operations at WEDU PBS. Conely stated his station would gladly embrace print and audio content material from taking part organizations in Sustain, a digital initiative lately launched by WEDU to concentrate on local weather and the local people’s relationship with the atmosphere. 

Positions with CNC had been posted this month. The collaborative doesn’t wish to fill the roles with present workers of the taking part retailers however received’t rule out the likelihood, Sauer stated.

“The idea was never to come in and take their best people and deprive their organizations of that, because these are the mediums, so we have to protect them,” he stated.

Once the editor and reporters are onboarded, Urofsky hopes to have the CNC producing content material “as soon as possible.”