News Voices Updates

News Voices: North Carolina aims to connect local news staffs with residents with untold stories.

Grassroots effort to tap into cash from the sale of public airwaves will continue through the summer and into 2018 if need be, Free Press Action Fund organizers say.

TRENTON — On Monday, advocates rallied in Trenton in support of legislation that would use millions in proceeds from the recent spectrum auction to help fix New Jersey’s local news crisis.

At a recent event held in Asbury Park, local residents and members of the local media came together with Free Press Action Fund to brainstorm how proceeds from the $332-million sale of old public-media licenses should be used to better inform communities.

New Jersey is getting ready to receive a one-time infusion of $332 million in revenue thanks to a nationwide auction of broadcast airwaves that was held earlier this year. With a new state fiscal year about to begin in a matter of weeks, two Democratic legislative leaders are now pushing to earmark at least some of that money to bolster local journalism in New Jersey.

Roughly two dozen journalists, academics, librarians, public-relations professionals and activists attended the Free Press Action Fund gathering, where they broke into two groups and brainstormed how to improve local news in the Garden State.