“Want to see a big scoop?”
Brian Conway invites a visitor to join him looking at the screen of his laptop, on which he’s about to publish a story that his Pittsburgh Independent will present, as is a big part of its mission, before other local news outlets:
Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum is sending a “Fame” exhibition beginning in February to Al-‘Ula in Saudi Arabia, “despite,” the headline explains, “homosexuality being illegal and punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.”
Conway published his provocative piece on Nov. 18 not from his South Side home but from his Downtown office — on the 10th floor of the Benedum-Trees Building.
The sunlit, sleekly decorated room, with a view of the Monongahela River, off a marble-appointed vintage suite in this 1905 architectural gem, is much fancier than most journalists would expect, especially for a one-man independent journalism startup.
But Conway’s rent is greatly discounted, as he shares the bigger space with several other outlets in what’s called the Pittsburgh Downtown Media Hub. Funded by The Benter Foundation, which also lives in this vintage skyscraper, the new hub is a project of the Point Park University Center for Media Innovation, which describes it as “a shared newsroom for local journalism.”
This innovative idea, being celebrated by an invitation-only open house Tuesday evening, is now home to six news outlets: The Pittsburgh Independent, City Cast Pittsburgh, The Incline, NEXTpittsburgh, QBurgh and Storyburgh, as well as the Women’s Press Club of Pittsburgh. It also offers other journalists and students daily drop-in space and access to a shared studio, equipment, even a kitchen with one of the most important ingredients for making journalism — coffee.
“I can drink NEXTpittsburgh’s sparkling water when they’re not working,” quips Conway, who has worked for a number of local outlets and, for stretches, at other coworking spaces. He prefers having an office to separate his home and work lives.
“As a freelancer, it’s very easy to feel isolated,” he says. At the hub, “It actually feels like we’re in a newsroom.”
“Do you mind if I turn on the lights?” asks his neighbor on one side, NEXTpittsburgh owner and publisher John Rhoades.
And while the other small operations in adjacent offices and cubicles could be considered competitors (there’s a conference room with a door that closes), sharing the space allows for cooperation, too. Conway and Rhoades have conferred on nuts and bolts of publishing software their sites use.
Another example is the Saudi Arabia story, which Conway allowed his next-door neighbor QBurgh to publish on its site, a “source for LGBTQ news and community resources in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania.” Conway reported on Monday that the two outlets “just received approval for funding for follow-up reporting” on the piece from the Pittsburgh Media Partnership, a project of the Point Park Center for Media Innovation that connects 21 outlets “to support and promote local journalism across the region for the public’s benefit.” Conway would love to cook up more collaborations to push the envelope of what local journalism can be.
That’d be fine with CMI Director Andrew Conte, who said the first-time Independent/QBurgh collaboration “just made sense.”
“Over the past few years, we have changed the paradigm about media in Pittsburgh to one of collaboration and friendly competition,” he explained in a text. “Yes, journalists are still competing for scoops and the best stories, but there’s also a recognition that we’re all in this together. We’re better off if journalism, in all its forms, thrives in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Downtown Media Hub is a physical manifestation of this idea, creating a space where journalists from different news outlets work in proximity. They’re each doing their own stories in their own way, but they also realize benefits from sharing office space, talking over coffee and generally helping each other.”
While the offices are fully booked, he noted that there is one cubicle that any journalist can rent by the day for $10.
He added, “We’re extremely grateful to The Benter Foundation and Bill Benter, particularly, for supporting this idea and providing the resources to make it happen. The foundation’s investment not only benefits the news outlets using the space but also sends a message to journalists across the region that their work has value.”
Meanwhile, with about half of the journalists on strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Conway is frank about seeing even more opportunity to break stories that aren’t being covered by mainstream media.
“I think that, even before the strike, there was room for more and different stories to be told,” he says. “As a new news outlet, this is an incredible opportunity.”
For as long as the strike lasts, the striking Post-Gazette journalists are covering some of those stories here in the Pittsburgh Union Progress.
Before securing their own nearby donated Downtown office space thanks to United Steelworkers, many of those reporters, photographers and editors much enjoyed holding a meeting in the Media Hub conference room.
In fact, they enjoyed it so much that they’re meeting there again this week.
Bob, a feature writer and editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is currently on strike and serving as interim editor of the Pittsburgh Union Progress. Contact him at bbatz@unionprogress.com.
