What American Journalism Project means for City Bureau’s civic newsroom.
By City Bureau
People sharing ideas about local media at City Bureau’s first-ever public event.
When City Bureau launched in the fall of 2015 with a pilot of our civic reporting fellowship, our budget was simple: It was zero on both sides. We had no bank account, and everyone involved in that first cycle was a volunteer, motivated by the opportunity to help make the kind of media they knew Chicago was missing. As we started to sell and publish pieces with local news outlets, we distributed the revenue among contributors. And we used a share of the funds to hold a public event to share our reporting and to get more folks involved in our work.
We didn’t know then what City Bureau would become, but from day one we knew we wanted to organize resources in ways that are broad-based, responsive to local need and supportive of everyone’s desire to participate in local media.
We’ve been thinking a lot about that history lately. Today it was announced that City Bureau has received a major investment from the American Journalism Project, a national fundraising effort that aims to make local journalism in America more robust and sustainable. Over the next three years, we’ll be working in partnership with AJP to build out revenue streams uniquely suited to our work, ones that benefit local media on the South and West Sides and Chicago’s journalistic ecosystem at large. At $1.18 million over three years, this is the largest grant City Bureau has ever received, and it’s significant for reasons much bigger than the dollar amount.
First, it’s a major investment in our revenue and operational capacity that will allow us to put more support from other sources—including donors and members—toward our programs on the South and West Sides of Chicago. In the near term it will allow us to invest in staff for communications, business development and philanthropic support.
Second, AJP means we’ll have the chance to learn from and share ideas with a group of journalism outlets from across the country that are committed to local media as a public good. We’ve got a lot of ideas about what kinds of revenue streams could support local media—from live events to consulting to an equipment share program—and we’re excited to workshop them in real time with other local media organizations.
Finally, this is a unique opportunity to build infrastructure for a new kind of community journalism. If you have been following our work then you know City Bureau isn’t a traditional newsroom. Our primary purpose isn’t to hire reporters to keep audiences informed; instead, we equip communities to find and use the information they need. We publish stories, but we also host workshops and trainings and create entirely new information resources that make public information more accessible. We believe in this approach because it’s more equitable: It values different perspectives, includes people who are often left out of mainstream narratives, and recognizes that everyone is an expert on some part of their community. We also think it’s more sustainable, because by distributing the work of creating civic media—by making news together—we operate more efficiently and make our resources go further. This isn’t just theory—our programs bear it out. By the end of 2019 we’ll have covered more than 400 local government meetings through our Documenters program, engaging hundreds of Chicagoans in the process.
This is the biggest reason we’re excited to be working with AJP. For us, sustainability isn’t about finding new ways to pay for the same product; it’s about developing a framework for sustaining a new era of community-driven media. We had that in mind four years ago when we decided how to distribute our first few publishing checks, and all the growth and change of the past four years has only reinforced our belief in this approach.
Growing with integrity: What you can expect of City Bureau
We hope to learn a lot over the next three years, but there are two things that shouldn’t change.
● First, we’ll measure our value in terms of the benefit to our communities. While building revenue is the stated goal of this grant, it is not revenue for revenue’s sake; our work is ultimately to further our mission. The revenue we earn will go directly to our programs, and just as important, we’ll work to make sure that the way we generate it also benefits the local journalism ecosystem, and above all, Chicago communities.
● Second, we’ll be as transparent as possible about how we’re generating revenue and why. We’ll publish what we learn, including useful tools like templates and worksheets. We won’t be proprietary with our discoveries, and we’ll be eager to hear your feedback; our goal is to weave a network of relationships that can sustain local media.
How you can participate
This is about building a new kind of community information resource, and that means we need your participation, too. There are three things you can do to be a part of this.
Join the conversation. We’ll be sharing what we learn and asking for feedback through our Notebook newsletter, and we’ll send updates about new program opportunities on our Chicago newsletter. You can sign for both here. You can also reach us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or at info@citybureau.org.
Join our team. We’ll be adding several new positions through this investment, with the first job descriptions out in the next few months. If you want to be notified when that time comes, shoot us an email at jobs@citybureau.org.
Join our community. You can be part of City Bureau by attending a Public Newsroom, signing up as a Documenter, applying for our Civic Reporting Fellowship, or becoming a member with a monthly contribution—AJP’s investment in our operations means we can put your donations directly to our programs.
Thank for sharing in this work with us, and look out for our first updates soon.
— Andrea, Bettina, Darryl and Harry