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Tracie Powell has worked in journalism in pretty much every part of Georgia — in circulation, advertising and reporting.

Eventually, she moved away, and “when I came back, it was really interesting to see the landscape, especially in rural Georgia and how much it had changed.”

Yes, there were news deserts. They’re growing everywhere ([link removed]) . But there were also people who’d started covering communities of color in particular, which traditional mainstream media has historically ignored ([link removed]) . They were one-or-two-people shops. They were on Facebook, Instagram, TV, print and radio. And they had large and loyal audiences.

“And we found a bunch of oases in these news deserts,” said Powell, founder of The Pivot Fund ([link removed]) , a venture philanthropy organization that launched last year with the goal of putting $500 million in independent newsrooms led by people of color.

Here’s the thing: “If you’re not looking hard enough, you might miss them.”

Pivot Fund wants to make those kinds of newsrooms harder to miss, and it started on Tuesday with the announcement of its first award ([link removed]) — $2 million to seven organizations in Georgia.

Last week, another big announcement came out that matters to local news. Chicago’s City Bureau won $10 million ([link removed]) from the Stronger Democracy Award to expand its Documenters Network, which trains and pays citizens to attend and take notes at public meetings. The project currently has documenters in Chicago, Cleveland and Minneapolis, and plans to start working in Atlanta, Fresno and Omaha.

The Pivot Fund is shifting power (specifically where philanthropy goes), Powell said, and Documenters is sharing it.

Both are things local news desperately needs to remain relevant. And both deal with rebuilding information and access to it.

“We’re growing because we believe that journalism skills are civic skills, that everyone can be equipped to report for their community, and that democracy depends on everyday civic action,” wrote ([link removed]) City Bureau co-founder Darryl Holliday last week. “We think we can do something about it — and we’ll continue to document our processes and results in alignment with our values.”

The seven newsrooms awarded The Pivot Fund’s money:
* BEE TV Network ([link removed]) , in LaGrange, Georgia, is a cable TV station “cited by both Black and white residents as their go-to information source, unifying the demographically divided city around a common set of facts.”
* Pasa La Voz Savannah ([link removed]) , in Savannah, Georgia, is a Facebook page with nearly 15,000 subscribers aimed at helping “Spanish-speaking immigrants and their children navigate past disinformation and succeed in American society.
* Notivision ([link removed]) , in Warner Robins, Georgia, publishes on Facebook and Instagram and serves as the “bridge between Georgia's growing Hispanic population and local businesses, organizations, and local government.”
* In Columbus, Georgia, Davis Broadcasting ([link removed]) and The Courier Eco Latino ([link removed]) are a radio network and bilingual radio station, which will use the grant to collaborate.
* And in Atlanta, Georgia Asian Times ([link removed]) and Tomorrow Pictures ([link removed]) “will collaborate to report and produce a documentary on the Burmese immigrant community, who, like many others, settled initially in the Atlanta suburb of Clarkston but are now following chicken processing and warehouse jobs in rural Georgia.”

The grants will help those newsrooms in different ways, including seeding collaborations and hiring staff to expand their work.

The grants from The Pivot Fund and the expansion of Documenters isn’t the only space where the push to support local news is expanding beyond the simple borders of legacy and digital newsrooms, with a focus on journalists and communities of color.

URL Media ([link removed]) is a network of 12 media organizations serving Black and Brown communities. Local Media Association created a way to support publishers of color ([link removed]) through its Fund for Local Journalism. Emma Carew Grovum, founder of Kimbap Media, created a coaching project, Upward ([link removed]) , to help journalists of color in local newsrooms prepare for leadership. And the Diversity Pledge Institute ([link removed]) offers resources, free mentorship and training.

What other projects have you seen that are working to rebuild local news beyond the platforms where they’re delivered?

Like Powell said, “If you’re not looking hard enough, you might miss them.”

Let’s look harder.

From the Institute

Keep covering ARPA

So far, we’ve held three free webinars on covering the American Rescue Plan Act, the huge influx of federal dollars into local communities. (In case you missed it, here’s what we learned about covering ARPA and public health ([link removed]) , ARPA and public safety ([link removed]) and ARPA and infrastructure/environment. ([link removed]) You can also watch the webinars, which we’re grateful to the Joyce Foundation for supporting. ([link removed]) ) We’re returning with our ARPA experts one more time with an ARPA Ask Me Anything ([link removed]) . What questions do you
have for Taylor DesOrmeau, Shelby Harris, Weihua Li and Anastasia Valeeva? Ask them here ([link removed]) (or once you’ve signed into your Poynter account) and I’ll do my best to get to them.
Join us ([link removed]) for this free webinar at 1 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, July 26.

That's it for me. It's so hot in Florida that I can't think of anything funny or cute to end this newsletter with. Drink your water!
Kristen
Kristen Hare
Faculty
The Poynter Institute
@kristenhare ([link removed])

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