Barancik Foundation funds new Community News Collaborative to serve Sarasota region
A local foundation is spending $600,000 on a new initiative aimed at providing more community news to the Sarasota region through a collaborative effort with local news organizations.
The Community News Collaborative is a project of the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation in partnership with WUSF Public Media and will fund an editor and four multimedia reporters who will provide print, audio and video stories to participating news organizations in Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties, the foundation announced Monday.
The journalists will be employees of WUSF, the National Public Radio affiliate licensed to the University of South Florida, and will work from Sarasota. They will provide free content that can be used by about a dozen local news organizations that have been in talks to participate, including the Herald-Tribune.
The foundation said the effort is designed to help fill gaps as news organizations have come under financial pressure from changing business models and reduced staff over time.
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“Journalism is the lifeblood of a functioning democracy and a civic-minded population,” Barancik Foundation President and CEO Teri A. Hansen said in a prepared statement. “Yet the economic environment faced by today’s local media is challenging their ability every day to report on community stories. We aim to address that problem head on by adding new resources to cover important topics that affect our communities.”
Foundation officials said while they will work with the collaborative, it will be an independent operation, run by a to-be-hired editor overseen by a board of advisors. They expect the journalists to cover a variety of topics that could include grassroots school coverage, the environment, social justice, underrepresented communities, affordable housing, and the region’s non-profit community.
Jennifer Orsi, executive editor of the Herald-Tribune and Vice President/Content for Gannett newspapers in Florida and Georgia, welcomed additional sources of community news and information.
“Communities are better when they have robust local news coverage, and that’s what our staff of journalists at the Herald-Tribune works hard every day to provide,” Orsi said. “This won’t change or replace the important reporting we do, but we look forward to working with the collaborative to provide our readers stories of interest to them that we aren't already covering.”
The Herald-Tribune participated in talks with the Barancik Foundation and several other local news organizations as the collaborative was conceived. Orsi said she was glad the project had taken steps to ensure the independence of the journalism produced as well as oversight of editorial and ethical standards. News organizations still have to review and sign an agreement to participate in the collaborative.
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Other local news organizations expected to participate are the Observer Media Group, Venice Gondolier/The Daily Sun, the Bradenton Herald, Tempo News, ABC 7 WWSB, WSLR, Solmart Media, Sarasota Magazine, Sarasota Scene Magazine and West Coast Woman, though others are able to join.
Foundation officials have said they do not intend to compete with local news organizations and will provide the content to be hosted on the websites and in the publications of participating organizations.
The project has been in the works for about three years, said Matt Sauer, collaboration and impact officer with the foundation, and a former executive editor of the Herald-Tribune. But now, with an agreement signed to house the team at the non-profit WUSF and insurance details finalized, they are ready to begin hiring. He said he hopes to have hires completed and community news flowing before the end of the year.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Barancik Foundation, WUSF announce new community journalism effort
