Probably no one has been in the field with online local news start ups longer than J-Lab and its New Voices program. So J-Lab’s new report “New Voices: What Works” tells us a lot about the emerging community news landscape. It also marks a moment to reflect on how much has changed in five years - and how much is still changing. One key finding: “Rarely did (new sites) replace coverage that had vanished from legacy news outlets - or even aspire to. Instead, they very much added news and information where there was none before.”
I am glad J-Lab emphasized that point and I hope the replaceniks among us take note. J-Lab examined the work of 46 projects that were launched with New Voices funding. (In all the program has awarded 55 small start up grants from a pool of 1,433 applicants since 2005.)
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