About Us

THE INCUBATOR CONCEPT:

The RJI Collaboratory works with entrepreneurial journalists, citizens and organizations to create strategies and tools for high-quality Web-based journalism.

WHY we're looking into the incubator concept:

* Problem: In 2008, traditional news organizations continued to shrink or close their doors. They laid off more than 15,000 journalists, resulting in a significant loss of the good journalism so vital to U.S. citizens and our democracy. Dozens of communities and neighborhoods now have little or no coverage of their local health, their local environment, or their local government. Some no longer have reporters, no journalism at all.
* Problem: This trend is likely to accelerate. Some people predict that half of the nation’s 1,500 daily newspapers will no longer exist within 10 years.
* Opportunity: The Web continues to propel the nichification of news. Hundreds of Web-based news/information sites and organizations have appeared over the last few years and are thriving, including MaxPreps.com, MinnPost, TheKnot.com, WestSeattleBlog.com, CSTV.com (which is now part of CBSSportsline.com), Politico, the St. Louis Beacon, Huffington Post, BlogHer, and Marketwatch. There’s a need for hundreds, perhaps thousands, more. A growing list can be found on the Jurnos wiki site.
* Opportunity: This new medium has its own unique characteristics that require a different type of journalism that significantly changes how journalists do their jobs. It offers the potential for journalists to serve their communities better, to engage more citizens, and to do better storytelling.

WHOM we might serve:

* entrepreneurial jurnos with talent, experience, a good idea, but few resources and little knowledge on how to start an effective Web-based news organization; these people can come from journalism, community organizing, health, environment, nonprofits, etc.
* news/information organizations founded by non-journalists;
* existing news organizations that are developing transformational strategies to adapt to a Webcentric world.

WHAT we might offer:

* Advertising strategies and techniques – sales, service, creation, production
* Web shell (information architecture) and design services
* Skills and tools resources to help journalists do Webcentric reporting
* Story, issue, beat and advertising templates
* Legal and regulatory guidance
* Technology primers
* Business planning and practices – human resources, bookkeeping, taxes, regulations
* Content management systems and guidance
* Networking services
* Creation and testing of editorial, advertising and business tools
* User survey and other usability and impact research

HOW we might go about it:

* The RJI Collaboratory’s services could be delivered through a non-profit cooperative with headquarters at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute and affiliate units at schools or departments of journalism, media institutes and laboratories, public policy organizations and citizens groups throughout the world providing direct services to the members in their service areas or specialties.
* Social networks of entrepreneurial journalists with similar and overlapping interests
* No-cost information to support improvements in editorial, advertising and business practices distributed primarily through the Web and other digital platforms.
* Skill and knowledge-building bootcamps on a wide variety of technology and process issues
* Contract consulting to address intense local or special interest issues
* Start-up support for an array of companies that provide software applications or services to journalists and to complex journalistic endeavors on a license or subscription basis. These could include advertising networks and such services as the Information Valet Project.

WHO we are:

* Jane Ellen Stevens is director of media strategies at The World Company in Lawrence, KS. The World Company publishes LJWorld.com, KUSports.com, the Lawrence Journal-World; it is where Django, a Web framework, and the content management system Ellington were born. Stevens was a 2008-2009 fellow at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. She’s worked for the Boston Globe and San Francisco Examiner. She founded a syndicated science and technology feature service with 20 newspaper clients worldwide, including the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and Asahi Shimbun's AERA Magazine. For four years, she lived and worked in Kenya and Indonesia. She’s written for magazines, including National Geographic, and, in 1996, was among the first group of videojournalists at New York Times Television. She’s done multimedia reporting for the New York Times and Discovery Channel. She taught the first multimedia reporting classes at the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, developed TOPP.org, and consults with news organizations transitioning to Webcentric newsrooms. She blogs at ReJurno.com.

* Amy Gahran and Adam Glenn manage the RJI Collaboratory social network on Ning. As new media business partners over the last several years,have provided online and citizen media strategies for numerous organizations, including media institutes, newspaper associations and local news organizations.

Amy, an independent journalist and a leader in online news and media for more than decade, has gained considerable visibility in the media, tech, journalism, and advertising communities through her own blog Contentious.com and by managing Poynter's E-Media Tidbits blog. Through these efforts, and many others, she's amassed an extensive, diverse network of contacts -- as well as a keen awareness of what has and has not been tried so far in the online news biz, and where the opportunities and pitfalls lie. Amy has also worked extensively with a broad range of tools for online communication, and she's led several successful community-building efforts.

Adam, a long-time journalist, educator, digital media consultant and experimenter, brings to bear 25-plus years of experience in print, television and online news environments, most recently as senior producer at ABCNews.com. He has specialized throughout his careers in news startups, and has built and managed online communities, created numerous journalism training programs, and received recognition for his work with various awards, including a 2007 Knight News Challenge Award for I, Reporter, Amy and Adam's joint venture in citizen media training and consulting. In addition to serving I,Reporter and numerous clients through his independent consulting business, Adam co-founded BGV Media Consulting, which specializes in developing strategies to meet business objectives for digital content creation and delivery. He teaches at both Columbia and New York University's graduate journalism programs, and for the last four years has been managing editor for Columbia's Knight/Carnegie-funded News21 newsroom incubator.

RJI COLLABORATORY TALKFEST, January 21, 2009

More than 100 journalists, advertising experts, community activists, technology experts, librarians, educators and students gathered -- from Washington, D.C. to Hawaii, in person and virtually -- for an RJI Talkfest to launch the RJI Collaboratory, a
news organization incubator for Web-based entrepreneurial
journalists.

For details, you can look at the video from the Adobe Connect room, which includes comments from the dozens of people who were attending virtually. Or, you can simply look at the UStream video.

From the Adobe Connect room:

Morning Session: Introductions and Case Studies

Morning Session: Case Studies and introduction of breakout group to...

Afternoon Session: Breakout Group: Entrepreneurial Journalism 101

Afternoon Session: Breakout Group: Marketing and Advertising

Afternoon Session: Breakout Group: Building Community

Afternoon Session: Breakout Group: Mobile

Afternoon Session: Breakout Group Summaries and Next Steps

From UStream.tv:

Part 1 – 9:00 – 10:30

Part 2 – 10:30 – 11:45

Part 3 – Web-based News Entrepreneurship 101

Part 4 – Building and Integrating Community

Part 5 – Wrap-Up and Comments