The Twin Cities Media Alliance is beta-testing its newly launched web site, Twin Cities Daily Planet, while it grows its roster of participating neighborhood and community media partners.
New partners in the alliance include La Prensa, the Twin Cities leading Hispanic publication, as well as nine other organizations: Insight (African-American), MNStories, Minnesota Spokesman Recorder (African-American), the Corcoran News, HiiraanOnline (Somali), Minnesota Women’s Press, Southwest Journal, Downtown Journal and Minnesota Daily.
“These last four publications have large audiences and operate with a high degree of professionalism and will improve both the reach and the quality of the Daily Planet,” project leader Jeremy Iggers said.
The alliance is seeking to bolster coverage of global-local stories by partnering with the Resource Center of the Americas, which has a roster of volunteers who monitor the Latin American press for stories of interest to the local Hispanic community and frequently produce original stories on issues of interest to immigrant communities and community activists.
WHAT WE USE:
- Drupal content management system
The alliance’s Global-Local Editor Doug McGill, a former New York Times reporter, has begun teaching Saturday journalism training workshops at the Resource Center and plans to offer an expanded training program (two six-week classes) this winter.
The alliance has hired a Managing Editor, Craig Cox, who has recruited volunteer editors for many sections, including Arts, Books, Music, Culture, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Transportation. These editors will be responsible for recruiting citizen journalists to contribute articles, photography, and eventually video and audio content. Bonnie Wilson, recently retired as curator of photography at the Minnesota Historical Society, has joined the Planet as the photo gallery editor.
Most of the editors have been trained to use Drupal, the Daily Planet’s content management system. The site now also has software in place to create photo, audio and video galleries and will soon carry streaming videocasts and downloadable podcasts.
The Nov. 8 local elections for mayor, city council and park board provided an early opportunity to test the alliance’s ability to cover breaking news. Ann Alquist, news director of KFAI community radio, coordinated KFAI’s volunteer election-night coverage, which was updated throughout the evening by the Daily Planet.
The Minneapolis law firm Faegre & Benson has been providing legal support, including drafting articles of incorporation for the alliance as well as language for its User Agreement and Privacy Policy and agreements for the use of material provided by freelancers and media partners.
More than 100 Twin Cities residents have been invited to test the site and are feeding back praise and constructive criticism. Meanwhile “word of the Daily Planet is slowly spreading throughout the local community.”
A development committee is being organized to pursue grants from foundations and individual donors while others explore ways to generate revenue from memberships, advertising and underwriting.
“The future viability of the Daily Planet depends on our quickly developing additional sources of funding,” Iggers said.
