Digital Startup Fills News Niche in Wheeling, West Virginia

John Miller

April 19, 2021 |

The Daily Yonder |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Wheeling, West Virginia

Ledenews.com is one of the more than 80 online-only news sites started in 2019 to fill the void in news deserts. The site covers sports, politics, traffic, and local stories about local people in the Wheeling, WV area. The site cost $5,000 to start and now brings in about $60,000 a year in advertising, with 1,500 to 2,000 readers a day, a rate of growth that suggests profitability within a few years. The site publishes around 10 stories a week, including three major features, and all of the news is geared towards local issues not covered by other publications, including holding local officials accountable.

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Inside New York City's Biggest Financial Relief Effort for Undocumented Immigrants

Kevin Duggan

April 15, 2021 |

Documented |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

New York City’s Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Affairs relied on help from 34 community groups to distribute a $20 million relief fund from the Open Society Foundation. The groups verified who needed the funds, and no personal information was required of the more than 24,000 people receiving aid. Membership in the organizations was not required, but limited resources made members more likely to receive aid. The limited transparency and private nature of the OSF fund served as a work around for a Trump-era executive order making it harder for immigrants receiving public assistance to get visas or green cards.

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Enterprising Solutions: Local Paper Builds, Benefits from Facebook Boom

Ian Allen

April 13, 2021 |

Grady Newsource |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Oconee, Georgia

The strategic use of social media has helped The Oconee Enterprise increase subscribers, and therefore revenue. When a new issue of the paper is ready, a low-resolution preview of the front page is posted, with essentially only headlines visible, to incentivize people to purchase a paper or subscribe online. Editors also post breaking news directly on Facebook rather than the paper’s website. Its total page likes went up from 3,500 to its current audience of over 7,300, and the number of subscribers is up as well.

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'One generation away'

Joseph Perez

April 11, 2021 |

Cronkite News - Arizona PBS |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Navajo Nation, United States, Tsaile, Arizona

Diné College, the first tribally-controlled accredited college, provides over 1,300 students with opportunities to learn cultural traditions and the Navajo language, alongside traditional academic subjects. The school helps preserve the Navajo language, arts, skills, and customs by teaching it to younger generations. Learning Navajo traditions and language helps students make stronger connections with elders and they find the Indigenous philosophies that the school was founded on useful for overcoming obstacles, like finding ways to continue their education during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Indiana publisher irrigates the news desert

Brier Dudley

April 09, 2021 |

The Seattle Times |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Indiana

A wealthy investor bought 21 local publications in Indiana to prevent them from closing, an increasingly common trend in the U.S. The 21 Indiana publications employ about 60 people and have relied on a model to be profitable that includes hyper-local reporting. The newspapers don’t shy away from journalism that breaks news and holds officials accountable, but their focus is on “refrigerator journalism,” reporting on local events, such as Little League games, that people want to clip and hang on their refrigerators. Some have also transitioned from daily to twice-weekly publications for profitability.

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This Oakland Restaurant Was Developed in the Spirit of Mutual Aid

Emily Nonko

April 08, 2021 |

Next City |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Oakland, California

The 8th Street Collective, a loose organization of Oakland food industry workers, and Oakland Bloom, a group that supports refugee and immigrant chefs, opened a new restaurant, bar, and community hub space. A team of four worker-leaders rotates operational roles of Understory, the restaurant, and are working with lawyers to become cooperatively owned. The restaurant serves a pop-up-style rotating menu four days a week, including dishes by Oakland Bloom chefs and the other days are dedicated to the nonprofit’s incubator and training program called Open Test Kitchen, as well as other programming.

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‘Race against the clock': the school fighting to save the Ojibwe language before its elders pass away

Mario Koran

April 07, 2021 |

The Guardian |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Lac Courte Oreilles, Wisconsin

Waadookodaading is an Ojibwe immersion school that meets state and federal academic standards but does so entirely in the indigenous language by connecting children to their cultural heritage. The school goes through 8th grade and uses the forest as its classrooms where traditional ceremonies and practices are used to teach lessons. For example, students learn math while harvesting maple sap and wild rice and biology through practicing sustainable fishing and hunting. Community elders play an important role in passing on their knowledge to students and the 100 graduates provide hope for the language’s future

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Citizen-Led Initiative Battles Dangerous ‘Infodemic'

Aline Suárez del Real

April 06, 2021 |

Global Press Journal |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Mexico

Verificovid was started by a group of friends to combat pandemic-related misinformation in Mexico. They work with a group of government doctors to identify, track, investigate, and disprove misinformation. The group posts infographics with updated COVID-19 statistics on social media – mainly Whatsapp and Telegram – and offers medical tips via short audio messages and texts. They prioritize fast-moving misinformation that could cause the most harm and, along with sharing the truth, they investigate the origin of the misinformation and teach the public how to identify and stop fake news.

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In France, Accents Are Now Protected by Law

Peter Yeung

April 02, 2021 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: France

The French National Assembly overwhelmingly passed “the Law to Promote the France of Accents,” which criminalizes discrimination against someone based on their accent. The bill makes linguistic discrimination, or “glottophobia,” an offense punishable by up to three years’ jail time and a fine of up to €45,000 (USD$54,000). Early indications of the law's impact include the normalizing of native accents in national discourse, the appointment of a Prime Minister with a strong accent, and the French national broadcaster FranceInfo’s naming “glottophobia” one of the words of 2020.

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'Virtual rangers' help South African reserve keep poachers away

Akhona Matshoba Tanisha Heiberg

March 29, 2021 |

Reuters |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: South Africa, Johannesburg

Over 55,000 people have become “virtual rangers,” helping to protect South Africa’s Balule Nature Reserve from poachers. Officials at the reserve teamed up with Samsung and Africam to increase the ability to keep watch over the park, which is home to some of the most vulnerable animals to poaching, including rhinoceros, leopards, and elephants. Camera phones, held in protective cases, are mounted around the reserve and stream images to “virtual rangers” worldwide who have already reported hearing gunshots, which could indicate the possibility of poachers, and seeing trapped animals needing rescue.

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