These resources were suggested by some of the participants for perusal prior to the meeting. The intent was to help spark or contextualize ideas and observations for the discussion.
We highly recommend taking a look at these top two:
A Field of Toddlers: Nonprofit News Sites
Written by Ruth McCambridge, created Jan. 2. 2015
Nonprofit Quarterly, April 23, 2015
Note: This provides a good overview of the problems of growing nonprofit news organizations (which also apply to the independent news sector) and the complexity of different approaches to solving the problem of scaling up to sustainability.
Collective Impact
By John Krania & Mark Kramer
Stanford Social Innovation Review Series, Winter 2011
Note: It’s somewhat academic, but it addresses the topics of organizing and funding for large-scale impact in an original fashion. It includes some out-of-the-box thinking that some of you can use.
Here is a list of some other suggested readings from participants.
Untold Stories
A Survey of Freelance Investigative Reporters, released Feb. 7, 2015
Project Word, a project of Investigative Reporters and Editors
From Persona to Payment: A Status Report on the News Ecosystem and a Challenge to Create the Next One
By Bill Densmore, Fellow, Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, Missouri School of Journalism, March 12, 2015 (version 15 of a draft)
Building One Independent Sector
By Jo Ellen Green Kaiser, The Media Consortium
April 2015
The Personal News Cycle: A Focus on African American and Hispanic News Consumers
By the Media Insight Project – an initiative of the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research
September 16, 2014
The Local News Lab
Experiments in Journalism Sustainability
(On April 23, 2015, lead item on blog was “5 Ideas to Steal from ProPublica: For News Organizations of Any Size” by Molly de Aguiar)
The Importance of Protecting Freelancers
By Alexis Sobel Fitts, Jan/Feb 2015
Columbia Journalism Review
The Business Model That Will ‘Save’ Journalism
By Shane Snow
November 5, 2014
Public Policy and Funding the News
By Geoffrey Cowan and David Westphal
A Project of the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy
January 2010
Will The Last Reporter Turn Off The Lights?
By Robert McChesney and Victor Pickard
SuBMoJour – Sustainable Business Models for Journalism
A joint project with the University of Tampere, USC Annenberg and Waseda University
October 31, 2012
The Wired City
Reimagining Journalism and Civic Life in the Post-Newspaper Age
By Dan Kennedy
The New Medicis Funding Journalism
By Jack Schafer, Feb. 12, 2014
Reuters, Analysis & Opinion
Is There Inspiration In Your Media Diet?
A TEDx Talk by Sarah van Gelder
Posted Feb. 10, 2013