On June 6th, 2011 the full board of the Institute for Nonprofit News (“INN”), formerly known as the Investigative News Network, unanimously approved the adoption of the following Editorial Collaboration Policy:
- Collaboration should be able to originate from anywhere within the Network and that no one member has any more role or rights in collaboration than any other.
- It is INN’s responsibility to actively reach out and communicate to all Network members to foster ideas, coordinate participation (both with members and outside partners) and to help plan and execute projects and stories when any funds are secured on behalf of Network collaboration.
- INN expects there will be collaboration that begins and is among a subset of members that do not involve funds secured for Network collaborations.
- In all cases, INN will strive to provide all Network members involved in collaboration sufficient lead time to plan for and coordinate, as well as access to toolsets (e.g. Basecamp) to help carry out collaborative projects.
- Coordination of INN’s responsibilities in Editorial Collaboration will be handled by INN’s Editorial Collaboration Director, or by the INN Editorial Collaboration Committee until such time as that editor’s job is filled.
- Any INN Member who intends to secure funds or any type of support from outside the Network, with or on behalf of INN and/or INN member organizations for any type of initiative, collaborative or otherwise, must first submit a proposal to INN management for approval prior to submitting any such request. INN management will inform the board prior to approval. This does NOT include securing outside media partners for content distribution produced by an individual member organization, nor does it include monies secured by a member for the member’s own use.
- INN will be responsible for letting its members know about any and all funds, digital tools or programs secured on behalf of the Membership and/or the Network to the Members.
- INN will coordinate marketing and public relations for collaborative projects and will coordinate with participating members’ marketing/PR teams where appropriate.