Collaborative Journalism Grants

New Mexico Local News Fund Collaboration Grants

We are happy to announce our 2020 collaboration grants:

  • Searchlight New Mexico and Little Globe will work together on community-engaged reporting on climate change.

  • New Mexico PBS, KUNM and the Santa Fe Reporter will focus on state government reporting during and after the legislative session.

  • New Mexico In Depth and the Las Cruces Sun News will do a series of stories on economic opportunities for young adults in New Mexico.

  • New Mexico Political Report and New Mexico PBS are creating a new podcast focusing on the cannabis industry in New Mexico.

Why Collaboration?

In July 2019 the New Mexico Local News Fund convened a small group of newsrooms that have collaborated on various projects together in the past. Please read the report of that discussion to help inform your application.

 

Collaboration between journalists in New Mexico, but also journalists and communities, audiences and other stakeholders is an opportunity to create news coverage that is more nuanced and reflective of New Mexico, its unique stories and cultures and the complexity of the challenges we face.. It’s also an opportunity to ensure important stories get covered despite a shortage of resources and narrowing capacity of local newsrooms.

 

One lesson learned from previous collaborations is that having an external facilitator working to engage all partners is essential. The New Mexico Local News Fund has retained the services of Heather Bryant from Project Facet. Heather is an expert on collaboration and experienced facilitator to work with those awarded a collaboration grant.

 

Selected organizations will be able to consult with Heather Bryant for 10-15 hours on the specifics of their project, including:

 

  • Goals, benchmarks and success metrics
  • Establishing expectations for all partners and for individual partners
  • Project roles and leadership structure
  • Workflow and tools
  • Shared language, assets, link protocols
  • Documentation
  • Evaluating benchmarks and planning for how the project will evolve or conclude
  • Post project evaluation

 

Frequently Asked Questions:

 

The grants are made as unrestricted general operating funding, with the assumption that organizations will use the funds to further their collaborative journalism project. An interim and final report will be required. We will add responses below as we receive further inquiries.

 

Who is eligible to participate in a New Mexico Local News Fund collaboration grant?

Any news organization in New Mexico is eligible to apply, in partnership with at least one other news organization. We will notify newsrooms around the state when a new round of funding is available.

 

What is the dollar amount awarded for collaboration grants?

Grants range from $10,000 to $25,000 dollars.

 

What is the grant period?

The grant period runs from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020.