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How many FOIAs have you filed that just … evaporated? What’s the longest you’ve waited for a response?
For Bruce Alpert, the request he filed in 2009 outlasted his career in daily journalism, which ended in 2015. Alpert wrote about the forever FOIA for The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune.
Here’s a bit of what he wrote ([link removed]) :
“The documents involving one of the most sensational cases in the long colorful history of Louisiana corruption arrived in the mail last week – a mere 12 years after I requested them. When I filed a Freedom of Information Act request in 2009, my Times-Picayune editors figured it would be newsworthy to examine documents related to the criminal investigation, prosecution and trial of former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans. But when the documents arrived, the case had been over — in every sense — for four years.”
Wow.
That story is one of the many links I’ve been saving up to send you at the start of this month, from more on Build Back Better aid to how newsrooms are building funding on their own and even some funding opportunities worth pursuing. I’ve divided these links up into topics to make it a little easier to find what you’re looking for.
Build Back Better:
- From The New York Times ([link removed]) : “A small paper like The Storm Lake Times in Iowa would receive a big tax credit. So would Gannett, the nation’s largest news publisher."
On Lee Enterprises and Alden Global Capital:
- My Poynter colleague Rick Edmonds and Angela Fu wrote about Alden’s bid, the poison pill and how Lee newsroom unions responded ([link removed]) .
Read Janell Ross in Time Magazine on “The Key Role a Local Newspaper Played in the Trial Over Ahmaud Arbery's Murder.” ([link removed])
Here are two great pieces on accessibility:
- For her RJI fellowship, Hannah Wise wrote about how alt-text can deepen and enhance your storytelling ([link removed]) .
- And for Poynter, John Loeppky wrote about the National Center on Disability and Journalism’s style guide’s advice ([link removed]) has “shifted to focus on the source-writer relationship. The guide now acknowledges that identity-first language (‘disabled person,’ for example) is preferred by many in the disability community.”
New (and newish) newsrooms and jobs!
- The Associated Press reports a group of philanthropies are planning a nonprofit newsroom in Cleveland ([link removed]) .
-The 148-year-old Oglethorpe Echo was going to close but its owner gave it to the University of Georgia’s J-school ([link removed]) , my colleague Barbara Allen reports.
-The New York Times reported that The New York Sun, which closed in 2008, will return ([link removed]) .
-And check out CatchLight Local ([link removed]) , an initiative “that seeks to reseed visual storytelling at the local level.” You can read more in CJR ([link removed]) .
The Washington Post devoted an entire issue ([link removed]) of its magazine to local news. I was an adviser for this issue and appreciate the full range of mostly untold stories the magazine commissioned and that at the top of each story, it acknowledges the media that already exists in those communities.
On the funding and business of the news:
- Read API on the news orgs building beats out of reader donations ([link removed]) .
- Check out Northwestern’s Local News Initiative's subscriber engagement tool ([link removed]) .
- Read CJR on why it’s “a great time to invest in Black- and POC-led media.” ([link removed])
- Check out the Center for Cooperative Media on ”How the Chicago Independent Media Alliance fundraises as a collective — and why it’s successful.” ([link removed])
- Here’s a 66-page report from Local Edition friend Damian Radcliffe on “50 Ways to Make Media Pay.” ([link removed])
- Check out KPCC’s new program on engaged journalism ([link removed]) and why it’s a revenue strategy ([link removed]) .
- Learn six lessons from The Fresno Bee on funding journalism ([link removed]) , from LMA.
- And read Nieman Lab on the now-nonprofit Salt Lake Tribune’s financial stability ([link removed]) . ([link removed])
My most excellent Poynter colleague Angela Fu is all over the union beat. Read her latest on Wirecutter’s strike ([link removed]) and three Gannett newsrooms that successfully unionized ([link removed]) .
Read more on:
- The Seattle Times Free Press website ([link removed])
- Dallas’ Indigenous radio station ([link removed])
- The six coaching fellows in Emma Carew Grovum’s Upward coaching pilot for journalists of color in local news ([link removed])
Try this: The Sacramento Observer has launched a directory of local Black historic landmarks ([link removed]) .
Learn:
- You can now download Scalawag Magazine’s “practical, abolitionist guidebook for journalists” ([link removed]) and today from 9 a.m to 2 p.m. Eastern, join a collaborative workshop about prison journalism.
- Here’s a project manager playbook ([link removed]) from the Center for Cooperative Media.
- Read Larry Graham on recognizing microaggression in the newsroom ([link removed]) .
- On Dec. 2, join the Solutions Journalism Network for the event “Leveraging Solutions Journalism for Revenue ([link removed]) ” and check out this playbook ([link removed]) .
- Here are 10 takeaways from the Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit ([link removed]) .
- Military veterans have until Dec. 17 to apply for The Newmark-Military Veterans Journalism Fellowship program ([link removed]) . Here’s more ([link removed]) : “Two military veterans will be awarded nine-month fellowships in nonprofit newsrooms after graduating with master’s degrees in journalism from the City University of New York.”
- And you have until Dec. 6 to apply to this introductory Fundraising Fundamentals from the Lenfest Institute ([link removed]) .
Phew, that’s it for me. I have had enough pumpkin pie for the year but I’m still enjoying leftover turkey.
Kristen
Kristen Hare
The Poynter Institute
@kristenhare ([link removed])
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