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Do You Want To Continue?
By Mark Joyella
 If you're here, reading this, odds are you care about coaching and want to stay informed. Maybe you think it's a good idea to have a dedicated journalist on the coaching beat, tracking the profession, its heroes and villains, and sparking debate on the future of the field.
That was always the vision for The Coaching Commons; to create a place to inform, invite conversation and at times, to attract the best brains to join in and sort out the toughest and most difficult of decisions.
In June of 2009, The Coaching Commons made its most definitive statement in support of independent journalism for coaching, with the hiring of the first-ever Community Supported Journalist--a bold idea that's on the forefront, allowing specialty communities and groups who find themselves without their own newspaper or trade press, to ensure they have the news that's vital to their careers or their lives.
"We're looking at new ways of doing reporting and bringing journalism to people who want it," I wrote back then, as I accepted this most inspiring and challenging of reporting roles. Given the financial, technological and personal backing of the Coaching Commons, I set off to carve a path and see if I could bring enough to the coaching world that, in essence, I'd earn my keep.
"It's fitting that a journalist of Mark Joyella's experience and expertise becomes the first multimedia reporter covering the coaching beat worldwide," said Ruth Ann Harnisch at the outset.
Ruth Ann Harnisch, President of The Harnisch Foundation and a firm believer in the power of coaching, chose not to hire a blogger or a note-taker, but to put an experienced journalist to work--covering the news of coaching, and in doing so, helping to focus the agenda. "I believe great coaches and great journalists have much in common," Harnisch said. "They're endlessly curious, willing to ask provocative questions, they refuse to be stonewalled, and they are not intimidated by powerful personalities."
How well she envisioned the future.
In the first year on the beat, your "CoachReporter" interviewed some of coaching's brightest personalities, and had a few doors slammed in his face, both virtually and literally.
I was the only journalist on the scene at the ICF's contentious but ultimately pivotal 2009 conference in Orlando, where its members may have forced a change not only in the direction of the world's biggest coaching group--but also the way the group interacts with its members.
With a camera recording the meeting and a mobile device sending tweets to coaches around the world, I was ultimately confronted and asked to leave. I stood my ground, interviewed coaches and the ICF president, and established a precedent of bringing news coverage to a key annual (and at times, controversial) event in the coaching world.
Could that camera, and those reports, have empowered the coaches who spoke out at that conference? Could the presence of a reporter with no agenda, willing to ask any question, have played any role in what followed later--a commitment to more openness and interaction between the ICF's board and its members?
That's our question for you.
What we have learned is that many coaches value the reporting we've produced at The Coaching Commons, and value the fact that we don't arrive on the scene every month or so, but rather, we're reporting every day.
"Journalistic coverage of coaching as a profession through the CoachReporter...has given us more coverage and resource in our profession than any of the professional organizations," said coach Cyn Liggett. "This level of awareness-building for our peer group and the public is intensely important. Focusing on what coaching is, how it works, who it works for, the whole 'kit and kaboodle' version has and will remain a fabulous resource to coaches and coachable people (whether they know it or not). I also like CoachReporter as journalism because it reports all sides and facets of this journey of announcing to the world there are change and transformation experts available to support people in making excellent decisions and taking best actions...I know Coach Reporter has educated, informed and invited me to a whole group of new thought I would not have had without you."
"Mark wasn't hired to write fluff or puff pieces," Harnisch said at the outset. "We expect him to cover this beat using his well-honed and widely recognized journalistic skills, without fear or favor."
We think we've held some proverbial feet to the fire, and celebrated successes; we've spotted trends in far reaches of the coaching world, and raised questions. And many of you have made The Coaching Commons a part of your coaching life, reading our original reporting each week, and our daily collection of coaching-related stories assembled from the world's biggest newspapers and some of the smallest.
"CoachReporter tweets interesting stuff every day that makes me click on over to The Coaching Commons," said Barbra Sundquist, one of nearly 2,000 coaches who follow the "CoachReporter" account on Twitter, which stays busy--nearly 2,500 tweets sent to date, filled with news stories and other updates.
Our video stories, including some produced at that ICF conference in Florida, have been viewed nearly 6,000 times. Our podcasts, featuring in-depth interviews with coaches from New York to Sydney, Singapore to Dublin, have been listened to over 1,200 times. "Your tweets, Facebook page and website have become part of my everyday news source," said coach Dean Miles.
As a journalist, it's always good to know somebody's out there reading what you write and listening or watching your work. But is it enough?
The Coaching Commons, at the start of the Community Supported Journalist experiment, intended to determine if a coaching audience would want to subscribe and financially support a CSJ to keep the news coming.
"The Coaching Commons has become a journalistic gathering place for coaching stories, coaching history and coaching possibilities," said Bobette Reeder, a past president of the ICF and co-founder of Conversation Among Masters (CAM). "The opportunity to read articles from an independent reporter's point of view is a breath of fresh air from the many messages which carry bias or come from a promotional perspective. These articles in the Coaching Commons bring a needed credibility which will continue to attract not only those already in the coaching profession, but also those in related fields as well as prospective corporate, business, executive and life coaching clients."
As 2011 approaches, the Coaching Commons, like other efforts to bring independent, professional journalism where it's needed, is attempting to determine if the audience being served gets enough value to justify the operating cost.
Is the Coaching Commons an effort worth supporting? Do you get the information you need? Do you feel that you have an independent outlet where you can gain perspective and insight, and freely debate? Do you think that having an independent journalist covering the field of coaching - working for you--is helping shape and advance the future of coaching?
The Harnisch Foundation has been the exclusive supporter of The Coaching Commons, and has provided six figure funding for this project. Over the next three months The HF would like to transition the Coaching Commons to a community rather than foundation-supported project.
If you believe the Coaching Commons is an important resource, please let us know and tell others to do the same. Comment here.
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It wasn't billed as a birthday party, but coaches attending Harvard's third annual coaching conference last week felt a sense of marking a milestone--a move into what conference co-director Carol Kaufmann called coaching's "third generation."
How about this selling point for coaching? Coaching saves money.
This post is reprinted from the March 21, 2008 post. You can read more about Tim Gallwey's life and beliefs 
The Coaching Commons seeks to expand its international coverage of the coaching profession and is paying competitive rates for freelance reporting. Stories may be print, podcast, video or a combo platter of multimedia. Interested coaches and journalists are asked to fill out the online application below and pitch a story.
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