Partnerships with fellow stations, newspapers, and other organizations can add impact to your coverage...often with added complications. The material gathered here is a glimpse into the process of forming these collaborations.

Let us know if youre developing a partnership in your city, or are involved in a successful or failed arrangement.

contributions from:
Paul Gluck (WHYY, Philadelphia)
Bill Hanley (TPT, St. Paul)
Raul Ramirez (KQED Radio, San Francisco)
Elissa Marra and Gary Walker (WXXI, Rochester, N.Y.)

  Communicate Constantly (or at least consistently…)

"  Communication is a constant challenge.

"  Plan to meet regularly (biweekly, monthly) even if there are no pressing issues to resolve.

"  Expect to disagree.

"  Develop a healthy mechanism for ironing out differences, or you will be getting together only when things go wrong.

  Know Where You Want to Go

"  Make sure you knowvery specificallywhat will constitute success for your organization.

"  Make sure you do the maximum allowable internal PR for the project. It wont last if its just built from the top.

  Know Where They Want to Go

"  Make sure you knowvery specificallywhat will constitute success for your partner(s).

  All Partners Have Self Interests, Strengths, and Limits

"  Its important to recognize and acknowledge early on the strengths of the medium of each partner.

"  Its important to know your partners limits (in budget, format, newsroom culture, etc.) and for them to know yours.

  Personality Matters

"  To the extent the partners have flexibility, assign maintenance of the partnership to staffers who enjoy building consensus.

"  Individual relationships make or break partnerships.

"  When turnover happens, expect a few lumps in the gravy and dont live in the past.

  Compatibility Matters

"  Start with respect, then build trust.

"  Compatible editorial viewpoints count.

"  Partnerships work best when the project is rooted in what all partners view as news and/or strong programming. Sometimes its poll results. Sometimes its an event. Sometimes its what voters, or non-voters, say or do. At times its the candidates response, or lack of response. No news media partnership can keep going unless its activities generate legitimate news.

"  Production style compatibility counts too, but technological compatibility doesnt. It doesnt matter if you write on a wax tablet with a Popsicle stick and your partner has Bill Gates writing his newsroom computer program.

  Trust but Verify

"  You have to feel secure in the knowledge that everyone is going to meet their commitments.

"  Dont be embarrassed about generating a letter of agreement to guide the partnership. This may seem too formal, but its amazing how easy it is to forget what you have agreed to…and how easy it is for those misunderstandings to ruin relationships.

"  Speak Your Mind (or risk losing it) If you are disappointed with your partners performance, say so. Be open to their comments on your work. Probe for the underlying reasons behind any disagreements.

"  Trust Your Representative Make sure all the representatives at the table (the relationship-builders) are given the authority to make deals that stick.

  Win One for Your Partner

"  Be serious about making sure your partner gets a win out of each projectand let your partner know that their interests are very high on your personal priority list.

"  A Partnership is Like a Marriage If you start out keeping score, youll develop a need for a referee. And like a marriage, remember that you both bring something to the table. You may have more to offer than you realize.

"  A Partnership is Not Like a Marriage The level of engagement of each partner will fluctuate depending on the nature of the project, the specific activity and even the time of the day or year.

"  Dont Be Afraid To Promote Your Partners Call Letters What do you call content without promotion? A secret. Consider cross promotion even if the production is not part of the overall project.

  Twos Company…

"  Dont get greedy to build huge partnerships. To the extent possible, build projects around a pair of very committed partners.

"  Threes a Crowd Its a lot easier to add partners than to fire them. Add secondary partners on an as needed basis... to be renewed on a case-by-case basis.

"  But Twelve Can Work Just Fine In North Carolina and Rochester, N.Y., mega-partnerships have been successful.

  Stop and Smell the…Results

"  Acknowledge your successes. Get all of your bosses to party.