, Author at Sally Duros

Journalism that Matters Detroit

For those of you who were in Detroit last week for Journalism that Matters, I thought I would share the link for the Mobile Neighborhood Tours I just helped produce here in Chicago.

Produced by community leaders, LISC-Chicago Mobile Neighborhood Tours are — I believe — the first community driven and created media of this kind.

To date, you can only see them in your smart phone.
Visit this address in your phone’s browser:
tours.lisc-chicago.org

Our sell copy reads:
“A project of LISC’s Chicago Community Showcase, our Mobile Neighborhood Tours connect visitors with the exciting futures of Chicago’s neighborhoods. Whether an ethnic eatery, a local landmark building, an historic site or a place where the future is being planned and birthed, our destinations have been selected through the collective wisdom of the community that values, preserves and creates them.”

As dots connect, whole is emerging for future of news

Chicago Journalism Townhall (Photo credit: sally garden)

As dots connect, whole is emerging for future of news

The online dots are quickly connecting. Gov2.0 entrepreneurs are building a strong backbone for a hyperlocal new stream. And much of it is happening here in Chicago.

Continue reading As dots connect, whole is emerging for future of news

Free training for journalists on redistricting

You can pick up a copy opf the classic The Struggle for Power and Influence in Cities and States or you can learn enough to write the latest chapters.

Here’s some training to help you do it. This announcement doesn’t have a deadline for applying.

REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS FOR JOURNALIST TRAINING “Reading between the Lines: Unraveling Illinois Redistricting” June 17 & 18, 2010 If you need additional info, contact Terry Pastika, Executive Director, Citizen Advocacy Center. tpastika@citizenadvocacycenter.org Phone: 630.833.4080

Journalism that Matters Detroit

CMW panel on L3C and some thoughts on PRI-Makers Network

The Community Media Workshop held a panel May 7 on the future of news as a social enterprise and the L3C [low profit limited liability company] model.

The following Monday, I attended the bi-annual conference of the PRI-Makers Network. PRIs are Program Related Investments and they are posed at the center of the L3C model. A PRI is an investment made by a foundation — in various forms — at below market rates. The foundation expects a return on the money – with varying degrees of rigidity. And this investment is “program related” because its is tied to the program areas funded by the foundations. Pretty simple concept!

I will be sharing more of what I learned during those three days in some upcoming posts. Meanwhile, some of my thoughts going in were confirmed: only a small number of foundations are making PRIS. PRIs are only a tiny percent — 1%— of total funding by foundations. As I say in the clip, PRI makers are similar to angels in that they seek and expect a dollar return for their investment.

Their money is, however, patient, [unlike venture capitalists] in that they are asking a below market rate return and will work with the social venture to ensure its success over time. Topmost they are expecting a return in social good for their investment. Foundations are typically working with many partners to make these deals work and there is a lot of haggling at the table over details as in any deal. Foundations themselves are going through a vast culture shift themselves over PRIs and how they fit into philanthropy.

I informally floated the idea of a journalistic operation as a social enterprise by a few PRI-Makers and the idea was met with interest, albeit reserved, as to be expected. More to come

Video 3 from Community Media Workshop on Vimeo.

L3Cs — time to define terms.

It seems we have our work cut out for us.

As we collectively blue sky different operational models for new media companies, we really have to work very thoroughly at helping our new news entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs understand what we are talking about.

I was on a panel Friday with veteran social entrepreneur John Plunkett, hosted by Thom Clark, President of the Community Media Workshop, discussing the low-profit limited liability company (L3C) and its potential for media. It was the first in-depth conversation about L3C operations I have participated in here in Chicago. And deep indeed did Plunkett and Clark take us. Maybe —for this group at least —just a tad too deep into the operational and budget linkages of Plunkett’s new, first ever L3C.

We had a great turnout and I was glad to see many colleagues there, notably Steve Rhodes of the Beachwood Reporter, Andrew Huff of Gaper’s Block and Gordon Waleck of LISC New Communities. Occupying the front row were Vivian Vahlberg from the Chicago Community Trust/Knight Foundation Community News Matters program and a few seats down sat Clark Bell, head of journalism programs for the McCormick Fundation.

I learned quite a bit. I could see Vivian — as well as a few others — very happily scribbling away. But I came away with the impression that we need to back up a few paces before we can host an informed and informative conversation of this type. Foundations, corporations, corporate foundations, and every other kind of entity in between, have very different reasons for giving money. And they have different pots of money that they give from. If we are going to ask for that money, we need to know what those pots are and what the foundation requires in return.

This is not the stuff journalist’s dreams are typically made of.

So it seems it’s time we define our terms, to see if they are terms the new news can live with.

That is one of many reasons that I volunteered to report and blog from the PRI Makers conference next week, a gathering of those foundations that make those elusive “Program-Related Investments” at the heart of the L3C model.

I’ll be Twittering as I go at hashtag #PRI10. Read along and learn with me.

L3C discussion at Community Media Workshop

I’ll be joining John Plunkett and Thom Clark in a discussion about the new L3C business structure and how it could be useful to new media orgs on Friday, May 7. Stop by and join the discussion.

I hope you’ll be able to join us Friday when The Chicago Community Trust’s Community News Matters program and Community Media Workshop host an informational session to discuss the L3C model and how it might benefit new news organizations looking for a more flexible method of organizing that differs both from standard business
incorporation and 501c3 nonprofit status.

When: Friday, May 7; Coffee at 8:30; program from 9-10:30
Where: Room 401, 600 S. Michigan Ave. at Columbia College Chicago

We’ll discuss what an L3C is and why some new news journalists have
been exploring it. Harborquest CEO John Plunkett, whose nonprofit
helped initiate the enabling legislation that created L3Cs in the
state of Illinois and was the first to use the new status, will talk
about how to take advantage of L3C status and how it fits into the new
wave of “social venture investing” in Chicago. Journalist and media
expert Sally Duros will talk about special considerations for news
outlets.

We hope you’ll join us to find out more about the new L3C model.

This event is free but please RSVP by emailing Maggie Walker at
maggie@newstips.org.

Vivian Vahlberg
Project Director
Community News Matters