Good things happen when journalists work together.

Whether it’s partnering on stories too big to handle, leveraging resources and sharing the results to provide a bigger picture or just taking time to see what others are doing and incorporating those practices into our own work, when journalists collaborate, it results in a better, more accurate and more informed product for our audiences.

This week, the Butler Eagle was able to host a group of journalists from Sweden visiting the U.S. to gain exposure to how their colleagues across the Atlantic approached their work.

The Eagle was in good company. Other organizations visited included The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, the Washington Examiner, NPR and SiriusXM. They made it a point to come to Butler to get a glimpse inside our approach to covering the assassination attempt on Donald Trump on July 13, 2024 at the Butler Farm Show grounds.

The sessions didn’t just serve as a chance for those visiting to learn how different American outlets approach the professions — they served as a starting point for those present to pass on what they learned, both what they can adopt and what doesn’t work for them, with others who did not get a chance to make the trip.

Such activities can also serve as a chance for those hosting to discuss how their visiting counterparts handle things and carry those insights to their own colleagues.

The end result of all of that is better, more informed, more useful coverage for a news outlet’s audience on the issues and events around them and their impact. At its core, that is the goal of good journalism and it should be encouraged and pursued whenever possible.

— JP