"Leveraging resources from colleges and universities" is one way that rural communities can sustain local journalism that supports local democracy, says the director of a new center that is trying to track down all available examples of such partnerships and help them be succesful.
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Richard Watts |
Ryan's report for The Rural Blog includes a Q-and-A with Watts, beginning with the question about sustainability of rural journalism, which was the focus of the National Summit on Journalism in Rural America held by the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes TRB.
In addition to help from academics and their students, Watts said rural news outlets also need to "diversify their revenue streams, train citizen reporters and encourage local ownership." Citing Watts's success at getting a $200,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Ryan asked him what he could share about building "profitable partnerships."
First, "Go where the money is in local foundations. and look for companies that have an interest in seeing local news continue," Watts said. He said an electric utility and the Vermont Humanities Council gave his Community News Service $10,000 each to cover energy and the arts, respectively. "They don’t tell us what to write, just to write more" on those topics, he said.
"An organization focused on Lake Champlain gave us funding to seed more stories about the lake region," Watts added. "Our biggest success, however, has come from individual donors who care about local news, democracy and involving young people. Together we have raised more than $200,000 in the last few years to support community news from individuals." For Ryan's full report, with details about from Watts about working with student and citizen journalists, go here.
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