Like a lot of folks, I have been thinking quite a bit lately about how to shore up our democracy. We voted in November, and that seems to have gone pretty well. But after voting, what’s next? In this season of giving I have a modest suggestion: Support your local news organization.
“The launch of Signal Cleveland is one of the largest launches of its kind in the country and it's part of a new generation of news organizations that are emerging across the country to fill the void of the decline of local news. This effort is really exciting..."
There are few staff to monitor Nebraska’s vast swaths of farmland, thousands of cattle feedlots, large hog operations and chicken farms. And the agencies’ own regulations don’t give the staff many tools to combat malpractice.
The demise of local news is by no means inevitable. In the last few years, a surprising good-news story has emerged that offers a hopeful antidote to the struggling local media industry. Powered by foundations and individual donors, promising examples of nonprofit news organizations across the country are showing how to turn the tide.
This fall, we hosted a series of panels centered around one question: Does local news matter? Each panel highlighted a researcher and a leader of a local nonprofit news organization.
Local news holds the government accountable, one of the many reasons it’s essential to democracy. In the final conversation in our series of conversations on the impact of local news, we heard from Nikki Usher of the University of San Diego, Jon Ralston of the Nevada Independent and Michelle De La Isla, former mayor of Topeka, Kansas.
The three biggest winners Friday — each took home three awards — were Enlace Latino NC, Montana Free Press, and Santa Cruz Local.1 Those sites serve, respectively: Spanish speakers in North Carolina (roughly 690,000 people); Montana residents (1.1 million), and residents of metro Santa Cruz, Calif. (267,000).
The LION Awards Ceremony occurred during the Independent News Sustainability Summit, celebrating sustainable businesses and journalistic excellence in independent online news. AJP grantee winners include Documented, Block Club Chicago, Montana Free Press, Chalkbeat and Sahan Journal.
Enlace Latino NC, the first Spanish-language nonprofit digital news outlet, started by immigrants Paola Jaramillo and Walter Gomez, is geared towards informing and sourcing its Spanish-speaking readers. They cover the statehouse in Raleigh in order to educate residents about the mechanics of voting.
We’re building a movement for local news.
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