Nonprofit Journalism

Community Funded Reporting

2009-02-03T15:44:00.000-08:00

An interesting twist on the nonprofit media idea: let citizens directly fund reporting on issues they want to see covered.

National Journalism Fund

2009-02-02T12:15:00.001-08:00

This Boston Globe columnist calls for a national journalism fund, an intriguing idea. But why does the author include only on-line efforts? Paper and ink are still extremely relevant in low-income communities where Internet access is sparse at best.

'The Trouble with Nonprofit Journalism'

2009-01-30T20:44:00.001-08:00

I'll have more to say about this soon., but here's an article critical of nonprofit journalism.

Newspapers on Computers a la 1981

2009-01-29T17:48:00.000-08:00

Take a look.

Berkeley Daily Planet

2009-01-29T13:20:00.000-08:00

The Berkeley Daily Planet mulls the idea of Community Supported Journalism on the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model.

After the Jump: What Those Former Journalists Are Up to Now

2009-01-28T13:40:00.000-08:00

AJR takes a look at what all those former journalists have been doing and how they feel about it.

Internet as a Right?

2008-10-28T21:03:00.001-07:00

Jeff Jarvis has an interesting post here about the concept of Internet as a right.

My initial thought on this is that it would be more precise to talk about information as a right. Saying the Internet is a right is sort of like saying that hospitals or medical offices are a right, rather than the health care provided within them.

And what kind of information should we have the right to? I would suggest we start with the information most useful to people on a daily basis -- what schools are available to send your children to; details of community meetings; where crime is prevalent and what police are doing to protect the community; the list goes on ....

Of course, providing this hyper-local level of information requires a different economic model. I think it has to be a nonprofit model fueled by hybrid sources of revenue -- mainly advertising supplemented by philanthropy.

We're doing that here in the Bronx.

Christian Science Monitor Reports on Nonprofit Journalism

2008-02-12T19:21:00.000-08:00

This Christian Science Monitor article is the latest to report on a nascent nonprofit journalism movement.

It's great that nonprofit news is getting attention here and in the two main journalism magazines -- AJR and CJR (more on these last two later). I'm learning about many of these publications (like the Voice of San Diego) for the first time.

But in future reporting, I'd like to see mention of hyper-local publications (yes, like mine but also several others) that are doing reporting at the neighborhood level -- in other words, the kind of traditional reporting that community newspapers do that isn't fully supported by the economy of low income neighborhoods.

I always say that the neighborhoods that can't afford good community journalism are the ones that need it the most.

Why I'm Doing This

2007-11-02T10:02:00.000-07:00

I'm Jordan Moss, the editor of the Norwood News, a nonprofit community newspaper in the northwest Bronx, in the state of New York. The paper is published by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a community development corporation that is affiliated with Montefiore Medical Center. You can read more about MPC here.

We have begun to expand our model to include other low-income communities in the Bronx that have no other source for local news and information. The West Bronx Blog is the gateway to this small but growing constellation of nonprofit media in the Bronx. I hope you'll take a look.

I'm starting this blog because I'm interested in nonprofit journalism -- particularly community journalism -- and there is no one place on the Web to go for information on this type of media. I hope that this blog can be that place or, hopefully in the future, one of several places where reporters, editors, readers and funders can congregate and discuss nonprofit media. I'm going to list the nonprofit media I know and like on this blog. Please send me names of publications that you like and think I should include.

This blog will be shaped by your input. I can't wait to hear from you.

-Jordan Moss