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Miami Herald to work with Internet news project

A journalism think tank announced grants Monday to help five news organizations, including The Miami Herald, work with community groups on new cooperative approaches to gathering and presenting neighborhood news on the Internet.

American University's J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism, based in Washington, is funding the one-year project with a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The money will be used to support a liaison at each news organization and provide small stipends to local content partners.

``We think this network is an important new way of expanding community news coverage at a time when it's hard to launch fresh initiatives,'' said Miami Herald Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal. ``We very much look forward to being a part of this national experiment and trying to figure out new ways of providing community news.''

Partnership project takes community news to next level

F ive months ago, an unlikely group of South Florida editors and publishers got together over sandwiches to talk about one of the pressing questions in journalism these days:

What's going to happen to the community newspapers that have been a victim of the downturn across the country? And how will these smaller newspapers fare in the media's broad move toward an online world?

In South Florida, many community papers that provide vital neighborhood reporting have been hurt by shifts in advertising and readership. Weeklies from Miami Beach to Coral Gables have ceased printing. Others are struggling for survival online.

We're covering your community with our new partners

Y ou may have noticed a modest change on MiamiHerald.com this past week that is the first step in one of our most significant initiatives for the coming year.

For the past six months, we've been working with a group of partners to create a network of independent online sites -- and to take a new approach to community and neighborhood news.

This past week, after months of developing websites with the partners, the first of them launched, covering Coral Gables, West Kendall, Key Biscayne, South Miami, Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay, Miami Springs, Virginia Gardens and Medley.

New websites seek the scoop on local news and ads

Finding a financially viable way to provide local news is a challenge large metropolitan newspapers are confronting. But a Coral Gables website is among a few locally with faith it can succeed.

GablesHomePage.com launched in late October as a nonprofit online news and information exchange for Coral Gables. It's funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's Knight Community Information Challenge, which supports organizations that keep communities informed about local issues.

As the newspaper industry experiences declining ad revenue and coverage suffers because of staffing cutbacks, outfits such as GablesHomePage.com are trying to fill the void in hyperlocal reporting. Other South Florida sites taking a stab at this include YourPBC.org (also funded by the Knight Foundation, eNewsBoy.com and BrowardBulldog.org.

College students embrace expanding role in journalism

Students at Florida's flagship university will soon take on a new role: community journalists.

Come January, the University of Florida will launch a new interactive website -- a URL they hope will become a destination for Gainesville news.

Students will do the shoe-leather reporting that local newspapers used to do in greater abundance. They'll produce the website, too.