Ideas

How do you tell the story of 5,000-some inmates who will spend their entire lives in Pennsylvania prisons, with no chance for parole, because they are convicted of murder? Tom Ferrick, founder and senior editor of Metropolis, an independent news startup in Philadelphia, sought an enterprising way.

The merger of VTDigger.org and the Vermont Journalism Trust has led to $88,000 in support in just five months — and caused the industry to take note of an emerging stewardship model.

With nine Networked Journalism projects started around the county, we wondered if anyone in those communities had even noticed that independent news websites were partnering with a mainstream media organization in town. So 18 months into this experiment, we enlisted The Seattle Times to conduct an online survey to gauge the perceptions of its readers.

The best way to drive innovation is to expand the definition of innovation. But it needs to be more than just new tools. I would like to see us all embrace innovations in journalism conventions, processes, and relationships.

With funding from J-Lab’s Networked Journalism initiative, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s editors set about to rethink, alongside others, how the organization could cover Marcellus Shale, a massive topic to their region.

After winning a New Media Women Entrepreneur award, Retha Hill set about to build a Mobile Black History app that uses Augmented Reality to raise awareness of historic locations.

The Seattle Times this week announced it has added five more local news partners to the network it launched in 2009 with J-Lab support. That brings its network of local news and blogger sites to 39.

What happens when journalists fall into the habit of relying on their reliable sources? To be sure, they can turn stories quickly because they can ensure access to information. They can help their news organization keep up with breaking news that will be competitively distributed on other publications and platforms.