This is great stuff!!! It truly is an exciting time to be working in news/media.
It is absolutely the case that mixing, mashing, hacking and building are a means-of-expression as vital to news/media as words and images.
A key ingredient in our sauce over here at Vox Media (SB Nation, The Verge and soon Polygon) is a break with the old pattern where technology and development teams are considered (at the organization and conceptual level) to be utilities or tool providers for editorial and business initiatives.
Rather, we embrace what internet native reporting and story telling require: an organization and mindset where editorial, business initiatives and technology are intertwined together like some kind of triple helix.
This sounds like business speak but what it really is a tough challenge - one that is very exciting and one that is creating some pretty great opportunities for creative people and builders.
The Knight-Mozilla OpenNews initiative looks like a great a way to get involved and I very much look forward to the ideas and things this fellowship program produces.