Local Nonprofits Collaborate to Support, Enhance Kansas City Journalism

by KCPBS • Published on October 5, 2021

Six local nonprofit organizations have formed the KC Media Collective, a new collaborative initiative designed to support and enhance local journalism. Members of the KC Media Collective include American Public Square, Kansas City PBS/Flatland, KCUR, Missouri Business Alert, Startland News and The Kansas City Beacon.

Each outlet brings diverse reporting and audiences to build a vibrant network of local journalism. The ultimate goal of the KC Media Collective is to better meet community information needs by maximizing resources through new lines of communication, content sharing and collaborative reporting.

In mid-October, members of the collective will jointly focus some of their coverage on housing topics and share their work across platforms. Likewise, Kansas City PBS’ new single-topic civic affairs program, Flatland, will turn its attention to issues facing the community’s unhoused population as winter approaches.

“As nonprofit media organizations, we can do more good work together than we can do apart. We’re trying to leverage our resources across various platforms, whether it’s digital or radio or television, to tell more stories and get them in front of more people in our community.” — Chris Lester, managing editor of Flatland and Kansas City PBS

“It’s no secret that the business model for local news is under duress and yet, good, local journalism has never been more important.” — Michael Stacy, managing editor of Missouri Business Alert

“The idea behind the collective is to really work together to pull resources, to start collaborating and to find ways we can better serve our audiences and the public.” — Kelsey Ryan, publisher and founder of The Kansas City Beacon

“The KC Media Collective is an opportunity for us to redefine how newsrooms interact in Kansas City. It has the potential for us to replace competition with collaboration.” — Tommy Felts, editor-in-chief of Startland News

“If we can get together and use our resources, use our different areas of expertise and our different mediums to tell stories as a group, we’re doing a better public service for Kansas City. And we’re hoping to create a model that makes this kind of local journalism sustainable for decades into the future.” — Lisa Rodriguez, news director of KCUR

We have three primary objectives with the KC Media Collective. To earn, build and nurture trust within the communities that we serve; we also want to reduce barriers to access to information and engage broad swaths of the community that are quite diverse in terms of perspective and ethnicity and theology; and finally, strengthening journalism. Not something for the sake of journalism, but for the sake of our community at large.” — Claire Bishop, executive director and COO of American Public Square

The KC Media Collective’s mission is, “The KC Media Collective is a group of nonprofit and community-centered partners collaborating to make local news easily available, its coverage equitable and its operations sustainable. We will do this by deepening our understanding of the people who make up our region, reducing barriers to access and earning trust.”

The KC Media Collective is committed to efforts that emphasize mutual understanding and empathy within communities. We work towards a day when people have access to trusted news, and communities benefit through greater civic engagement. Breaking systemic barriers to news access, including poverty, language barriers, disabilities and educational inequity, will unleash the potential of our communities. Likewise, the sustainability of local news is central to the connectivity and success of the Kansas City region and each individual who calls it home.

The KC Media Collective initiative was made possible with support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.