Charlotte-based Spanish-language newspaper La Noticia is one of more than a dozen newsrooms across North America that are set to participate in Facebook's accelerator for news organizations.
Facebook announced last week that 15 newsrooms will participate in its latest Local News Membership Accelerator, which included La Noticia. Led by Facebook and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the accelerator program works to help news publishers build sustainable businesses.
The three-month accelerator program will include hands-on workshops led by news industry veterans and strategy sessions on how to build a sustainable business model. Other focus areas of the accelerator include collaboration between publishers and scaling shared lessons with other organizations.
The cohort will meet three times in Austin and work with Tim Griggs, a former New York Times and Texas Tribune executive who will lead the training workshops.
“We were impressed by this year’s participants, by their broad range of business models, and by their diversity of leadership and audience," Lenfest Institute CEO and Executive Director Jim Friedlich said in a statement. "We look forward to reporting lessons learned to the broader local news industry.”
Below are all of the news publications in the latest accelerator cohort, with descriptions provided by Facebook.
- Chalkbeat: A nonprofit news organization that provides local news coverage on education issues in seven American communities.
- The Colorado Sun: A journalist-owned online news outlet based in Denver, Colorado. It launched in 2018 with funding from the blockchain journalism startup Civil and a Kickstarter campaign.
- Detour Media: A newsletter-based outlet amplifying community in Detroit through neighborhood-focused reporting, engagement events, a citizen journalism fellowship and newsletter production partnerships.
- The Devil Strip: The publication, based in Akron, Ohio, is becoming a community-owned co-op. Readers can purchase shares in the magazine, which then affords them a voice in shaping its future. The Devil Strip’s goal is to not only create a new revenue stream, but also to create a more civically engaged and socially connected city.
- KUNR: A flagship National Public Radio station in Reno, Nevada.
- The Narwhal: An ad-free, nonprofit online magazine that publishes in-depth and investigative journalism about Canada’s natural world.
- New Hampshire Public Radio: An NPR member station based in Concord, New Hampshire, is the state’s largest (and only) statewide radio news service, known for its in-depth local and national news coverage, NPR programming and the best of public radio. The station also produces innovative, nationally-known podcasts like Bear Brook, Civics 101 and Outside/In.
- La Noticia: The Spanish-Language Newspaper, based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
- San José Spotlight: The California city’s first nonprofit news organization dedicated to political and business reporting.
- Scalawag: A nonprofit online magazine that tells stories of the American South.
- The Sprawl: An independent, crowdfunded, ad-free news site based in Calgary, Canada. It “pops up” to cover specific issues for a set time period before hibernating and preparing to cover another issue. The site has experimented with creating a members-only print newspaper, setting up a newsroom in the city’s public library, and partnering with students from local high schools and universities.
- Voice of OC: A nonprofit newsroom in Orange County, Calif., focuses on empowering residents through fair, focused and thoughtful stories every day that examine the community’s quality of life, local government, and arts and culture.
- Washington City Paper: An alt-weekly newspaper serving the D.C. metro area.
- Wausau Pilot & Review: An independent nonprofit newsroom that covers public policy and quality of life issues in central Wisconsin.
- WURD Radio: Pennsylvania’s only African-American owned and operated talk radio station, based in Philadelphia.
