Here’s a list of 40+ current permanent journalism collaboratives in the U.S.

The list is not complete, but we’ll keep updating it!

By Stefanie Murray and Mariela Santos Muniz

Collaborative journalism has become widely accepted in the U.S. media industry over the last decade. As its practice has grown, so have the number of permanent or semi-permanent collaboratives.

These kinds of collaboratives are often established to cover a certain geography or topic for the long-term. They are usually set up as a stand-alone entity or are tied to a partner with sufficient infrastructure and they almost always employ a collaboration manager.

In her assessment of the models of collaborative journalism in 2017, the Center’s research director, Dr. Sarah Stonbely, classified these kinds of ongoing, integrated collaborations as the most complex and difficult. Yet, they are also often the most impactful, as they bring together journalists and media makers for long-term partnership.

I’m often asked for a list of such collaboratives in the U.S. So, here you go! I know we don’t have them all, so drop me an email at murrayst@montclair.edu if I missed yours and I’ll add it, or if we mischaracterized a collaborative. I know things shift quickly and some websites may be out of date.

Permanent collaboratives, with independent manager(s)

• Amplify News Project: Led by the Institute for Nonprofit News, Amplify is an effort to expand news distribution and collaboration across the American midwest. Amplify also manages editorial collaborations for INN members, often in collaboration with nonmembers. Sharon McGowan runs the Amplify project.
• Amplify Ohio: This collaborative includes three Ohio digital news sites and is funded by the Local Media Association. It is focusing on coverage of disparities in healthcare and developing local funding for all three organizations. Joe Matessa is the project manager.
• Center for Collaborative Journalism at Mercer University: CCJ was founded in 2012 and regularly works with its three local media outlet partners. The group reports collectively on larger community topics and elections. CCJ employs one reporter, soon to be two. It is overseen by Debbie Blankenship.
• Charlotte Journalism Collaborative: This solutions journalism collaborative launched in 2019 and includes eight media organizations, as well as a university and library partner. Chris Rudisill is the collaborative’s director.
• Colorado News Collaborative: The Colorado News Collaborative, known as COLab, is a first-of-its-kind nonprofit that supports more than 140 communities and some 200 journalists statewide to bring “Better News for all Coloradans.” They collaborate to increase the quantity and quality of civic news — the kind that holds power to account and helps Coloradans participate in healthy communities and a responsive democracy. Laura Frank runs the Colorado News Collaborative.
• Covering Climate Collaborative: This group of 22 news outlets from across the country is working to cover the impacts of climate change at the local level and reporting on ways communities can take action. It’s supported by the Local Media Association. Kyla Mandel is the project manager.
• Dallas Media Collaborative: This solutions journalism collaborative just launched and includes nine newsrooms, three universities, a local think tank and a choral ensemble. It is searching for its first project manager (apply here!).
• Granite State News Collaborative: This statewide collaborative in New Hampshire is solution journalism-focused and has about 20 partners. Melanie Plenda is the collaborative’s director.
• International Fact Checking Network: The International Fact Checking Network is an international collaborative of fact-checkers, that puts together an annual fact-checkers conference, provides trainings, and more. This collaboration is a project of The Poynter Institute. Baybars Orsek is the director.
• Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk: Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk is a collaborative focused on covering agriculture, water, and related issues throughout the Mississippi River Basin, which will place 10 new reporters in newsrooms in partnership with Report for America, and 5 expert journalists. The collaborations is currently hiring an editorial director.
• NJ News Commons: The NJ News Commons network is the flagship project run by the Center for Cooperative Media, and includes 280 media partners and 80 freelancers. The Center provides training, coaching, professional development, communication, networking and collaboration opportunities to the NJ News Commons members. Cassandra Etienne heads up NJ News Commons.
• Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative: NEO SoJo, as the partners call themselves, is a new solutions journalism-oriented group with 19 newsrooms participating. Sharon Broussard is the project manager.
• Oklahoma Media Center: Oklahoma Media Center is a collaborative that focused on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities in 2020, and provides training and funding support to 29 print, digital, and broadcast outlets. In 2021, the collaborative is covering the effects of a Supreme Court ruling on tribal sovereignty. Rob Collins is the project manager.
• Pittsburgh Media Partnership: The Pittsburgh Media Partnership is an initiative of the Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University. It’s a collaborative of local news organizations spanning the city and the surrounding river valley communities that make up the greater Pittsburgh region. AmyJo Brown is the project editor.
• Resolve Philadelphia: Resolve is often pointed to as one of the most innovative efforts in the U.S. It describes itself as “an unconventional journalism organization that challenges our industry to be more equitable, collaborative, and based in community voices and solutions.” It got started as a solutions journalism-focused collaborative. Cassie Haynes and Jean Friedman-Rudovksy are its co-executive directors.
• Solving for Chicago: Solving for Chicago is a collaborative covering issues related to Chicago, with 20 print, digital and broadcast outlets. They are currently covering how the COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping the jobs of essential workers. Sam Cholke is the project manager.
• The Bureau Local: Bureau Local is a collaborative, investigative journalism network in the U.K., with nearly 1,500 network members. It’s experienced incredible growth in recent years and produced highly impactful work. Megan Lucero launched and is the director of Bureau Local.
• The New York & Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative: The New York & Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative, also known as NYMI SOJO, is a collaborative that is covering solutions to challenges faced by caregivers and older adults, with 26 media outlets and 5 community partners. Karen Magnuson is the project director.
• Wichita Journalism Collaborative: Wichita Journalism Collaborative is a collaborative formed to provide much needed news on the COVID-19 pandemic, with 7 media partners and 3 community partners. Amy DeVault is the project manager.
• Word in Black: Word in Black is a collaborative of leading Black publications that cover news for, about, and by Black people, with 10 partners. Nick Charles leads the collaboration with support from Maya Pottiger, a data journalist.
• Your Voice Ohio: Your Voice Ohio is a project of the Jefferson Center and has nearly 60 statewide partners. Doug Oplinger is the project manager.

Permanent, but managed by one partner or with shared oversight:

• 100 Days in Appalachia: 100 Days in Appalachia is a collaborative focused on stories across Appalachia. 100 Days was incubated at West Virginia University’s Media Innovation Center and is currently transitioning to independent nonprofit status. Daily Yonder of the Center for Rural Strategies is one of its founding and continuing collaborating partners. Dana Coester is editor in chief and Ashton Marra is the executive editor.
• Charlottesville Inclusive Media Project: The Charlottesville Inclusive Media project was founded by Charlottesville Tomorrow, In My Humble Opinion Radio Show and Vinegar Hill Magazine. Their goal: bringing more inclusive representation to local media.
• Coast Alaska: Coast Alaska is a public media collaborative bringing together radio stations in the Alaska communities of
  Juneau, Sitka, Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan and the Aleutians. It is one of the oldest collaboratives in the U.S., with a launch date in 1994. Molly Kabler is the executive director.
• Connected Coastlines: Connected Coastlines is a collaborative that reports on the climate and U.S. coastlines, with 18 newsroom partners. The collaboration, which is supported by the Pulitzer Center, also includes freelance journalists.
• Covering Climate Now: Covering Climate Now is a collaborative that reports climate change stories and drives public conversations on the topic, with more than 460 news and media partners and 57 countries represented by the collaboration. Mark Hertsgaard of lead partner The Nation is the co-founder and executive director.
• Chicago Independent Media Alliance: Chicago Independent Media Alliance is a collaborative fundraising effort for independent outlets in Chicago, with 43 partners. This initiative is a project of the Chicago Reader.
• Great Lakes Now: Great Lakes Now is a collaborative covering the Great Lakes region, consisting of daily online information and a monthly television program, with 14 partners. The collaboration is housed at Detroit Public TV. Sandra Svodoba is the program director.
• Gulf States Newsroom: The Gulf States Newsroom is another NPR collaboration covers news in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Priska Neely is the managing editor.
• Harvest Public Media: This initiative focuses its reporting on “food systems, agriculture and rural issues through a collaborative network of reporters and partner stations throughout the Midwest and Plains.” It is run out of KCUR 89.3 in Kansas City, Missouri, and its partners are all public radio or public TV.
• KC Media Collective: This new collaborative includes solely nonprofit news partners in Kansas City, including American Public Square, Kansas City PBS/Flatland, KCUR, Missouri Business Alert, Startland News, and The Kansas City Beacon.
• NC Watchdog Reporting Network: The NC Watchdog Reporting Network is a collaborative made up of investigative journalists that carry out watchdog reporting in North Carolina, with 7 partners.
• New England News Collaborative: This group includes nine public media stations in New England and has focused on climate change and clean energy, racial inequality and immigration, as well as the impacts of the pandemic. The executive editor is Vanessa de la Torre, who is based at one of the member stations.
• North Carolina News Collaborative: The North Carolina News Collaborative is a collaborative of 22 newspapers that tackles statewide watchdog reporting projects.
• Northwest News Network: Northwest News Network is a public radio station collaborative with 11 member stations covering stories about Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.
• NPR Texas Collaborative: Another public radio station collaborative, this one brings together the 4 biggest public radio stations in Texas. Coverage by the stations will be broadcast on The Texas Standard, a one-hour daily news magazine. The project is one of NPR’s regional hubs.
• NPR Midwest Collaborative: The NPR Midwest Collaborative is a public radio station collaborative covering issues like criminal justice, the environment and government in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska, with 4 stations. The project is one of NPR’s regional hubs.
• NPR California Collaborative: The NPR California Collaborative is a regional newsroom focused on covering issues across the state with an emphasis on underreported regions, with 6 partners. The project is one of four NPR regional hubs. Adriene Hill is the managing editor.
• Ohio Valley ReSource: Ohio Valley ReSource is a collaborative covering economy and social change in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, with 7 public media outlets.
• Parity Newsroom Collaborative: The Carter Center’s Mental Health Program recently launched a solutions-based, 5-newsroom U.S. collaborative focused on national access to mental health services and how lack of access is impacting local communities. Kristyn Wellesley leads the collaborative.
• Side Effects Public Media: Side Effects Public Media is a collaborative that reports on the effects of place, policy and the economy on health, with 8 partners. The headquarters is in Indiana, but there are partners in 5 other states in the Midwest.
• Stories of Atlantic City: Stories of Atlantic City is a collaborative that tells restorative, underreported stories about Atlantic City and its residents, with around 12 community members and journalists. The collaborative does community and organizing outreach, a traditional and hyper-local media collaboration, and serves as an educational source. Christina Noble is the part-time project manager, based at partner organization Stockton University.
• The Invading Sea: The Invading Sea is a collaborative that covers the rising sea level invading South Florida’s coast. It publishes pieces by scientists, academics, activists and citizens across 25 daily newspapers and one public radio station.
• WHYY’s News & Information Community Exchange (N.I.C.E): N.I.C.E is an innovative mutual aid journalism collaborative in Philadelphia. The goal of N.I.C.E. is to “organize, support, and develop grassroots news and information content creators” who “in turn share content, sources, wisdom and audiences with WHYY and each other.” N.I.C.E is managed by Eric Marsh, Sr.

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About the Center for Cooperative Media: The Center is a grant-funded program of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. Its mission is to grow and strengthen local journalism, and in doing so serve New Jersey residents. The Center is supported with funding from Montclair State University, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, the New Jersey Local News Lab (a partnership of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, and Community Foundation of New Jersey), and the Abrams Foundation. For more information, visit CenterforCooperativeMedia.org.