Updates

Madeleine Bair’s project El Tímpano (“the eardrum” in Spanish) began with a question: How are Spanish-only speakers in Oakland served by local media?

The project , organized by Free Press and the Center for Cooperative Media, brought together local news outlets and community groups to report on Atlantic City.

Jersey Matters sits down with Mike Rispoli, the News Voices director for Free Press Action, to discuss the importance of connecting newsrooms with communities.

The Civic Info Consortium needs the full $5 million it was promised for grants designed to strengthen local journalism throughout New Jersey.

TRENTON — This week, Free Press Action Organizer James L. Thompson will testify before legislators about the need to fully fund the Civic Info Consortium.

The $1 million in the governor’s proposed FY 2020 budget would not allow the consortium to fulfill its mission.

Gov. Murphy signed a bill creating the Civic Information Consortium but the promised $5 million is not in his budget.

State lawmakers consider local journalism so important that they passed a groundbreaking bill to help fund it. But the money has since gone missing.

Absent from the governor’s list of priorities for the upcoming fiscal year was his prior commitment to fully fund the Civic Information Consortium.

Free Press’ News Voices work has emphasized creating strong relationships between communities and local newsrooms by brokering conversations between the two.