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January 16, 2019 5:45 PM   Subscribe

One year after launching its Local Reporting Network to support investigative journalism in small-city newsrooms, independent journalism nonprofit ProPublica examines what they've learned in the process.
posted by duffell (6 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
Obligatory Mr. Show
posted by symbioid at 5:58 PM on January 16, 2019 [1 favorite]


We could use a place
Like general motors
Again.
posted by clavdivs at 6:01 PM on January 16, 2019


I will brag right now that I send an annual donation to Pro Publica. It's easy. You can do it to.
posted by latkes at 9:17 PM on January 16, 2019 [4 favorites]


(I subscribe to a local NPR affiliate and the LA Times which I hardly read because their app is ass but maybe I should choose a small paper a few hours away and subscribe to that?)
posted by latkes at 9:18 PM on January 16, 2019 [1 favorite]


If you’re wondering about that offhand comment about the hedge fund trying to take over Gannet, this article by Will Bunch has the very worrying details. Excerpt:
The problem really hit home for Dave Krieger — the now-former editorial page editor of the Daily Camera in fast-growing Boulder, Colorado — when a lawyer friend sent in a letter to the editor questioning what was happening at his hometown newspaper. The attorney said he didn’t understand why the price of his subscription was just jacked up 20 percent when the actual paper kept showing up with fewer and fewer pages.

Krieger knew exactly why, but at that moment it dawned on him that most citizens in Boulder didn’t know what he knew: That the newspaper’s shrinkage was the direct result of a distant Wall Street hedge fund that — through its investment vehicle with the Orwellian-like dishonest name of Digital First Media — had since 2013 been sucking money in full vampire-squid mode out of the Daily Camera’s newsroom revenue stream. Much of the cash that formerly paid reporters, editors and photojournalists instead went into the pocket of billionaire Randall Smith as Smith added to his collection of multi-million-dollar mansions around Palm Beach and the Hamptons (said at one point to be 18 — that’s not a typo — and counting).
posted by Kattullus at 4:10 AM on January 17, 2019 [3 favorites]


In addition to ProPublica and their excellent work, I recommend doing some research to see if there are any independent public radio stations in your area that need support. As strapped for cash as NPR is, the indies have it much worse. (WPFW in Washington, DC is a personal favorite.)
posted by duffell at 5:47 AM on January 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


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