Here’s another success through our partnership with BGV Media, focussed on helping educational and not-for-profit institutions:

In early 2009, we learned that the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media was looking for help in devising a digital media strategy. The Institute is, in its own words, “the preeminent source of training for reporters and editors on the education beat.” It’s no secret, though, that the number of journalists covering education has shrunk as news organizations have cut back on staff. At the same time, the hunger for journalism about education coverage remains, especially with new initiatives from the Obama administration and budget cuts throughout the country.

Hechinger’s leaders knew that one of the best ways to continue to fulfill its mission “to inform the public about education through quality journalism” was to produce and distribute journalism through other outlets and on their own through digital platforms.

That’s where we came in. Hechinger put out a call, asking for experts who knew digital media from both the business and editorial sides, and could help them devise a strategy. They turned to us for guidance. And over the course of the year, we helped Hechinger craft editorial, business and technology models for digital media based on production of high-quality journalism, funded first by grants, then largely offset by additional revenue streams.

We produced a narrative, as well as financial spreadsheets and presentational materials. We also joined a face-to-face meeting with foundation funders to help Hechinger make its case. In addition, we helped develop an operational plan, workflows and technology choices for an interim site covering a smaller education niche.

Ultimately, Hechinger landed $1 million in grants from the Lumina and Gates foundations. We were thrilled to see Hechinger get the funding, and to be part of the process. We are looking forward to seeing an ambitious new website launch next Spring. The Hechinger Report, as it is being called, will provide in-depth coverage of national education issues on its own and in collaboration with major news organizations.

We know it will all solidify Hechinger’s position as the leader in its field, raise the Institute’s profile and serve as an example for others wishing to emulate the model for producing quality journalism in a time of severe media business disruption.

Through our partnership with BGV Media, focussed on helping educational and not-for-profit institutions, we are proud to provide this example of a success:

When folks at the oldest journalism school in the country needed to know more about the world of Web publishing, they called us.

In October, 2008, the University of Missouri’s Reynolds Journalism Institute brought us to Columbia, Mo., for an intensive day-long seminar on the topic of content management systems, or CMS. They had learned of our expertise through our white paper on the topic (available in the right sidebar on our homepage).

Principals Dorian Benkoil and Adam Glenn, along with Amy Webb, our CMS expert and lead author of our CMS white paper, briefed some 30 journalism faculty, staff, fellows and students, as well as representatives from the Missouri Press Association and National Newspaper Association.

Among the topics we guided the group on were the current state of the CMS industry, media trends affecting CMS choices, and how individual organizations can find a direction and make initial decisions on their choice of CMS. We also helped them delve into workflows and business issues in a digital media environment.

Meeting organizer Jane Stevens described how we jumped in to help with this informative overview of the gathering. “If you’re trying to figure out what CMS to choose for your news organization, and you’re confused by the plethora of choices, [their paper] is worth every penny,” she writes. “Even better than reading the white paper is to talk with them in person.”

RJI and Stevens later brought Adam and Dorian on board to help with a related project called the RJI Collaboratory, a social network of entrepreneurial journalists looking to find support and advice for starting up niche news projects. Adam helped launch the Collaboratory in early 2009 and continues to jointly manage it, while Dorian shared his insights on the business of news in a series of detailed blog posts and other resources in the summer of 2009.