The Seattle Times announced that it and four other US newspapers are going to partner with local news sites to gather news as part of a project funded by American University's J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism. The other four papers are the Miami Herald, the Charlotte Observer, the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times and the TusconCitizen.com, which went online only in May.

The project's announcement stated that the goal is "to explore new ways to broaden newsgathering capabilities and further connections within the community." The Times and local sites will work to enhance relationships between the publications, including sharing news tips and news gathering information; linking to and promoting stories on partner sites to avoid gaps in coverage; exploring advertising opportunities across the sites; and learning about how partnerships can benefit the respective sites.

Four Seattle news producers will partner with the Times: Tracy Record, of the West Seattle Blog and White Center Now; Kate Bergman of Next Door Media, which includes My Ballard, PhinneyWood, Queen Anne View, Magnolia Voice and Freemont Universe; Justin Carder, of Capitol Hill Seattle and Neighborlogs, a platform for several neighbourhood sites in Seattle; and Amber Campbell, who runs the Rainier Valley Post.

"These sites have grown and built a community of people around them," said Bob Payne, director of communities for seattletimes.com. "We realized there are ways we can help each other meet our readers' needs, building off the strengths of The Times and the Web sites to provide more complete neighborhood news coverage."

The Times statement said that the five newspapers will meet at the end of the project to discuss what they have learnt and produce a report for J-Lab discussing whether this type of networked journalism can work. As news outlets struggle with lower advertising and circulation revenue, several have experimented with collaboration as a way to keep costs down. In the US, various groups of newspapers have embarked upon content sharing deals, although the value of this has been debated.

Source: Seattle Times, Editor & Publisher