There’s something different about this week’s Seven Days: In the middle of the newspaper is a 12-page report written and designed by the staff of VTDigger, one of our chief competitors in the Vermont media business. The story, produced with support from the award-winning PBS documentary prog ram “FRONTLINE” through its Local Journalism Initiative, is the culmination of the online news outlet’s yearlong investigation of recent flooding in Vermont and the state’s natural-disaster resilience. It’s a uniquely ambitious, non-duplicable example of local journalism that deserves a wide readership. That’s why VTDigger CEO Brendan Kinney took the unusual step of approaching Seven Days with the idea of creating a print version of the piece — or at least the first story of three — to be inserted in our paper. A former longtime leader at Vermont Public, Kinney knows that every publishing platform has its strengths and weaknesses: Digger commands statewide attention online; Seven Days is a tangible product with a longer shelf life that offers what we like to call “the serendipity of print.” “This reporting is incredibly important, and we know the Seven Days audience is smart, curious and engaged,” Kinney said. He reasoned that combining forces would “ensure these stories have the broadest possible reach.” I embraced the idea because our reporters aren’t working on anything like it — and have no plans to — and I knew this information would be of great interest to our readers. Media collaboration makes increasing sense in a state that values good journalism but has finite resources to support it. Also, collaboration makes increasing sense in a state that values good journalism but has finite business and philanthropic resources to support it. For example: Two and a half weeks ago, Seven Days and VTDigger copresented an evening with New York Times investigative reporter Eric Lipton — one of the team of journalists who broke the story about the security failings of the new Qatari-gifted Air Force One and got subpoenaed by the U.S. Department of Justice for it. A University of Vermont alum, Lipton was in Vermont at the invitation of the school’s Community News Service but generously made time for a public appearance at the Delta Hotels in South Burlington. Digger organized the event; we marketed and sold tickets for it. Whenever a speaker mentioned that it was our first time working together, the sold-out audience cheered. Next up is an experiment with our calendar of events: Digger will soon begin publishing Seven Days’ Magnificent 7 column weekly on its website, where it will reach even more eyes. Kinney says Digger readers want the online news outlet to provide information about things to do where they live; at Seven Days, we go to great lengths — and expense — to compile the most comprehensive event listings in the state. If sharing some of that with other outlets makes it possible for us to keep doing it, we’re all ears. There’s no sense in reinventing the wheel. For almost 200 years, competition has fueled the media business, and the result has been good for consumers. Nothing motivates a reporter to work faster or harder than knowing a colleague at another outlet is hot on the same story. But that model is predicated on a healthy media ecosystem, with outlets of all sizes covering community news. It breaks down if a diminishing number of reporters is chasing the same stories at the expense of others that don’t get covered at all. Last week the New York Times published a story headlined “Alaska’s Journalists Join Forces to Cover the Midterms.” The subhead explains: “The state’s challenging geography and newspapers’ broader economic struggles have stretched reporters in Alaska, just as its competitive U.S. Senate race has grabbed national attention.” On Monday morning an email from the trade publication Editor Publisher landed in my inbox with an equally provocative subject line: “Could your newsroom’s biggest rival become its best partner?” Maybe. Seven Days has had a partnership with WCAX-TV for more than a decade; our reporters appear regularly on the station’s broadcasts. Several of our award-winning investigative projects have resulted from partnerships with Vermont Public. For almost a year, we’ve made our stories available to newspaper publishers in southern Vermont, beyond our print circulation area, for free. Seven Days was also instrumental in getting the cross-platform Vermont Journalism Coalition off the ground. Why? Because this media moment requires a new approach if local news is going to survive the next 200 years. The post From the Publisher: Mutual Aid appeared first on Seven Days. ...read more read less