Building Trust Through Community Collaborations - Wallace House Center for Journalists

Amy Maestas is director of the Collaborative Journalism Resource Hub at Montclair State University.

I’m motivated and inspired by the ongoing evolution of journalism in all ways, but especially collaborative journalism. At the Collaborative Journalism Resource Hub, where I am director, we are building on the success of journalism collaboratives in the United States. In the last six years, I’ve helped catalyze and support journalism collaboratives of varying sizes and in a variety of places. During my KnightWallace Fellowship, I studied how to inspire and lead innovation in news organizations amid constant disruption.

When collaboratives work, they can achieve what no single news organization could do alone. They include community and civic organizations in their work, which expands the reach of their journalism, fills gaps in coverage, builds trust and delivers storytelling in innovative ways.

In Dallas, a choral ensemble writes and performs songs based on Dallas Media Collaborative’s stories about housing affordability and equity. In Wichita, collaborative partners host community fairs that include organizations focused on youth mental health. In Salt Lake City, young people are creating zines to educate their peers about the shrinking Great Salt Lake — work led by the Great Salt Lake Collaborative. In fact, that same collaborative used their journalism to develop an education curriculum for fifth-grade public school students.

These examples illustrate how journalism collaboratives can orient around the needs of their communities and create a community-first value system. They contribute to the evolution of local information ecosystems; their journalism becomes more accessible and better represents people’s lived experiences. When community members begin to see themselves reflected in local media, they often develop a sense of agency and are motivated to take action — and with it, often come changes in their attitudes toward local journalism.

In collaboratives, news organizations are no longer doing business as usual; they have adopted a mindset that lets go of traditional journalistic paradigms. They are building resiliency and the capacity to adapt to change and disruption. They have moved past the well-worn storylines about “resource-strapped” newsrooms or stories about how one ingenious person came to the rescue after the closure of a news organization.

These successes have not been easy. Working together productively and authentically is difficult. Being sustainable is even harder. But the list of journalism collaboratives is expanding, and the resources to support them are building. The Hub was just launched in January, but I believe we were created specifically for this moment.

This article is part of Rising to Meet the Moment, a series from the Fall 2025 issue of the Wallace House Journal, featuring reflections from Knight-Wallace alumni, Wallace House board members and the Livingston Awards community on meeting today’s challenges with focus, resilience and resolve. Read more stories from our series:

Christopher Baxter, “Unexpected hope“

Lynette Clemetson, “Stepping up with focus and resolve“

Hayes Ferguson, “Nurturing innovation, adaptability and purpose“

Stephen Henderson, “Choosing civility“

Samantha Henry, “The future of our profession: student journalism“

Tracy Jan, “News deserts and fewer watchdogs“

Margaret Low, “Game Over? Not a chance“

Peggy Lowe, “Defunded, but not defeated“

Amy Maestas, “Building trust through community collaborations“

Kunal Majumder, “Defending the right to report“

Seema Mehta, “Why we keep reporting“

Rachel Rohr, “Swift action for the hardest hit“