The $2 million newsroom?

In the wake of the Feb. 22 Chicago journalism town hall, Chi Town Daily News editor Geoff Dougherty has laid out, in more detail, the possibility of covering local news with constrained budgets.

With a few caveats (it's solely payroll), Dougherty posits that you can put together a "robust local news organization."

Behold, the $2 million newsroom plan:

http://www.chitowndailynews.org/Ravings_from_the_editor/The_2_million_newsroom,22987

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Online Community News Sites to Expand Coverage

Four online community news sites will expand their local reporting staffs and bring their communities more content with a combined $390,000 investment from the Miami-based Knight Foundation. "As the news industry cuts costs by reducing staff - including local reporters - citizens are receiving less of the news they need to lead informed lives and hold their governments accountable," said Gary Kebbel, Knight's journalism program director. "These young, online-only sites help fill the void and offer the information needed to make decisions."

To see more about these grants click here
And to visit the four news sites, click below:

MinnPost, which provides news and analysis, including video and audio, from experienced journalists primarily in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
voiceofsandiego.org, the only professionally-staffed, nonprofit online news site in California.
Chi-town Daily News, which uses citizen journalists and staff reporters to cover Chicago’s 75 neighborhoods.
St. Louis Beacon, which emphasizes local news on its site founded by veteran journalists, and partners with its local public TV station.

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Strangers and Bedfellows

Departing from the norm, it looks like a large traditional journalism organization is trying to work WITH citizen journalists.

The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) is set to launch its Citizen Journalism Academies (CJA). These one-day workshops will train lay people to practice journalism "accurately, ethically and fairly." The goal of the program is to help participants "understand how responsible practices could increase their reach and help them have strong journalistic reputations within their communities and around the world," according to SPJ.

The first workshop will be in Chicago on May 17, where registrants will tackle topics on freedom of information, ethics, media law and reporting. Chi Town Daily News (http://www.chitowndailynews.org/), a nonprofit citizen news site covering Chicago, will assist with the training. Registration is $25. Future workshops are slated for Greensboro, N.C. and Los Angeles.

For more information on the CJAs: http://spj.org/cja.asp

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