Networked News Nonprofit: Big New Way to do News?

Hey, a lot of people feel that the news orgs of the future involve networks of journalists, fact-checkers, and editors working together. I'm one of them, having stolen ideas from Ellen Miller, Jeff Jarvis, Jay Rosen, Dan Gillmor and others.

Well, the first such alliance has arisen, planning to operate in a public service, nonprofit mode.

It's The Investigative News Network

Therefore, with a full appreciation of both the complexities and the opportunities to be achieved by more formalized collaboration, the nonprofit news publishers at Pocantico hereby declare that preparations should be immediately made to form a collaboration, the Investigative News Network (working title). Its mission is very simple: to aid and abet, in every conceivable way, individually and collectively, the work and public reach of its member news organizations, including, to the fullest extent possible, their administrative, editorial and financial wellbeing. And, more broadly, to foster the highest quality investigative journalism, and to hold those in power accountable, at the local, national and international levels.

Better commentary here by Josh Wilson of newsdesk.org:

Journalism's true strength in the Internet era is decentralized. It's all about reporters -- and reporting teams -- working solo, and then linking up in parallel to coordinate on stories, cross-promote, and share resources.

Parallel processing! Peer-to-peer networks. A network model harnesses the inherent strength of the Web as a medium. This is the thesis behind my work with Independent Arts & Media and Newsdesk.org.

Now, on a significantly larger scale, a collaborative of nonprofit news agencies is teaming up to create a new entity: The Investigative News Network.

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