What do you do when you're about to hit your stride in your career--and you realize your bosses hate what they're doing? Last week I heard from two groups of people committed to making a change in the way journalism works. Thanks to their efforts, theSkimm has become a ubiquitous way for Millennial women to start their days and City Bureau is now a civic journalism lab putting the tools of journalism in the hands of those whose stories are frequently silenced. As one of the panelists talking about City Bureau said, success is just not quitting. And it seems like these news organizations are definitely on the pathway to success. theSkimmCarly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg remember the day they quit their dream jobs. They were 25-year-old news junkies who had worked their way up through internships when they realized that their bosses were quitting their jobs (if not losing them) out of disenchantment with the industry. If that's what they were supposed to be striving toward, they wanted none of it. So on July 18, 2011--the "scariest day of our lives"--Zakin and Weisberg left NBC News and used the $3,000 in combined savings and the credit card debt they would accumulate together to launch a new way of delivering news to women their age. Through daily emails full of information written like your best friend would tell you, the pair built a community of Skimm'bassadors and loyal readers. Now, just over five years later, they have used the Skimm to create a campaign registering more than 108,000 new voters, have raised more than $16 million in fundraising, and premiered a second product (Skimm Ahead, to complement the events often featured in the daily email). Lessons learned:
City BureauRather than taking the news and putting it in other people's hands like theSkimm, City Bureau has led the Chicago community journalism scene with the mission of putting the news back in the community from sourcing to social media.
It's a fledging organization working hand in hand with South Side Weekly, originally a student publication out of the University of Chicago now converted into a nonprofit highlighting the wins and woes of the lesser-known half of the city, and the Invisible Institute, a "journalistic production company" spearheaded by housing and police reporter Jamie Kalven. City Bureau holds trainings for citizens about everything from Freedom of Information Act requests to recording at public meetings and pays stipends to writers of all levels through its reporting program. But mere months ago, the journalists behind it were frustrated with the way traditional media covered all spaces of the city. They--Darryl Holliday of DNAInfo and the Chicago Sun-Times, Harry Backlund of the South Side Weekly, Andrea Hart from nonprofits helping high school journalists, and Bettina Chang, editor at Chicago magazine--wanted to bring the tools of investigation and journalistic action to residents of the city's South and West Sides. These have culminated in a weekly Public Newsroom, reporter trainings and stipends, and a wide network of support. But City Bureau's work has only just begun. Lessons learned:
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