Journalists call for more collaboration, less competition

Photo description: Panelists Matt Wynn, Cate Folsom and Tim Schmitt (from left),  present at Northern Plains Media Association Conference 
Photo credit: Kayla Korb
Meredith Boster
Sower Staff

A panel of journalists at the Northern Plains Media Association Conference, held at CUNE, talked about public funding of news outlets and how new types of media can work together to provide a larger audience with more information.

“Things on the traditional newspaper side are definitely scaling back,” said Tim Schmitt, managing editor of Golfweek, “So many different outlets are popping up all over the place… we all have to really be somewhat in partnership in order for us to work together.”

Small newsrooms are struggling to compete with the larger newspapers, with everything “fragmenting,” said Cate Folsom, editor-in-chief of the Nebraska Examiner.

Folsom said there needs to be more collaboration among different forms of news media and less competition, adding that if news outlets work together there will be more audiences touched and more stories produced.

“Competing is not about getting there first, but it’s about doing the best, which really speaks for itself,” said Matt Wynn, executive director of Nebraska Journalism Trust and Flatwater Free Press.

Wynn said it is important that journalists work to ensure they have the most factual information, as well as the highest quality stories, rather than the fastest presentation of a story.

“There’s so much more partnership in journalism than ever before,” Wynn said. “There’s so much more that you can do in this field that was not realistic even five years ago! If you have a dream and a vision and idea of who you are and what you can do, you can probably make it happen.”

The CUNE Sower hosted this year’s conference last weekend, which also included the Golden Leaf Awards ceremony.