The Granite State News Collaborative had planned to announce its latest project--Live Free and Thrive--on March 17. But a worldwide pandemic has changed that plan.
Instead, The Collaborative--a collective of more than 20 New Hampshire-based media, educational and nonpartisan community organizations-- has agreed to work together to share coronavirus coverage in order to help inform communities across the state.
“Any way that we can work together to connect New Hampshire with trusted and accurate information is a good thing,” said Dawn DeAngelis, vice president and chief content officer at NHPBS, a founding partner of The Collaborative. “The Covid-19 worldwide outbreak is putting us all in uncharted territory. We all want to be prepared and keep our communities safe and informed.”
Collaborative members will be sharing updates as well as reporting on solutions to this health crisis coming from each region of the state. Partners will also be distributing online surveys in order to gather experiences, thoughts and questions from the public to help shape Coronavirus coverage going forward.
“Leveraging the reach and reliability of New Hampshire's news professionals to localize coverage when an international health story emerges is what the Granite State News Collaborative is really all about,” said Carol Robidoux, publisher and editor of Manchester Ink Link and Collaborative co-founder. “Aggregating and updating information for all our readers across the state is one way to make sure accurate information is circulating. Taking a ‘solutions journalism’ approach to this particular story means we will seek answers to relevant questions and aim to lessen the stress a story like this can have on communities."
In the meantime, The Collaborative team members are still working on their next project -Live Free and Thrive -and will be soliciting input and help from the public on these issues beginning in April.
Collaborative members now include The Berlin Sun, Business NH Magazine, The Concord Monitor, The Conway Daily Sun, The Eagle-Tribune, The Keene Sentinel, The Laconia Daily Sun, Manchester Ink Link, The Marlin Fitzwater Center at Franklin Pierce University, The Nashua Telegraph, NH Bar News, NH Business Review, New Hampshire Press Association, New Hampshire PBS, New Hampshire Public Radio, The Monadnock Ledger Transcript, ParentingNH Magazine, Seacoast Media Group and the Valley News.
The Collaborative also regularly partners with community organizations on events, initiatives and projects. Current and past community partnerships include Citizens Count, Endowment for Health, Journalist’s Resource at The Shorenstein Center at Harvard, Nackey Loeb School of Communications, NH Humanities, NH Listens, Souhegan High School and Southern NH University.
Financial Support for The Collaborative comes from the Knight Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network and The NH Charitable Foundation.
For more information about The Collaborative please email melanie.plenda@collaborativenh.org or visit collaborativenh.org