Mark Glaser: “Sometimes if you ask colleagues for help, they say yes -- with almost no strings attached.”

Mark Glaser, Executive Editor, PBS MediaShift and Idea Lab

Here’s an important lesson I learned in 2012 about creating a sustainable news business. I run the MediaShift site for PBS, and our current funding comes from PBS, Knight Foundation, and sponsors for the site, events and newsletters. I have been doing more and more events, mixers and symposiums, which has been a good side business. When we recently had a Mixer in San Francisco, we asked attendees if they might volunteer to help us at the door with registration. We expected that some students might want to help. But instead we had volunteers who were pretty high-level colleagues. That was a surprise.

One of those was Terry Parris Jr. of Ustream. I asked him why he would want to volunteer and work the door at our Mixer. He said it would be fun and he really wanted to help out. We chatted a bit at the Mixer and struck up a conversation about ways we might work together. Eventually Terry wrote a piece for MediaShift about Ustream’s efforts around the election, and when I did a live-stream on Election Day, Ustream was a sponsor for that, providing equipment and support. Plus, Current TV offered to host the live-stream, and also offered up equipment and tech producing help.

My surprising lesson was that sometimes if you ask colleagues for help, they say yes — with almost no strings attached. As a small entrepreneur, the more such partnerships and collaborations you can find, the better your business can be sustainable.

Dan Moulthrop, Curator of Conversation, The Civic Commons

Dan Moulthrop: “What if editorial boards began to function more like engagement boards?”

When we began The Civic Commons in 2010, we didn’t really know how the community might react. This year, a few things became clear.

Media companies are still just beginning to learn what engagement really means

When media execs talk about engagement, too many of them think about audiences engaging with their content, not the newspaper engaging with the community. What if editorial boards began to function more like engagement boards?

People love to live chat, especially when the conversation is curated

The curation metaphor gets thrown around a lot, but what we mean by it is that the conversation is intentional. We think about who would be most useful to hear from and what kinds of audiences should be invited. Why more news organizations aren’t doing stuff like this is beyond me.

Radio still works really well for explaining stuff

Last summer, we put our nascent podcast on ice for a bit, pending future fundraising. In the 60-some episodes produced, what was most helpful was breaking out of traditional forms. The best feedback we ever got? “That part where you were talking about selling tax credits – that was awesome!”

Even big, conservative institutions can do online engagement well

The biggest challenge is usually about giving the partners the impetus to own the engagement, rather than treat it like something someone else will take care of. The best example of this going really well is our project with Kent State University, where the Provost’s office and the Academic Affairs committee invited their community into six different dialogues to inform the 2013 Strategic Plan. This might sound boring, but hundreds of people were talking to one another and building on ideas raised.

Tools are maturing

No matter what your engagement need, there are great tools available for you.

Read more: http://theciviccommons.com/blog/five-things-we-learned-this-year

Josh Sterns, Journalism and Public Media Campaign Director, Free Press

Josh Stearns: “It's time to build a more connected and collaborative vision for non-profit media in America.”

The radically shifting landscape of media and technology has sparked a renaissance in non-profit and public media in the United States. As a perfect storm of economic and technological changes shakes the foundation of commercial media, journalists, funders, and local citizens are looking to public interest-oriented, mission-driven news organizations as a critical part of the solution. People who might never have considered a non-profit business model before — like longtime journalists and tech entrepreneurs — are launching vibrant, non-profit startups across the country.

Making the case for unity

A new report by Free Press argues, however, that despite all of this attention, non-profit media has yet to become greater than the sum of its parts. They serve different, albeit intersecting, audiences. Their membership and funding varies. They focus on different topics or geographies. Having a diverse media system is important, but too often these groups also define themselves through these differences. Surveying the different models, missions and approaches in the non-profit journalism sector makes it feel less like a unified whole, and more like a collection of parts.

The report, “Greater than the Sum,” argues that we need to begin constructing a new identity for non-profit journalism and media in America, one that illustrates the central role these institutions play in our nation. In addition, we must examine the media policies that have for too long served to divide non-profit media by platform instead of connecting them around purpose.

The changing face of non-commercial media

When most people think of non-profit and public media, they picture NPR and PBS. In reality, America’s non-commercial media sector has long encompassed more than just those national brands and is growing more diverse and multifaceted every year. To understand the whole picture, we have to view public media as a network of non-commercial and non-profit institutions that share a similar mission: serving diverse, local communities by providing alternatives and filling the notable gaps left by commercial media. It’s a diverse and innovative network of online and offline outlets, professionals and ordinary people, who are serving communities and re-envisioning public service media. …

As the non-commercial media sector grows in influence and importance, it’s time to build a more connected and collaborative vision for non-profit media in America.

Read more at: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2012/10/the-case-for-unity-among-non-profit-community-and-public-media277.html

With this as the final of the 2012 “what we know now” series, do you see ways these practical insights can fuel your success? What do you want to learn in 2013? What specific things are you excited to try?