Collaborative Playbook based on Reentry Project

Collaboratives and partnerships among news organizations in various manifestations have been gaining traction since the mid-2000s. The upsides are always offered with enthusiasm: collaboratives can result in cost savings and potentially even generate revenue, allow access to additional resources and specialized reporting skills, and help connect with new audiences.

At the same time, evidence shows that there are significant obstacles that can at best stall and at worst doom a collaborative effort. Among them are the perception that collaborations are too time consuming, the size bias of newsrooms and discomfort with asymmetrical relationships, internal resistance, the lack of shared values, and the absence of consensus on the topic of coverage. Forging ahead while glossing over these challenges has led to unrealistic expectations resulting in frustrations around sloppy execution and unsatisfactory results.

This is a playbook on one successful collaborative from start to finish, that just happened to launch Resolve Philly.