The Loop is a Journalism Value Project podcast, brought to you by Reference, a self-organized network of 26 European independent news outlets, hosted by Arena for Journalism.

We are interviewing the members of this network about key challenges for them, ranging from funding and business models, to community engagement and organizational structures, as we explore what success and sustainability looks like for European independent media today.

On today’s episode, we talk to Brigitte Alfter, the founder and director of Arena for Journalism in Europe, a non-profit to support crossborder, collaborative journalism.

We will start by discussing how journalism – once a very competitive profession – evolved into today’s collaborative initiatives. Then we will talk about the new editorial roles, and skills these crossborder projects require.

Then we take a look at what kind of structures are needed for these collaborative projects, and how these non-hierarchical structures can be integrated into traditional newsrooms where hierarchy is still the norm.