Investment in News is an Investment in Community

As many workers await news of how their industry will fare, there is one group of workers you, ironically, probably will not hear from the journalistic community. When there is disinvestment in journalism, communities are not covered and plights remain untold. Look at the legacy of the Chicago Defender- the voice of a community that told its story- at one point naming the positives for black Chicagoans to join unions which had earlier shunned them. When you look at disinvestment in journalism you see the scarier side of things, the shooting of Laquan McDonald, was not “broke” by any of the citys major news outlets owned by multimillion dollar corporations, but by a freelance journalist Brandon Smith- that’s a shame, and a disservice to the broader community and an example why news needs investment.

Many organizations including the Chicago Headline Club and Chicago Community Trusts have created grants to subsidize journalists, and media outlets and reinvest in news. The government needs to do the same, the national The News Guild representing newspaper workers voted to request “Public financing for journalism”, as the President Jon Schleuss said to the new York times “one thing we cant remain objective on is our own demise”, and I agree not for the sake of the industry but for the community at large.

Please urge the government to support legislation like the "the local news and emergency information act ", or similar legislation which supports strong journalism in community. As President of the CWA Unified Council of America I think hard about how to Foster understanding in communities, and often it’s by telling their story.