Leading editors from the LAist, Orange County Register and Voice of OC gathered with funders and nonprofit leaders in Irvine last month to discuss crisis confronting local journalism in Orange County.
The panel discussion, Beyond the Headlines: Sustaining Local News In Times of Change, was hosted by OC Grantmakers. The two sessions included local journalists and philanthropic funders from around the state.
“News is a more essential service than ever before,” said Alex Santamaria President and CEO LAist and co-moderator of the event.
Voice of OC Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Norberto Santana, Jr., joined Mary Plummer, Managing Editor, Enterprise and Investigation for LAist, and Todd Harmon, Senior Editor of the Orange County Register, to discuss the challenges facing journalism in Orange County.
Plummer pointed to a rise in legal fees associated with the denial of routine public records requests, with Santana noting “politicians will wait you out at every level of government.” Harmond also noted the increase in challenges from officials to Freedom of Information requests.
The panel spoke to the importance of local journalism keeping all levels of the government accountable. Shrinking newsrooms have made it easier for policies to be adopted without the input from the public, with Santana noting, “when they get public comment, they adjust. It’s the beauty of American democracy.”
Priscilla Enriquez, President and CEO of the James B. McClatchy Foundation, Crystal Page, Vice President of Communications for the Prebys Foundation and Christina Shih, Associate Director of Press Forward, talked about how local foundations can fund journalism in Orange County.
“Don’t think you have to be a journalism funder to fund journalism,” said Enriquez. She noted there are many ways to fund journalism- from funding a reporter’s salary to funding reporting on an issue important to the County.
Shih noted that Press Forward is concentrating its funding efforts on sustainability and infrastructure for newsrooms. Press Forward has funded over 110 newsrooms across the country and has created 44 chapters to capitalize on community funding partnerships.
Page, whose foundation is currently funding five nonprofit newsrooms in San Diego, encouraged local foundations to think creatively about funding nonprofit news.
She encouraged listening to your community and focusing on the issues that matter to them, saying she relies on trust-based philanthropy, which asks questions like what happened in the community, what changed after giving a newsroom funding?