Q&A: Alia Wong on how AP connects local outlets with exclusive datasets for collaborative education reporting
Alia Wong is the collaborations editor for AP’s Education Reporting Network, a collaborative model led by Chrissie Thompson to leverage AP’s network of more than 4,000 outlets.
Wong is tasked with helping to supply local and nonprofit outlets with exclusive datasets and national resources to power education reporting in their states, districts, and neighborhoods.
We caught up with Wong to hear about how she’s approaching collaboration at AP and how she got into this innovative role in the education reporting world.
Chrissie Thompson also contributed background information.
WF: How did you get involved in journalism? When did you start to think about collaborative journalism?
AW: I had a pretty straightforward trajectory, I had wanted to be a journalist since I was in high school. I always loved writing and was curious about the world. As soon as I discovered journalism as a career path, it clicked as a clear and practical way to apply my passions. I was on the high school newspaper, majored in journalism in college, and did internships. One of my internships at Honolulu Civil Beat evolved into a full-time role when I graduated.
At Honolulu Civil Beat, collaboration was essential to our success. In one of my first projects as an intern, I had to analyze ad buys from local political candidates and that necessitated going to all the local TV stations and working with them to go through their manila folders with all these printouts of ad purchases. I didn’t necessarily think of it as a collaboration at the time, but it was clearly working together with the local TV stations to report on the ad purchases by these campaigns.
After Civil Beat, I went to work at The Atlantic as an education editor, and my team was super small. Collaboration was critical. I worked a lot with nonprofit education outlets like Hechinger Report and Chalkbeat to publish in-depth magazine quality coverage that wouldn’t have been possible without that collaboration and their resources. Those relationships have been super informative for my current role.
WF: What made you want to join AP as a collaborations editor?
AW: I had a percolating interest in collaborative journalism from my work experiences, as well as my relationships through the Education Writers Association, which is such a fantastic organization for reporters on our beat. It’s exposed me to all the wonderful people and the amazing journalism that has come out of collaborations. Also, some of my peer mentors, like Joy Resmovits and S. Mitra Kalita, are really pioneering in this world and got me realizing that it’s not only a feasible career path, but a really exciting one, and would allow me to grow as a journalist.
As soon as I found out about this role, it was one of those epiphany moments, like this is what I’m meant to do. I was so attracted to Chrissie’s team in particular — within the education journalism world, it’s been such a model. I’ve worked with Chrissie before at USA Today, and she’s always carving out new directions on this beat. Her team was a Pulitzer finalist for their Missing Kids project on chronic absenteeism. It’s exciting to see such a thriving team in an industry and beat that’s had a lot of volatility.
WF: How does AP’s collaborative model work in terms of education reporting?
AW: Our work with local outlets is called the Education Reporting Network. We’ve worked with about 110 local or nonprofit outlets in the past two years as part of our collaborations. It’s clear that other outlets are hungry for what AP is offering and they really appreciate the symbiotic relationship we’re presenting. We’re not just trying to leverage their on-the-ground community reporting and get that local context — we’re also providing them exclusive datasets, research, and access to analyses they might not get otherwise, and helping to synthesize complicated data while providing that national context that might be missing in their coverage.
For example, we’re continuing our coverage of chronic absenteeism. There was a general understanding that this problem had grown since the pandemic, but there was little clarity as to how much the problem had grown. So we partnered with Thomas Dee at Stanford University to produce a dataset with state-by-state numbers showing how much the rates had grown. The analysis also revealed that these absences weren’t related to COVID closures — kids were missing school for other reasons that we’re continuing to report on. That exclusive dataset was something that reporters across the country were really eager to get and they found it invaluable. Before then, we didn’t have that quantifiable sense of where the problem stood. They may have had numbers for their district or state, but it was hard to know how they were situated in the national backdrop, and that data allowed them to make those comparisons.
We shared the data in advance with AP members and nonprofit outlets, and we had a call with the researchers and one of our data reporters, Sharon Lurye, who helped give journalist-to-journalist feedback on how to incorporate that data into the reporting and make the most of it. We also gave our national story in advance, so the outlets knew how we were covering it. From there, they had the option to take that national story and data, and either re-publish it or make some state data more prominent. It was really about this idea of giving them the starter dough to cover the topic in the way that made the most sense and could have the most impact in their communities. We take that approach with a lot of our collaborative projects.
WF: Are there any specific elements of AP’s collaborative work that you’re trying to expand on and do more of?
AW: I’ve built really strong relationships with researchers in my work over the years. That’s one of the real assets of our collaborations and it’s something we’re trying to expand on. We want to partner with researchers, build those relationships, and then give exclusive datasets to local reporters so they have that access. It also helps researchers get exposure, allowing them to communicate their findings to reporters and a broader media audience, which they can often struggle with figuring out how to do. We’re planning to set up more panel and group interviews between researchers and local reporters so they can connect and follow up. That is a newer or enhanced component of collaborations that we’re trying to carve out and lead the way on, and one of my tasks is figuring out a well-oiled system to make that work.
WF: What is one of the most important lessons you’ve learned working in journalism?
AW: Journalism is at its finest when it’s produced with the help of a team. In some roles, I’ve felt like I was more on an island, but teamwork and collaboration allow you to do more than you could alone. There are so many skills needed to make a story shine. Without bringing together people with different strengths and perspectives, stories may struggle to get as much reach. Our projects cannot succeed without an entire team. In my career, it’s been such a clear difference when we have the resources of a team working together.
Will Fischer is a journalist covering the intersection of technology and media. He’s worked for Business Insider and New York magazine and conducted local news research for City Bureau. Follow Will on Twitter @willfisch15 or email him at willfisch15@gmail.com.
About the Center for Cooperative Media: The Center is a primarily grant-funded program of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. Its mission is to grow and strengthen local journalism and support an informed society in New Jersey and beyond. The Center is supported with funding from Montclair State University, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, the Independence Public Media Foundation, Rita Allen Foundation, Inasmuch Foundation and John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. For more information, visit centerforcooperativemedia.org.
