There’s a dawning understanding that the future of local news will probably include fewer monolithic news outlets, and more nodes contributing to a robust local journalism ecosystem. Today, J-Lab announced a pilot project with five local news organizations to start developing lessons on how such ecosystems might function, funded by the Knight Foundation. From the press release:

Five news organizations around the country have each agreed to work with at least five hyperlocal news sites or producers in their communities in a Networked Journalism pilot project to gather ideas and lessons for future content collaborations, American University’s J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism announced today.

The one-year project is funded with a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The funds will support a liaison at the newspaper and provide small stipends to local partners.

Journalism program director Gary Kebbel said, “In these days where anyone can publish local information, we hope that a guided partnership between local newspapers and local bloggers or citizen journalists can increase the amount of local information available in a community and raise its quality. We see this as a win/win for the community.”

Read more about the project at J-Lab.