Following ongoing campaigns to urge both businesses and citizens to more effectively conserve water, this week saw the launch of Water Deeply, a comprehensive new media platform created to connect the public with experts to better understand the California drought. Developed by the team behind News Deeply, an award-winning new media company that has been called “The Future of News” by TIME magazine, Water Deeply will feature live news streams and extensive explanatory content concerning California’s consumption, agriculture, wildlife, politics and law.
“There's a hunger for more in-depth information about the water crisis. We'll explain why the drought is so complicated and we'll point people towards solutions,” said Matt Weiser, Managing Editor of Water Deeply. Weiser has spent more than a decade covering water issues in California, most recently as a beat reporter for The Sacramento Bee.
“We are launching the Water Deeply platform as a way to enhance beat reporting on a critical issue,” said Lara Setrakian, News Deeply’s co-founder and CEO. “California’s crisis touches lives well beyond the state borders. It’s a human and environmental issue that we need to understand as we face the reality of a water-scarce world.”
Water Deeply has assembled an Advisory Board composed of experts who are dealing with the ground-level effects of the drought. The board members include Dan Cayan, an atmospheric scientist and water expert at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego; Cannon Michael, a sixth-generation farmer in the San Joaquin Valley and a local water agency board member; Heather Cooley, water program director at the Pacific Institute in Oakland; and Laurel Firestone, co-director of the Community Water Center in Visalia.
“Our Board will help us cover the crisis with clarity and consistency,” Weiser explains. “We're making expert analysis more accessible both to average readers and key decision-makers.”
With the launch of Water Deeply, parent company News Deeply is integrating partnerships with well-known journalistic organizations such as The Associated Press and The McClatchy Company. “We’ve had great admiration for News Deeply and the team behind it,” said Fernando Ferre, VP for business development at The Associated Press. “It’s a natural next step for us to experiment together and launch a platform focusing on such an important subject."
"We're very much looking forward to working with News Deeply on this,” says Anders Gyllenhaal, VP for news at McClatchy. “This is a hugely important story for our readers in California and across the West, and we think the thoughtful collection of coverage over time — both our work and the other partners contributing to this — will be a vital way to delve into this story in new and effective ways.''
These partnerships will enhance Water Deeply’s reach to millions of readers, while reinforcing the highest quality of news coverage.
Founded in 2012, News Deeply is a media and technology company dedicated to bringing together thought leaders, enhancing public engagement, and improving the user experience of complex global issues. The founding team of journalists and technologists is best known for its inaugural platform, Syria Deeply, which provides focused coverage of the devastating conflict in Syria. The team’s second platform, Ebola Deeply, launched in 2014 as a real-time crisis monitor for the deadly outbreak.
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Published Jul 15, 2015 6pm EDT / 3pm PDT / 11pm BST / 12am CEST