Projects

Current Projects

The Big Thaw

What form will journalism take in the future? Can independent media producers adapt and lead, or will they disappear with journalism’s Ice Age? As historical business and editorial structures melt away, a new study produced by The Media Consortium reveals how independent media outlets and individual media-makers can thrive.

The Big Thaw was born out of a “game changer” strategy project initiated in 2008 by The Media Consortium, a network of the country’s leading progressive media organizations, to support the evolution of independent media. For more information about this project, click here.

Incubation and Innovation Lab

The Incubation and Innovation Lab is The Media Consortium’s dynamic new program to support its members in conducting rapid prototyping as a low-cost way to test new business, technology and content development models at a scale that they would not be able to achieve alone.

This two-part program helps our members research, discuss and experiment with new business, publishing and editorial models that take advantage of the new, web-enabled reader/publisher relationships. The two components to this program are the Digital Refresh Workshop and Small Group Labs.

Digital Refresh Workshop

The Digital Refresh Workshop is a three-month turbo charge for Media Consortium members’ digital operations. This workshop will provide intensive hands-on support and training to help our members analyze, understand, and innovate around key digital strategies, including list/community building, revenue generation and how to harness new journalism production strategies. By the end of the workshop, participating organizations will have completed an in-depth analysis of their current digital profiles, determined future goals to revamp their digital strategies, and will take the first step towards launching an experiment to reach those goals.

The Digital Refresh workshop will provide members with cutting edge tools and smart guidance to achieve ongoing innovation for long-term sustainability and impact. Click here for more information on the Digital Refresh Workshop, goals, requirements, and workshop leaders.

Digital Innovation Studio

Throughout 2010/2011, The Media Consortium will organize a small group of TMC members to work with each other and outside experts to generate one or more experiments in mobile, revenue-generation, journalism and community building models. The Small Group Labs will also allow members to trade experiences, share information, and find answers to ongoing questions. Members will not only discover the best strategies for their organizations, but how to implement them—a critical component of ongoing success.

At the end of the lab cycle, participating members will share experiences and lessons learned with MC members and allies, creating a ripple effect in which education, deployment of practices and evolution of experiments moves outward to benefit the whole independent media sector. Experimentation will create strategies and  space for media outlets to identify and implement a long-term formula for ongoing sustainability and impact that will support their critical journalism. Click here for program requirements/overview, and click here to apply.

Media Wires

The core mission of The Media Consortium is to leverage the resources of its members to impact political discourse and debate. We want to showcase the first-rate independent journalism produced by our members, bring their work to larger audiences and build the influence of progressive, independent media. With these goals in mind, we’ve harnessed new technologies, social networking applications and distribution opportunities for our Media Wire project. The Media Consortium has created four portal sites that feature the best independent reporting by our members: The Audit (economy), The Mulch (environment), The Pulse (health care) and The Diaspora (immigration). Think of these sites as one-stop shops for all the best in independent reporting from Media Consortium members.

Do you want an easy way to get these stories on your website? With simple widgets, you can host up-to-the minute headlines from across The Media Consortium universe on your site. In addition, weekly blog posts rounding up Media Consortium’s members reporting on these specific issues are cross-posted across the blogosphere and social networking sites. You can see sample blogs on each hub site. Read more…

Independent Media Internships

The Media Consortium’s Independent Media Internship supports undergraduate and graduate students that are passionate about independent media, committed to quality journalism, and engaged in the world around us. The program is geared towards hands-on learning and mentoring in a variety of media, including audio, video, print and web-only.

Interns are matched with a Media Consortium member organization for a period of three months. Media Consortium staff are committed to recruiting a diverse group of applicants for this program. We are currently reviewing organizations for the Summer 2010 session and will announce internship opportunities in April.

Interns will receive a stipend of $2,000 for twelve 32-hour work weeks. Over this three month period, interns will complete one or more major editorial projects, be responsible for weekly duties, including fact-checking, research, writing and media production, and meet with top editors and reporters for mentoring sessions.

Applicants must have a minimum of 3 years of college or have completed undergrad or grad school within the last year. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and place a high priority on maintaining a diverse and non-discriminatory environment. Intern candidates can apply here.

Building Connections

In 2005, when progressive media leaders were shaping The Media Consortium, there were few places for progressive media leaders to interact, build deep professional relationships and address large structural issues. From the beginning, The Media Consortium has been dedicated to building a strong movement by providing space for these interactions. We’ve developed a number of projects and tools to assist in relationship-building but none are more essential than our meetings and listserv.

Media Consortium members convene every six months in a location chosen for its strategic value. Our member meetings provide a space to build new relationships and nurture existing collaborations. The agenda promotes cooperative strategic planning, working toward our vision for the future of the independent media landscape.

The listserv is used to solicit ideas and convey updates on Media Consortium activities, projects, and events. It is also a place for members to share ideas and information with each other. It is a key resource that facilitates action, dialogue, and collaboration around Media Consortium projects.

Online Advertising Network

The rise of online advertising has drastically changed business models across the media sector. While many independent media outlets are building out their online advertising capacity, this process can be costly to implement, technologically difficult, and, due to the smaller web presence of some organizations, does not offer guaranteed returns on such a hefty investment. Successful web advertising strategies do have the potential to generate significant amounts of income but the field is often difficult to parse and even harder to navigate. The solution? Build an advertising network that pools the collective inventories of Consortium members to make a highly marketable package. Read more…