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Program Models and Workflows

Overview

There is clearly no one-size-fits-all model for news-academic partnerships. From funding to platforms to university resources to communities served, numerous factors shape how these newsrooms operate and why. Below are cornerstone resources for considering how your program could take shape/evolve and examples of some of these models.

Mission and Vision

Before choosing a program model, the purpose, audience and message for the news organization needs to be clarified. (See questions for determining PAM.) Brainstorming for your situation is crucial, too, such as what gaps (geographic, topical, demographic) your newsroom would address within the community you are serving. Use the templates and playbooks below to think through these big questions.

Key Resources

Program Models

There is a full list of case studies and a that summarizes the depth and breadth of model options, but here are a few example programs, separated by type, to inspire and guide.

As a Specific Course

As an Independent News Organization

As a News Service

As a Topic-driven Newsroom or Program

As a Statehouse Bureau ()

As a Partnership with Professional Newsroom(s)

As an Alternative Model

Resources for Awards and Honors

Part of growing a program is gaining recognition for its quality. Below is a list of organizations that you can consider submitting student work to in order to provide encouragement for your students and the community they serve.

  • and
  • and (if applicable)

Leadership Structures

Faculty-led Newsroom:

In this model, college faculty are the lead editors and executive producers for the reporting. Sometimes news organization leaders participate, too, but in many cases, content will simply be published by the newsroom once it’s vetted and approved by the faculty in the partnership.

Job Descriptions and Examples:

  • , executive editor Colleen Steffen;
  • , executive producer Ralitsa Vassileva and managing editor Amanda Bright

External Editor:

With the help of extra funding, some news-academic partnerships hire a part-time or full-time editor/producer, outside of a faculty role or specific course assignment, in order to act as leadership of the news-academic partnership and/or share the load for editing and providing feedback for publication or broadcast.

Job Descriptions and Examples:

  • , editor Justin Trombly
  • , editor Andy Johnston

News Organization-led:

Other partnerships are built on the premise that the newsroom leaders will do the vetting and approval of content, while the faculty member plays a secondary role with instruction. In these models, newsroom leadership works with students and/or faculty in order to get reporting to publication or broadcast level.

Job Descriptions and Examples:

Onboarding and Training Resources

News-academic partnerships change staff often. Here are some tools for onboarding and transitioning between reporters and and other staff members:

  • by Sandhya Kambhampati
  • by NiemanLab
  • by 

Workflow and Roles

The roles students take on in your newsroom (as well as the role(s) faculty play) will depend on too many variables to name, but there are key considerations — once a program model is established — that can keep the newsroom workflow efficient and effective.

  • Pitch structure — many news-academic partnerships find success along with a systematic way to provide pitches with feedback as pre-reporting begins
  • Reporting and product roles — set clear expectations about sources, length and depth of content (writing, video, audio), style and editing guidelines, beat systems, photos and captioning, web and interactive elements, etc.
  • Collaborative expectations — whether it’s between reporters themselves or with editors/producers, faculty, or professional journalists, guidelines about workload and communication frequency must be clear
  • Editing process — create a consistent and rigorous path that reporting must go through before being seen by an audience; in essence, how much oversight will other members of the staff, you/faculty, professionals, and others have before it goes live; recommend that students are part of the editing process as editors when possible
    • Local News Network Editing Workflows (University of Maryland)
    • — all published work
  • Editor/producer roles — these can be static for a period of time or to gain experiences with editing, video, graphics, digital products, etc. For another example, from Grady Newsource shows how students rotate through producer, editor and MMJ roles.

Recommendations:

  • Create a , , and/or to ensure consistency and to capture the knowledge of each staff to be passed onto the next semester or year
  • Create video walkthrus or other documentation for self-led role training

Faculty Resources