By Tiffany McCallen
National Community Manager
Religion News LLC

It’s been five weeks since the Spokane, Wash., community caught the first glimpse of SpokaneFAVS.com in its professional, beta format. The aqua-splashed site is both bright and bustling — a marriage of veteran and citizen journalism intersecting with tools and resources that connect Spokanites to faith and values news.

Nearly three weeks ago, Wilmington, N.C., had its own party to celebrate the beta launch of WilmingtonFAVS.com. This is the blueprint coming to life in Religion News LLC’s three-year hyperlocal religion news project, funded by the Lilly Endowment.

Each FAVS (Faith And ValueS) site features daily news and opinion content from site editors Tracy Simmons and Amanda Greene, community contributors and bloggers, national partner Religion News Service and local partnerships with area newspapers and broadcast stations. Special attention is given to multimedia content; we regularly produce original audio, video, photos, polls, slideshows and other media.

In addition to in-depth and engaging religion reports and dialogue, the sites also provide tools to help readers explore beliefs within and outside their traditions, including:

• A faith-based directory of houses of worship, businesses, organizations and educational institutions, searchable by faith, company type and other data
• A calendar of community events and religious holidays
• Press release listings
• Obituary notices

Already, the FAVS sites are positively impacting their communities. The Rev. Eric Blauer, SpokaneFAVS.com blogger, shared this: “I appreciate how this site has provided me with some very rich opportunities to engage and grow by an expanding sphere of views and beliefs. Thanks for your work here in Spokane.”

And Annie, a WilmingtonFAVS.com reader, said, “This is such a well-written article. It presents the facts, but offers a personal voice. I love that it is non-judgmental in either direction. We need more of this in our country! It illustrates a story about a Christian… without the usual Christian privilege.”

Next month we’ll formally welcome aboard Missourian Kellie Kotraba to begin work on ColumbiaFAVS.com, which includes a unique partnership with the NPR/University of Missouri affiliate, KBIA 91.3.  Other FAVS sites will follow this July and next January.

Want to apply?

Applications will be accepted through June 1 for potential sites in Athens, Ga., and Hartford, Conn. We also accept site location proposals on an ongoing basis. Details can be found at ReligionNewsLLC.com.

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By Tiffany McCallen
National Community Manager

What’s in a name? Everything, apparently.

I recently learned that naming the newest project of the Religion News family is akin to finding a name for a child. We researched. We studied. We opened book after book to ponder phrases, meanings, synonyms, antonyms and any other “nyms” ad nauseum.

From there, the lists began, where our team of name-finders would add, delete, promote and demote suggestions until we were left with just a handful of possibilities.

Then the questions began, often sounding like the pages of a Dr. Seuss book. Is it too stuffy, too stodgy, too fancy, too frilly? Too trite, too right, too boring, too silly?

In the end, the name came more from left field than right, and we—happy to finally have something to call ourselves—began to settle into our new moniker with an exhausted sigh.

So what did we choose?

SpokaneFAVS, WilmingtonFAVS, ColumbiaFAVS.

FAVS, which rhymes with raves, stands for Faith And ValueS, a phrase we want folks to identify as non-sectarian coverage of all beliefs, creeds, faiths and spirituality. We hope the name, with its bit of edge and bit of tradition, will grow over time as a trusted and unique source for community religion news.

Until then, do what we’re doing: roll the name around on your tongue for a while. Practice it out loud and let it hang there a while. Read it on our construction blogs, our snazzy new logo, our social media sites and here on this site. Let it become your FAV.

In other news

• Stay tuned as we officially soft launch SpokaneFAVS.com and WilmingtonFAVS.com in the next three to six weeks (unforeseen delays excluded). We’ll share the news as soon as they go live and ask our early readers serve as our official site testers.

• Interviews are underway for our Athens, Ga., hub, and applications are being accepted for our Hartford, Conn., site. If you know someone who would like to apply, direct them to our online application.

• Our next round of community editors will begin in June and July. I look forward to introducing them to you at that time.

You can’t see them yet, but they’re there. Right now, the visions for three hyperlocal religion news websites are being carefully crafted, refined and readied for an early 2012 launch. And that’s just the beginning.

Who’s on board

National Community Manager Tiffany McCallen

Religion News LLC, the new entity created by the Religion Newswriters Foundation, made its first hire in the venture to create up to 20 community websites for faith and spirituality news over the next three years as part of a $3.5 million Lilly Endowment grant.

Tracy Simmons, creator of the Connecticut-based Creedible website, was recruited in August to create the first hub site in Spokane, Wash. To help generate buzz about the site, Simmons (@SpokaneFAVS) developed a “construction blog” to highlight news about the project, the community contributors she’s recruiting and the plans to collaborate with other media organizations in the area.

Religion News Spokane's Tracy Simmons

“Like most of us, I’ve been watching in horror over the past few years as too many newspapers have reduced or killed their religion sections. Religion News Spokane, and the hubs, are a way to keep the faith beat alive in this digital age,” Simmons said. “Through daily news coverage, blogs and multimedia production I hope to engage the community in an online dialogue about the theological issues that make people tick.”

Earlier this month former (Wilmington, N.C.) StarNews reporter Amanda Greene (@iwritereligion) began work on the second hub. She, too, has a construction blog for project updates — “WilmingtonFAVS” — including the development of a partnership with her former employer. For Greene, who moved from the religion beat to education in 2010, the project is a chance to return to her passion for telling nuanced stories of faith.

Religion News Wilmington's Amanda Greene

“This opportunity is a homecoming for me,” Greene said. “After covering religion here for nearly a decade — and being away covering education for a few years — I recognize the importance of expressing how local people live their faiths.”

Both Greene and Simmons bring award-winning talents to the hyperlocal project. Greene’s “Divine Diva” StarNews blog was recognized in 2009 by the New York Times Regional Group as a model for WordPress blogs, and Simmons’ work at Creedible took first place in the Schachern online section category for the 2011 RNA Awards for Religion Reporting Excellence.

Joining them by the end of the year as our third hub will be a reporter chosen to work in a unique partnership with KBIA 91.3, the NPR affiliate in Columbia, Mo. In addition to the standard site editor and management duties, this person will be part of the KBIA news team, writing and producing radio spots and potentially hosting programs.

What’s next

In the next few months, work for the hubs will center on:

• Creating a website template that will seamlessly share content with the project’s primary partner, Religion News Service;
• Launching our first three sites — Spokane, Wilmington, Columbia — in early 2012;
• Hiring editors for other sites, with a goal of 10 sites up and running by December 2012.

Want to apply?

Job descriptions and applications are available online (KBIA position, other site positions). Columbia (KBIA)-based candidates should apply by Nov. 30; applications for other site positions are accepted on an ongoing basis. Criteria for community sites include locations:

• With populations between 100,000 and 400,000
• At least 100 miles from any RNA active members
• Where religion is not a full-time beat for reporters at daily, general circulation media outlets
• Where partnership possibilities are plentiful
• Where opportunities for advertising and other support are abundant
• Where there’s a rich mix of both academic institutions with religion experts and diverse faith traditions
• Where faith-based social networks are solid and functional.

Direct questions to the project’s national community manager, Tiffany McCallen.

Home page image: The Clocktower on Havermale Island in Spokane (Bigstockphoto)