There’s no cooperation in media

We can accomplish more together.

That has always been true. Not much has had major impact on the world that wasn’t accomplished by a group. There are leaders, yes, but without followers most would amount to very little.

Proper journalism can also benefit from cooperation. There is the all-important push and pull between editor and reporter, and there is the relationship between the reporter and their sources.

But cooperation isn’t something that happens only within an organization.

The problem is that for-profit, advertising models only encourage competition. That can be a good thing, if it’s driving quality up or costs down, but local news has bottomed out on both. They don’t compete for the good of the community, they compete for the benefit of their advertisers and ownership.

This push for profits and attention drives them to hire inexperienced reporters and editors, rush stories to publication, and flock to flashy breaking stories while developing issues go uncovered, and follow-ups go unwritten. The result is a drop in the quality of news, repetitive stories, and shallow coverage.

At Copper Beacon, we feel that right now there is a need for an increased level of cooperation between reporters and different media outlets. In the current world, where communities large and small are starving for quality reporting, competing for stories is detrimental to us all. There is more news happening than we can adequately cover, even in a small community.

In nonprofit, advertising-free models like Copper Beacon, there is much more opportunity for cooperation. Our goals are education, community service, and enough revenue to compensate our employees, freelancers, and vendors. Extra income simply means more reporting, not a profit for our investors.

The goal is to make a strong community, not a profit.

Because of this, rather than compete to write another story about the same things everyone else is covering, Copper Beacon can send its reporters to cover the little-known story. We can have a reporter spend significant time diving deep on a topic other outlets rush. We can spend an entire day editing a story to get it just right for the reader.

To bring a complete picture of the news to the community, we cooperate with local outlets like Keweenaw Report, Daily Mining Gazette, and Upper Michigan Source (TV6), and whether they’re even aware of it is irrelevant. It isn’t about them. It’s about what the community needs, and we’re here to make it happen.