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Pittsburgh Media Partnership
Pittsburgh Partnership
aims to innovate
By AmyJo Brown
Pittsburgh Media Partnership
News media form historic
collaboration
By Lou Corsaro
We are a collaborative of local
news organization spanning the city and
the surrounding river valley communities
that make up the greater Pittsburgh region.
Our mission is to support a vibrant, diverse
and independent local media ecosystem.
Together, we are listening, sharing and
innovating — to ensure that all the stories
that need to be told are told.
We hold conversations with residents
throughout the region to make the process
of news-making more transparent and
accessible.
We connect local journalism and provide
space to talk and room to think about how
we deliver the news in a constantly changing
industry.
We pool resources to help experiment and
innovate and to support enterprise journalism
that benefits all of our audiences.
Photo by Stacey Federoff
Representatives from the Pittsburgh Media Partnership’s participating outlets meet at
the Center for Media Innovation.
Cohort Statistics
» Of the 20 partners, 75 percent are for-profit news organizations,
25 percent are nonprofits.
» 85 percent are controlled by local ownership.
The Pittsburgh Media Partnership
officially formed in early 2020, after a yearlong
series of conversations and meetings
held through the Bridge Pittsburgh initiative.
The 19 founding partners include:
• Ambridge Connection
• Environmental Health News
• Homewood Nation
• McKees Rocks Gazette 2.0
• Mon Valley Independent
• New Pittsburgh Courier
• NEXTpittsburgh
• Pittsburgh Business Times
• Pittsburgh City Paper
• Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle
• Pittsburgh Quarterly
• Postindustrial
• Presente Pittsburgh Media
• PublicSource
• Soul Pitt Quarterly
• Storyburgh
• Trib Total Media
• Unabridged Press
• WESA
Photo by Stacey Federoff
Rob Taylor Jr., managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier, John Chamberlin of YaJagoff
Media, Larissa Dudkiewicz of Ambridge Connection and Amber Thompson of Leaders
of Change discuss partnership ideas.
Photo by Lucy Schaly
Brian Cook, president of the Pittsburgh
Black Media Federation, holds a poster for
Alisa Grishman, of Unabridged Press.
» All of their newsrooms are small. In fact, more than half (12 of
the partners) are putting out news for their com- munities with
two or fewer full-time staff.
» Of the remaining partners, the median staff size is 10.
» The partner with the largest newsroom — 50 full-time editorial
employees — includes a staff spread over a wide geographic area
with one to two reporters assigned to be the sole source of
coverage for the region’s more rural communities.
The effort is a historic collaboration among
Pittsburgh’s media. Throughout the next
year, the organizations will examine the
causes behind the region’s population
decline and help facilitate conversations
about solutions that will both retain and
attract a more diverse population. In addition
to the results of the work itself, the
process of working collaboratively is likely
to have a lasting impact on the region’s
media ecosystem.
Photo by Stacey Federoff
Project editor AmyJo brown leads an exercise with members of the Pittsburgh
Media Partnership at their January meeting in the Point Park University Center for
Media Innovation.
Editor’s note: The Heinz Endowments and
the Henry L. Hillman Foundation provide
funding for the Pittsburgh Media Partnership,
led by project editor AmyJo Brown.
20 21
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