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We believe the future of quality local journalism depends on

meaningful connections between newsrooms and communities.
We invite you to join us. Visit NEWSVOICES.ORG to learn more.

News Voices: New Jersey

Through discussion forums, collaborative projects and ongoing engagement, were bringing together people from a variety
of backgrounds, with shared interests, to listen to each other and to share what they want to know about their communities.
Were helping newsrooms deepen local engagement, find new sources and broaden their audiences. And were helping
communities call on reporters to cover the issues they care about most and help create the kinds of local media they need.
This project will succeed only if we hear from you. If youre a journalist, tell us about the stories you want to report
on. If youre a member of the public, tell us how the media could better serve your community. And if youd like to learn
more about our events, collaborative projects in your area and local news advisory boards, please get in touch.
You can join the NEWS VOICES: NEW JERSEY project by visiting NewsVoices.org or emailing
Mike Rispoli at mrispoli@freepress.net.

Democracy Needs Journalism

A healthy news environment brings communities together, holds the powerful accountable and enables everyone to
participate in our democracy. Studies have shown that when local news media is deficient or disappears altogether from a
community, civic participation drops, corruption rises and lawmakers bring home less funding.1
Communities need journalism, and newsrooms need communities not as passive audiences, but as active partners in
shaping the local news agenda.

2
Original photo by City of Newark Press Office, via Flickr

DISCUSSION GUIDE

is committed to strengthening relationships between media outlets and the communities they serve. That begins by
elevating residents voices and giving them a greater stake in local news reporting.

When it comes to news coverage, New Jersey is one of the most underserved states. Sandwiched between the New
York and Philadelphia media markets, New Jersey receives little to no coverage of its state and local governments from
out-of-state broadcasters. Reporters have lost their jobs, TV stations are closing down and public medias budget has
been slashed. At the same time, local news startups are experimenting with business models, providing fresh voices
and struggling to gain a foothold in their communities.
New Jersey is a place of both great challenges and great opportunities. Journalists, academics, philanthropists and
community leaders are joining together to make the state a model for the future of news. The NJ News Commons
at Montclair State Universitys Center for Cooperative Media provides a statewide hub for local journalism and
engagement, and NJ Spark, a social justice journalism lab at Rutgers University, has joined NJ Spotlight and other
organizations in a statewide collaboration in environmental reporting. Along with these allies, News Voices is also
working with local news startups such as Brick City Live, New Brunswick Today, Morristown Green and Jersey Shore
Hurricane News, with legacy media organizations like NJ Advance Media and Gannett, and with public media outlets
such as NJTV and WNET. Many of these projects have been funded by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, which is
helping to build a network for sustainable journalism across the state.

About Free Press

News Voices: New Jersey is a project of Free Press, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that fights for your
rights to connect and communicate. Through organizing, research and advocacy, Free Press works to save
the free and open Internet, curb runaway media consolidation, protect press freedom and ensure diverse
voices are represented in the media. For more information, visit freepress.net.

DISCUSSION GUIDE

Why New Jersey?

Original photo by Flickr user Chris Barker

Some of the inspiration for our News Voices project came from our members in the Garden State. Free Press has more than
900,000 members nationwide and nearly 20,000 in New Jersey. Our members in New Jersey tell us their communities
dont get enough local news coverage and are overlooked by New York City- and Philadelphia-based broadcasters.
This reflects what scholarly research has revealed: that in a state with 565 municipalities, there simply isnt
enough local, regional and statewide coverage of New Jersey communities. Rutgers Professor Philip Napoli, whose
Media + the Public Interest Initiative is studying New Jersey media, has found that affluent communities get more local
coverage and better-quality coverage than lower-income ones.2 No matter where they live, New Jersey residents seem
to agree they arent being served well. In a series of recent focus groups, residents told Napoli that out-of-market
coverage of their communities frequently was characterized as spotty or sensationalistic, with coverage tending to
focus on crime, tragedies, and disasters.3
This syncs with what Free Press found in an informal survey of our members. Local government topped the list of
subjects that respondents wanted to see more coverage of, followed by the environment and planning, state government,
education and local schools, and economic development. A quarter of respondents said that local media outlets present
an inaccurate view of their communities. Im a person of color, said one respondent, and the media only talks about
my community when some crime takes place, but [ignores] the day-to-day events and struggles of the people. Another
member noted the effects of media consolidation in his hometown. The past two decades have seen local newspapers
bought out and either eventually closed down, absorbed or just hanging on with little local coverage, he said. The loss
of local news has a great effect on community well being.4

Which subjects do you wish local news

outlets did a better job of covering?
84%

80

Source: Survey of Free Press New Jersey members, August 2015

36%
25%

Emergencies and
Safety Risks

30%

The LGBTQ
Community

35%

Communities
of Color

41%

Health

Civic Institutions

State Government

20

Local Government

40

51%
Education and Local Schools

49% 51%

Transportation

60

63%

Economic Development

57%

Environment and Planning

100

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What Free Press Members Say About

Local News in New Jersey

What News Voices Is Doing in New Jersey

Through 2016, we will:

Host Events
News Voices will host public forums in cities ranging from Newark to Atlantic City. Well explore how
journalism can improve communities and how community members can improve local journalism.
Each event will be tailored to the conversations and networks that already exist in each city. The
events will include deliberative dialogue and shared learning, providing space to highlight the work
of local media and community groups, as well as opportunities to network and brainstorm. Well
also host informal meetups to continue these conversations.

Foster Collaboration
The ideas that emerge from News Voices events will grow into collaborative projects involving
newsrooms, residents, community groups, students, media makers and others. Free Press will drive
follow-up on these projects, providing support to build and sustain relationships between the media
and the broader community.

Build a Constituency for Journalism

Everyone has a stake in the future of news, which means we need a diverse set of voices in the
conversation about journalisms future. At the local level, that means building a network of residents,
civic leaders, journalists, students, educators and activists to consider what kind of news their
communities need. News Voices is working with allies in communities and with state organizations
to explore models for community-driven advisory boards that would provide valuable audience
engagement and public accountability for news outlets.

Share What We Learn

News Voices is an experiment in using community organizing to help news outlets engage with
communities. And any experiment is most successful when its results are shared. Well craft
a toolkit based on what we learn from our events, collaborative projects and advisory-board
efforts that others can use in their own engagement work. Well publish research on the news
environment in New Jersey. Well propose policies for lawmakers to protect local journalism
and safeguard press freedom. And well build from these endeavors to foster stronger local
journalism across the country.
5

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Over the next two years, Free Press will work with our local allies and thousands of Free Press
members across the state to foster relationships between newsrooms and communities.

You Make It Happen

Free Press is independent: We dont take a cent from business, government or political parties
and rely on the generosity of individual donors and charitable foundations to fuel our work.
Please consider supporting News Voices: New Jersey by making a contribution to Free Press
online at freepress.net/donate. Thank you!
1 

Links to original research are available in our blog post, Free Press New Jersey Project Aims to Connect Newsrooms and Communities, by Mike Rispoli
and Fiona Morgan, June 18, 2015: freepress.net/blog/2015/06/18/free-press-new-jersey-project-aims-connect-newsrooms-and-communities

P hilip M. Napoli, Sarah Stonbely, Kathleen McCullough and Bryce Renninger, Assessing the Health of Local Journalism Ecosystems: A Comparative Analysis
of Three New Jersey Communities, prepared for the Democracy Fund, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation,
June 2015: mpii.rutgers.edu

P hilip M. Napoli, Understanding What Audiences Want from Local News, Columbia Journalism Review, Sept. 22, 2015:
cjr.org/united_states_project/understanding_the_local_news_audience.php

4
For more information on our survey of Free Press New Jersey members, see Proof That No News Is Not Good News by Mike Rispoli, Free Press blog, Aug. 20, 2015:
freepress.net/blog/2015/08/20/proof-no-news-not-good-news

November 2015

NewsVoices.org
Original photo by Flickr user Peter Miller

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NEWS VOICES builds on a dynamic network of active and engaged community members, local
journalism outlets and institutional supporters. Were grateful to our allies who bring their
knowledge, points of view, understanding, time and talent to this work.