Nonprofit news co-op receives unanimous support from committee
6/08/21 (Tue)
The Nonprofit News Co-op Committee has reached a consensus to continue pursuit of a new nonprofit news service to provide in-depth journalism to newspapers across North Dakota.
At its meeting on May 27, committee members agreed to move ahead with Steve Andrist and Jill Denning Gackle to serve as co-chairs.
The concept was developed by the Future of Newspapers Committee, and the Nonprofit News Co-op Committee formed to study the idea. The Consensus Council awarded a community enhancement grant from the Bush Foundation for a feasibility study, and the group hired Strengthen North Dakota as a consultant to do the work. Since that time, the committee has examined existing nonprofit news services in other states, such as South Dakota’s News Watch and Minnesota’s MinnPost, exploring how a nonprofit news cooperative might work in North Dakota to enhance journalism.
The idea would involve creating a new nonprofit corporation and governing board to oversee it, and would initially employ one journalist charged with crafting compelling articles of statewide interest. Similar to the legislative internship program, those articles would be made available to newspapers for distribution across the state. The organization would also explore community building and the promotion of news literacy in North Dakota.
Next steps include crafting and finalizing a business plan, mission statement and bylaws, as well as exploring policies and procedures for fundraising and organizational duties.
For more information about the nonprofit news cooperative, contact Sarah Elmquist Squires at sarahes@ndna.com or 701-223-6397.
For further information, contact the
NDNA Executive Director,
866-685-8889 or director@ndna.com