Collaborative Sustainability Guide

The field of collaborative journalism is growing not just in size, but also in scope. An increasing number of local news organizations are collaborating with one another to produce stories, test new technology, host events, and better serve their communities’ information needs. Many of these collaborative efforts are short-term, meant to cover a single topic or serve a specific need, and often are funded by participating organizations.

However, like many organizations, collaboratives that hope to continue long-term discover they must transition and diversify revenue streams. This means clearly understanding what audience or audiences a given collaborative serves. What jobs does it do for its audience, and how? What revenue streams align with that value proposition?

As this field matures, we wanted to know: What’s working to generate revenue and sustain journalism collaborations, beyond philanthropy?

To answer this question, the Center for Cooperative Media, The Lenfest Institute for Journalism and the Solutions Journalism Network conducted a survey, interviewed collaborative project managers, funders and ecosystem support staff from around the country, and ultimately identified eight innovative examples of collaborative revenue experiments in progress to share with you. These experiments range from new reader revenue streams to newsletter sponsorships, monetizing events and sharing back-office services.

In this guide, we curate some of the top resources available to project managers and newsrooms today to help you put these ideas into action.