Pubmedia Working Group to assist Public Media Corps, WGBH's World channel

The Public Media Working Group (PMWG) and American University's Center for Social Media will focus on two "signature collaborative opportunities" for this year, according to the Center. PMWG sprung from the Center's 2009 paper, "Public Media 2.0: Dynamic, Engaged Publics," and is comprised of advocates with "a commitment to increasing users’ access to and engagement with public media." PMWG provides an opportunity for much-needed collaboration, the Center noted. "Innovators within the system are currently isolated, lacking spaces for sharing best practices and identifying joint strategies." This year, the partners will first work on the National Black Programming Coalition's Public Media Corps. "Entering into its beta period in June, the project will provide concrete ways for the PMWG to experiment with and document strategies for collaboration, evaluation and resource-sharing," the Center said. Next, work will turn to development of the online presence for WGBH’s World (background, Current, Sept. 8, 2009).

New report seeks to develop nonprof news best practices

"Ethics for the New Investigative Newsroom" (PDF), a report with recommendations from a round-table meeting of leaders in nonprofit journalism, stresses that the news entities be transparent about funding, vet donors carefully, and establish walls between reporters and funders. The paper is one of the first attempts to establish best practices for the growing field of nonprofit journalism. It was published by the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication, based on a roundtable there in January. More from the Columbia Journalism Review.