We seek out multiple ways to connect and celebrate each other.

Our programs

OpenNews supports a network of developers, designers, journalists, and editors by celebrating successes, documenting what works for making change, and connecting people with colleagues and resources in the field.

Through our slate of programs, OpenNews provides capacity-building and infrastructural support to this network of leaders bringing technical innovation and a collaborative, equity-focused way of working to their news organizations.

Supporting one another during COVID-19

During the pandemic, we’re finding ways to take care of one another with our COVID-19 Community Care Package. Our work ranges from sharing step-by-step guides to local, data-based outbreak coverage, to supporting microloans to and from journalists, to helping newsroom execs uphold diversity and inclusive values during COVID-19.

Connecting through events

We love creating events that are highly participatory and inclusive, where participants come first so they can can feel comfortable digging into complex problems.

Learning together

We seek out ways to make it easy for members of this community to learn from each other, share successes and challenges, and get an understanding of what needs to change in the field. We publish Source, a site where community members document their projects and the processes behind their work. Every other week, community members also share about their work on an open community call. The News Nerd Survey has helped to understand the landscape, and unique perspective, of the technology community in journalism.

Supporting each other

We want to make it easy for community members to access resources that will help develop their careers, and support their colleagues as well. Through our Scholarships+ program we offer stipends for events and other training opportunities. With Peer Data Review, we bring visiblity to the informal sharing that already happens in many newsrooms and community spaces by helping match a journalist with a question with a peer with the experience to help them answer it together. From 2011-16, we also directly placed technologists in newsrooms to collaborate on projects: 33 Knight-Mozilla Fellows worked with 19 news organizations in five countries.

Taking collective action

Together, OpenNews and over 100 members of the journalism community have co-created the DEI Coalition For Anti-Racist, Equitable, And Just Newsrooms, a digital community space dedicated to sharing knowledge and taking concrete action in service of a more anti-racist, equitable, and just journalism industry. OpenNews is also part of Vision25, a collaboration that seeks to work vigorously to build anti-racist organizations that become institutions of belonging. We also worked with The Pudding to create a Speaker Rider for Meaningfully Inclusive Events to help speakers and events/organizations create and maintain inclusive space for historically marginalized communities. We share an e-mail template speakers can use before accepting an invitation to speak.

Gathering resources

As we encounter resources in our daily work, we like to share them with the wider community. We’ve gathered up a list of community Slacks and email lists, and in 2020 we developed a COVID-19 Care Package.

Helping other organizations

We even consult on the expertise we’ve developed running the above programs. Reach out if you would like any information about what we may be able to bring to your event or organization.