In the golden age of newspapers, one of the big thrills for editors and reporters was coming to work in the morning and seeing what scoops you had in that day’s paper over the other newspaper in town. If you worked at the little paper like I did and had scooped the bigger one in your circulation area, the victory was that much the sweeter.

But that was then. In today’s media business, the “c” word is “collaboration.”

Consider:

• The editor of a daily newspaper offers to partner with hyperlocal journalists working in the area, going so far as to publish the name and number of the paper’s community editor to make it easier for them to get in touch.
• The editors of several local or regional magazines and online publishers agree to attend an event to offer tips on freelance writing opportunities at their respective publications, never mind that by appearing together they risk losing the services of some promising writers who might be interested in writing for one of said publications more than another.
• Independent journalists living in the same area come together to work side-by-side three times a week, all the better to share ideas and otherwise help each other out, without worrying about someone stealing someone else’s story ideas.
• A public radio station teams up with other regional public radio stations in order to do a better job of reporting on issues that cross state lines.

All of those things are happening right now – and they’re all happening here in Portland.

Portland may be more progressive than some areas when it comes to journalist collaboration. But it’s far from alone. Just last week, the Online News Association announced that it was teaming up with the Poynter Institute, the well-regarded journalism training center, to provide digital journalism instruction to the organization’s 1,800 members. This month, more than two dozen writers who know each other through a popular freelance writing message board published an essay book, Fits, Starts and Matters of the Heart, which is for sale online on Amazon.

All of which begs the question: As an independent writer, how are you embracing collaboration? Some ways I could think of:

• Partnering with another writer who covers the topics you do to do a joint bylined story, project or ebook on a subject you both care about.
• Applying for a grant for a similar type of project.
• Going after some a steady, contributing writer gig, where you can contribute as a member of an editorial team.

Are there other ways that you’re collaborating? If so, please share.

News University, the e-learning program run by Poynter Institute, is creating a series of writing webinars and wants input from the freelance community on what they should cover.

Any writer who takes the survey will receive a 50 percent discount on any News U. writing webinar when the program launches next year – how’s that for a sweet deal?

Howard Finberg, Poynter’s director of interactive learning, reached out to WordCount to help promote participation in the survey among the freelance community, saying “This is an attempt to reach independent writers with quality training.”

I was more than happy to oblige. With more journalists working as free agents, whether by circumstance or choice, it benefits everyone when they’re as up to speed on the latest research, reporting and writing techniques as staff reporters and editors.

If you’re interested in participating in the News U. survey, you’ll find it here. Once you’ve completed the survey, you’ll receive a promo code you can use to receive a discount on the webinars when they’re available.

But wait – as they say in the TV commercials – there’s more. Finberg is also offering $10 off a News U. class on fighting writers block that takes place on Thursday, Sept. 16, at 2 p.m. Eastern. The class, which regularly costs $24.95, will be taught by Roy Peter Clark, Poynter’s vice president and senior scholar. To receive the discount, use promo code: PWRDHLP10.

It’s not easy. But it is possible, as a handful of writers have shown, including some with no previous business reporting experience.

I’ve written before about not needing to be serious to write about serious topics, like the hip hop YouTube video that humorously but succinctly explained the Large Hadron Collider.

Lately, the piece on the financial crisis that I keep hearing people talk about for its elegantly simple take on the whole mess is one that first aired last May on the radio show This American Life called The Giant Pool of Money. Alex Blumberg, a producer at This American Life, and Adam Davidson, a National Public Radio business reporter, got together to explain the connection between fancy new forms of debt like collateralized debt obligations and people losing their homes because they couldn’t pay their mortgages.

It was an instant, and timely, hit. The New York Times has written about the story and the pair, who now have a blog and podcast devoted to writing about the crisis called Planet Money.

Making it easy for readers to understand hard stuff is the kind of thing that’s taught in Journalism 101. But after spending years on a beat you sometimes lose sight of who your readers are and what their grasp of the information is, or isn’t. Roy Peter Clark, a writing instructor with the Poynter Institute, reminded writers of that point in his Writing Tools column this week. He also referred to a column he penned back in 2001 explaining how to make stories on even the driest or most complex subjects “engaging and comprehensive.” Some of his advice:

Tell it to a friend. When you tell your story to a single person, your voice changes and your language becomes more simple and direct.

Think graphics. Informational graphics are reaching new levels of excellence in American newspapers. Our ability to explain complex issues in words and then illustrate them in pictures provides valuable reinforcement for the reader.

Read the entire column here.

Here’s an option for getting that training. The Poynter Institute and News University are running a Webinar called Reporting With Video: Basics for Print Journalists on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2 to 3 p.m. Eastern time. The Webinar costs $24.95.

The instructor is Regina McCombs, a Poynter faculty member. Before joining Poynter, McCombs worked as a multimedia producer at StarTribune.com in Minneapolis, and news photographer and field producer at KARE-TV in Minneapolis.

The one-hour Webinar will cover video storytelling basics, including basic techniques, how to structure a video story, editing principles and how to add sound. The Webinar will include live audio and slideshow presentation in which participants can post questions and respond to poll questions posed by the host.

To participate, you need a broadband Internet connection, Flash plug-in, version 8.0 or higher, firewall that allows port 1935 or 443, monitor with 1024 or higher resolution, speakers, Windows XP or Vista or Mac OS.

For more information or questions, contact Poynter at webinars@newsu.org.

The new front page has tabs for quick access to some of the site’s most popular columns and blogs, including Romenesko, a daily briefing on who’s in, who’s out and who’s saying what at the nation’s top newspapers, magazines and news blogs.

One new addition is Poynter Groups. Call it a social network, call it a message board. Whatever you call it, it’s a space for working journalists – staffers and freelancers – to dish about their jobs and craft.

Poynter has held seminars and other types of classes for journalists for over 30 years. The institute has collected its online education resources and put them in one place, appropriately called Training.

The site also has separate sections for jobs and an online store.