Journalists are competitive and independent by nature. They want to get the story ahead of anyone else, and they want to find stories no one else has reported.

We live for scoops.

Last year, however, more than 40 newsrooms banded together to report on a public health crisis: Oregon’s suicide epidemic. More than 800 people in the state die by suicide each year and little is said publicly about it. Suicide, according to the most up-to-date federal figures released this month, is the leading cause of death for young people in Oregon.

Now, as the state confronts the spread of coronavirus illness, Oregon’s newsrooms are once again setting aside our usual competitiveness and collaborating in the interest of public service journalism. Numerous Oregon editors have agreed to share coronavirus stories in order to get the best information out to the most Oregonians.

The Oregonian/OregonLive, Oregon Public Broadcasting, KGW-TV, the Pamplin Media Group, the Statesman-Journal, The Bulletin in Bend, the Malheur Enterprise and Salem Reporter are taking part, among others. Les Zaitz, publisher and editor of the latter two outlets, suggested we take the lessons learned from last year’s “Breaking the Silence” collaboration around suicide awareness and apply them to the emerging public health story.

“Given the complexity of the novel coronavirus, the many impacts on communities -- health, school, travel, the economy -- no one organization in the state can effectively serve Oregonians with necessary coverage,” said Zaitz, a former investigative reporter and editor for The Oregonian/OregonLive. He saw a national call for more collaboration and it reminded him of last year’s effort.

The response to his idea was enthusiastic agreement from large and small. Street Roots, a newspaper sold on street corners to help the homeless, joined in, as well as The Lund Report, an online site that focuses on health news. Newsrooms that wish to join can email ornewsrooms@gmail.com.

Coronavirus will strain even the largest newsrooms as news breaks continuously and into the nights and weekends. The collaboration will allow newsrooms to pick up good information from other sources, so they will not need to re-report the same story. We can cover more angles this way.

“I really thought that if we joined forces again, as journalists we could deploy resources more broadly -- and deeply -- to provide sensible but imperative coverage,” Zaitz said. In a perfect world, newsrooms might even plan coverage together to spread out the workload, rather than share after publication.

The collaborative effort is also a recognition that some newsrooms may have better information on local confirmed cases, through sources other than the Oregon Health Authority, which has released very limited information, unlike some public agencies elsewhere. And cooperation allows Oregonians to benefit if one newsroom has skills, such as data analysis, that others do not.

The Oregonian/OregonLive is a member of The Associated Press, which is a cooperative. We’re used to sharing our work with other members. This is an extension of that spirit, in keeping with the intense interest in the story.

We’ve also started a daily coronavirus updates newsletter. You can sign up for it at oregonlive.com/newsletters. And we have online page for all of our coronavirus news: oregonlive.com/coronavirus.

You can track the spread of the illness here and elsewhere at projects.oregonlive.com/coronavirus. And you can sign up to receive free text alerts on coronavirus from The Oregonian/OregonLive by texting 503-782-5730.

As mentioned last week, we want to inform and educate the public and not needlessly inflame fears. Even as journalists deal with the same anxieties as other Oregonians, we are committed to ensuring we are the most complete and authoritative source for COVID-19 news.