What is the Who We Are project? A year-long series that explores the people and cultures of our region. It includes a page on our web site (to which we add content every time we do a new piece) and monthly profiles of different ethnic groups, as well as periodic trend pieces and profiles of interesting people in our community.
How did you come up with the idea? As a newcomer to the area, I was struck by how diverse the Mohawk Valley is. There are more than 40 languages spoken in our public schools and we have an active refugee center that brings in thousands of people from around the world. In addition to the newer immigrants, the cities and towns in our region were all built by generations of people who came from somewhere else to call this place home. We wanted to show how those different groups define who we are as a community.
How many staffers are working on this project and who are they? There are six people in the main core group (they include a sports reporter, designer, education reporter, consumer reporter and digital producer) but we have enlisted the help of the entire newsroom as needed.
Have you had any feedback from the community? Yes, many people contacted us after the project launched to say they had stories to share or would like to be involved. We are developing a community advisory group to help us with the rest of the project.
Do you have any tips on how to pull off a big project with limited resources in terms of time and staffing? Plan and communicate well: we talked about this project for nearly a year before it launched. Have a clear mission: everyone on staff understood what we were trying to do with this project, which allowed us to quickly regroup when we lost a key player or other obstacles came up. Make it a priority: what we produce for Who We Are runs on the front page or Living fronts and fills the web with content, so anyone working on it is contributing (the project is not "taking them away" from work).
What is the Who We Are project? A year-long series that explores the people and cultures of our region. It includes a page on our web site (to which we add content every time we do a new piece) and monthly profiles of different ethnic groups, as well as periodic trend pieces and profiles of interesting people in our community.
How did you come up with the idea? As a newcomer to the area, I was struck by how diverse the Mohawk Valley is. There are more than 40 languages spoken in our public schools and we have an active refugee center that brings in thousands of people from around the world. In addition to the newer immigrants, the cities and towns in our region were all built by generations of people who came from somewhere else to call this place home. We wanted to show how those different groups define who we are as a community.
How many staffers are working on this project and who are they? There are six people in the main core group (they include a sports reporter, designer, education reporter, consumer reporter and digital producer) but we have enlisted the help of the entire newsroom as needed.
Have you had any feedback from the community? Yes, many people contacted us after the project launched to say they had stories to share or would like to be involved. We are developing a community advisory group to help us with the rest of the project.
Do you have any tips on how to pull off a big project with limited resources in terms of time and staffing? Plan and communicate well: we talked about this project for nearly a year before it launched. Have a clear mission: everyone on staff understood what we were trying to do with this project, which allowed us to quickly regroup when we lost a key player or other obstacles came up. Make it a priority: what we produce for Who We Are runs on the front page or Living fronts and fills the web with content, so anyone working on it is contributing (the project is not "taking them away" from work).
