Crosscut is one of the pioneers in the world of nonprofit, donor-supported journalism. Unlike a general interest newspaper, its staff focuses on long-form stories in specific categories including politics, culture, equity and the environment. A lot of the content is focused on Seattle and Puget Sound, of course, but there are stories of statewide interest, too, such as a piece on the security of those outdoor ballot boxes being used in several counties, including Clark County.
Although the stories aren’t all a perfect fit for us — literally, as some are just too long to print in their entirety — I think the partnership will give us an opportunity to offer more stories from the state capital, and also boost our web-only content, particularly on Monday mornings when there is no printed newspaper. You can start expecting to see these stories within the next couple of weeks.
Another of our partnerships used to be a bit of a rivalry. The Daily News in Longview won a Pulitzer Prize for its Mount St. Helens reporting, much to the chagrin of our staff at the time. Forty years later, we frequently trade stories with its newsroom. Although we aren’t in the same county, we do share a member of Congress and three state legislators from the 20th Legislative District. We also have Woodland in common. By pooling our efforts, it’s my hope that we can keep Woodland from becoming a “news desert.”
We have had some longer-standing news partnerships. Our oldest, of course, is with The Associated Press, which was started in 1846 by five New York City newspapers to share the costs of reporting news from the Mexican-American War. AP is still organized as a nonprofit news cooperative. We send our content to them, and they are free to repackage and transmit the stories and photos they think are relevant to audiences around the world. In return, we get material from other members, such as The Seattle Times and The Oregonian. AP also employs its own staff of reporters around the world, giving its members news from far-flung places like Kathmandu and Spokane.
