MENDOCINO Co., 5/14/20 — It’s been an unprecedented several months for all us in Mendocino County, and at The Mendocino Voice we’ve been working overtime to expand our coverage and to bring you timely, accurate, useful information during this pandemic. Now, we have some exciting news to share: We’ve been selected to receive a $100,000 grant that will not only allow us to expand our coverage throughout the pandemic, but grow into a truly sustainable, community-owned news outlet that our readers can rely on for years to come.
The grants, provided by the Facebook Community Journalism Fund, are being awarded to 144 local news organizations, selected out of over 2,000 applicants through a process led by the Local Media Association (LMA) and the Lenfest Institute for Journalism and with significant contributions from the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), Local Independent Online News Publishers (LION Publishers), Local Media Consortium (LMC), and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB).
We’ve been members of LION Publishers since we started in 2016, and we’re honored to be selected amongst our fellow publishers including Redheaded Blackbelt, Two Rivers Tribune, Berkeleyside, San Jose Spotlight, CalMatters, the Eastsider, This is Reno, and a number of other LION Publishers and INN members, and we look forward to expanding our capacity to collaborate with other independent news outlets to expand our coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and more.
This grant will allow us to do a number of exciting new things, including expand our staffing and coverage around the county, improve our website, and giving us new ways to connect with our readers. It will also facilitate our transition to becoming a truly community controlled reader-worker owned co-op. And that last part is extremely important — we are committed to remaining a locally controlled publication with our only bias being for the people of Mendocino, and this grant will in no way affect our editorial stance or independence in any way.
And as always we’re excited to hear your ideas, how you think our coverage should be expanded, and any ideas. Feel free to email [email protected] and tell us.
Here’s the announcement from Facebook:
After receiving more than 2,000 applications for the COVID-19 Local News Relief Grant Program from newsrooms across every state in the US, all US territories and Washington, D.C., we are providing grants ranging from $25,000-$100,000 to help publishers continue serving communities during the coronavirus outbreak.
These grant recipients were selected through a process led by the Local Media Association (LMA) and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism and with significant contributions from the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), Local Independent Online News Publishers (LION), Local Media Consortium(LMC), and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). Thanks to these organizations’ partnership and expertise, we were able to set up a program to meet the immediate and timely needs of these newsrooms.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical role local news plays in our communities, while simultaneously threatening their very existence. Reviewing hundreds of applications on a tight timeline both illustrated the depth of need, but also highlighted the innovation that these small, independent publishers can provide for their communities when given the resources,” said Jonathan Kealing, INN’s chief network officer. “I’m excited to see new news products and more critical original reporting in these communities, thanks to Facebook’s support.”The pool of grant recipients is notable in several ways:
- Nearly four in five are family- or independently owned.
- Half are published by or for communities of color.
- Nearly 40 percent are digitally native publishers.
- Just over a third are non-profits.
“We’re proud to support this diverse group of publishers — many of which are family- or independently owned. Not only are these journalists working tirelessly to serve people right now — they’re focused on transformation, building innovative local news businesses that can continue to serve communities beyond the current pandemic,” said Campbell Brown, VP of global news partnerships at Facebook. The COVID-19 Local News Relief Grant Program was designed to provide support for US local news organizations serving a critical role for communities impacted by COVID-19. Funding is intended to a) respond to immediate community needs and/or b) offset some revenue shortfalls to help publishers maintain long-term sustainability during this crisis.
FABULOUSNESS. WELL DESERVED!!!
Thanks so much Lisa, we’re excited!
Well done! You two are amazing assets to our community and deserve this boost. Congratualtions!
Thanks for your support Heidi, we’re really excited to be able to expand our coverage around the county for everyone!
Kate and Adrian – so glad to hear you got that grant! It’s an indication of the good reporting you are doing and the major service to our area you are providing. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for your support Diann!
Facebook grant eh? FB culls alternative news right?
No thanks, I’ll unsubscribe now.
Hi Alberta, this grant has no impact on our editorial independence whatsoever and has no requirements beyond the proposal we made to expand staffing and coverage. We remain an independent, locally-owned and editorially independent news outlet. If you have any questions about this, we are happy to be transparent. Our only commitments are to providing accurate, locally owned news that serves Mendocino County residents. All of our news is published on this website first by local reporters, no culling involved.
Wow- Facebook and its agenda is filtering DEEP! Along with the GRANT funding comes its regulations. Say goodbye to REAL journalism, and hello to Socialism and the CCP. This is ridiculous!
Hi Crystal, this grant has no impact on our editorial independence whatsoever and has no requirements beyond the proposal we made to expand staffing and coverage. We remain an independent, locally-owned and editorially independent news outlet. If you have any questions about this, we are happy to be transparent. Our only commitments are to providing accurate, locally owned news that serves Mendocino County residents.
Well deserved. Would love to see some coordination among those doing the heavy lifting with volunteer translation for the community. Al punto, some school affiliates , ad recently kzyx each doing their best.
Hi Laura, part of the plan is that this will allow us to expand our budget for translation and original reporting in Spanish, and we have some collaboration plans in the works as well. Thanks for your support!
Well done Kate so happy to be a part of your subscriber family at this exciting time! looking forward to continual patronage of your fine local grassroots media source.
Thanks Keri, we couldn’t do it without the support of our local members. We are looking forward to being able to expand what we can offer to our members and the entire community with this grant and our co-op transition to community ownership.
Wonderful! I’m so happy for you – for us!
Thanks Cynthia, we’re excited to hire more local reporters and expand our coverage with more news for everyone!
Such good news! Well-deserved. Mazel tov!
Thanks so much Susan!
Congratulations and so well-deserved.
Thanks Janice! We’re exciting to be able to cover more local news.
Very happy to see this news this morning. If you need any help on the Coast let me know ! A proud patreon. Keep-up the important work “granted” us by the First Amendment.
The First Amendment “grants” nothing. It is a written security of a right held by individual members of the People prior to men writing those words on paper.
Government and the Babylon media have programmed “citizens” (subjects) into a mindset that government has “authority” to tell the People what to do, and what rights it may exercise, and what “exceptions” there are to those rights. IT DOES NOT have such authority. Such pretended “authority” is Ultra Vires. Government has power to do such things, but so does an armed robber have the power to take your money from you, while have nothing authority or right to do so. Such power is enforced by weapons pointed at us.
Thanks John!
He who pays the piper calls the tune.
Money from Facebook? Really? Might as well take a grant from China.
Hi J.C., as stated in the article, this grant has no impact on our editorial independence whatsoever. We remain an independent, locally-owned and editorially independent news outlet and are transitioning to community ownership. If you have any questions about this, we are happy to be transparent.