Start.coop received a Press Forward grant funding to build a Shared Media Services hub for worker-friendly news organizations 

Start.coop will use the grant to launch a Shared Media Services hub to help independent, worker-friendly media organizations save money on back-office services and save time through shared training, tools, and best practices.

The new initiative answers the calls of struggling local news outlets, grassroots media organizations, and journalists who want more efficient back-office operational systems, allowing them to spend more time pursuing their core mission: getting information to their communities. For publications, get notified as Media Services become available.

This project was developed in partnership with Defector Media, a worker-owned journalism company that has become a model for journalists wishing to escape ongoing corporatization of the news and information sector. The Media Economies Design Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder will inform the project with research grounded in its experience helping to develop cooperatives in journalism and beyond. Other project partners include the Freelance Solidarity Project, the National Writers Union, the NewsGuild, the Community and the Worker Ownership Project at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. The funding is part of Press Forward’s Open Call on Infrastructure, which is providing $22 million to 22 projects that address the urgent challenges local newsrooms face today.  For more information about the grant awardees, visit pressforward.news/infrastructure25.