30 San Francisco Media Outlets Collaborate on Homelessness

Thomas Fuller reports: "Next month, media organizations in the Bay Area are planning to put aside their rivalries and competitive instincts for a day of coordinated coverage on the homeless crisis in the city."

The San Francisco Chronicle is leading the effort, but representatives from Bay Area television and radio stations, The San Francisco Examiner, Mother Jones, and online publications are included among the media outlets planning the effort. All told, 30 new organizations have confirmed their participation. "The premise of the effort is to create a 'wave' of coverage that will force politicians to come up with solutions," according to Audrey Cooper, the editor in chief of the San Francisco Chronicle, who is quoted extensively in the article.

Fuller is careful to document the collaboration's conceptual problem of crossing the line into "solutions-oriented journalism." Apparently, the idea of using the collaborative effort to propose new solutions encountered very little dissension as the participating groups planned the effort.

Mark you calendars for the big reveal of this unprecedented coordination of journalistic resources, the blitz of coverage on homelessness is scheduled for June 29.