Following New Jersey’s civic information lead
The concept is modeled after New Jersey’s own consortium, which the state touts as a “first-of-its-kind public-private partnership” that “provides start-up and early-stage funding to innovative media and civic information projects across the state.” According to the consortium’s website, it has awarded more than $10 million to 32 grantees who have produced 9,065 stories, including more than 800 by students and new journalists.
Some of those funds were used to help launch The Jersey Vindicator, a website that engages in state-level investigations and runs headlines such as “ICE sent New Jersey migrants to states with tougher immigration judges after Delaney Hall uprising.” They also contributed to hyperlocal startups and multilingual outlets such as Radio Rouj & Ble, a Haitian community radio organization, and the South Jersey Climate News Project.
Some of the grants are aimed at teaching students and other local residents reporting skills or supporting fellowships that place student journalists at publications needing more staff.
Rabb calls New Jersey’s consortium “a great model,” adding “I often look for inspiration from my colleagues in other states and then see how that can be applied and tweaked as appropriate in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
‘A remarkable job’
While Union technically does not boast a news outlet within the boundaries of the county, it is not devoid of local news coverage. Two Northumberland County-based publications, The Daily Item and the Standard-Journal, provide some coverage of the region.
Kevin Mertz, editor of the Standard-Journal, says that he appreciates that Rabb and others are interested in community journalism.
“Community journalism is something we at the Standard-Journal focus on,” he said. “So that’s good that at the state level they’re seeing the importance of supporting local news outlets.”
However, he calls the label of “news desert” an “inaccurate assessment.” His newspaper employs a reporter dedicated to Union County, Gawhara Abou-eid, who covers, among other things, municipal governments and school boards.
“I think we do a pretty great job with covering Union County, and I give our competing news agencies a lot of credit too with the coverage they give there as well,” he said
Still, local news has seen a downturn in the area, as it has in much of the country. The Daily Item, which is owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., underwent recent restructuring that saw layoffs.
Despite those limitations, Jacobson believes that the paper does “a remarkable job given the low resources.”
“I’m so grateful to have a newspaper. They do local reporting. They show up at the school board meetings and the county commissioner meetings,” she said. “They’ll do some longer-form journalism on a story that is relevant to the area. But I know they’re working very hard and I’m sure they would like more reporters and all those things.”
