Knight Foundation recently released “Gaining Ground: How Nonprofit News Ventures Seek Sustainability,” a follow-up report in an ongoing series chronicling the development of nonprofit news sites. Joe Bergantino is executive director of the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, one of the sites that shared their stories in the report. Here he offers more detail on how the center partners with other news organizations to maximize its impact.

From the moment the New England Center for Investigative Reporting opened its doors, partnering with public media was part of the plan. Nonprofit news outlets such as public media and ours share many of the same values—among them, a commitment to doing in-depth reporting and having an impact in our community. But like investigative reporting itself, transforming the idea into reality has required patience, perseverance and some delicate negotiations.

We currently have partnership and content deals worth close to a half million dollars a year with two competing public radio stations in Boston. These critical partnerships significantly help us build our reporting capacity, boost brand recognition and reach an even larger audience.

With WBUR, the Boston University-owned station, it’s a straightforward arrangement: three major stories a year and some follow-ups in exchange for an annual payment in excess of $100,000. That fee has provided the New England Center for Investigative Reporting with the resources to hire an additional reporter who will join our editorial team in mid-May.

Our partnership with WGBH, which is both an NPR and PBS station, has multiple elements. The station pays the salary and benefits of an investigative reporter jointly hired and assigned exclusively to work with the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, half of the salary and benefits of our managing editor and half of the fees of our freelance Web producer.

In addition WGBH provides $40,000 a year of on-air promotion time for our investigative stories and training programs and pays for all the marketing and logistics associated with four live events each year focused on topics covered by the center.  WGBH also has agreed to an annual cash payment to the center and provides office space for our four reporters, editor, Web producer and editorial interns. In exchange, WGBH can air any of our stories—except those purchased exclusively by WBUR. 

These partnership deals were years in the making. The relationship with WGBH began with an initial meeting in December 2007 when the New England Center for Investigative Reporting was just an idea. It was jump-started by a meeting with the station’s president and CEO, Jon Abbott, in the fall of 2010.  A series of brainstorming sessions starting in 2012 with station General Manager Phil Redo and News Director Ted Canova led to our first formal partnership in September 2013. Our current deal with the station is only a few months old.

Our relationship with WBUR also has evolved over the past six and a half years.  When the New England Center for Investigative Reporting opened its doors in January 2009, WBUR was one of the center’s three media partners and the only one paying for our stories. When our content sales model evolved into a subscription service 18 months later, WBUR and WGBH both signed on as paying subscribers. In 2012, WBUR opted for collaborating on one long-term exclusive investigation. Then we jointly decided to put that relationship on hold until WBUR expressed interest last fall in resurrecting a partnership.   

The negotiations with WBUR General Manager Charlie Kravetz began in September 2014 and ended in late February. They involved multiple meetings and phone calls and required the involvement of several of our advisory board members including Tom Fiedler, dean of Boston University’s College of Communication. The board’s advice and guidance played a major role in moving the negotiations forward in a direction that led to a win-win deal for both organizations.

The task ahead is managing these deals to ensure all parties get what they need. That job is shared by me, as the executive director of the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, and our managing editor—with the help of our advisory board. It’s complicated by the fact that WBUR and WGBH are at war with each other in a unique news ratings battle. Boston is the only city in the nation with two public radio stations competing for a news audience.

In addition, we have other clients who purchase our stories including The Boston Globe, New England Cable News and several newspapers across Massachusetts.

Ensuring the success of these partnerships amounts to one more challenge in a series of challenges in the life of an independent, nonprofit news outlet like ours. But it’s one well worth dealing with given the fact that these public media relationships are providing a major influx of cash and resources that will help ensure the long-term sustainability of the New England Center for Investigative Reporting and its ability to deliver high-impact journalism that makes a difference in our community and beyond.

The New England Center for Investigative Reporting is housed at Boston University and the studios of WGBH News in Boston. Knight Foundation provided funding to launch the center in January 2009 and has provided $750,000 in support over the past six and a half years.