“Write for Arkansas” Program to Create New Positions for Community Reporters, Increase Coverage of Local Issues
LITTLE ROCK, ARK – A new program from Arkansas Community Foundation (ARCF) will help boost the reporting staff at community newspapers in Arkansas to increase in-depth coverage of community and economic development issues. The Write for Arkansas initiative, funded through a $252,000 match grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, will provide funding for an additional fulltime reporting position at five community newspapers across the state.
“Although times have been tough for the newspaper industry, we believe local newspapers are still vital to Arkansas’s communities,” said ARCF President and CEO Heather Larkin. “Through this grant, we hope to increase the capacity of local newspapers to provide the in-depth coverage of local issues that citizens need to make informed decisions and that towns need to maintain a sense of community.”
ARCF’s Write for Arkansas initiative is one of 24 projects funded through Knight Foundation’s Community Information Challenge, a five-year, $24 million initiative to help community and place-based foundations find creative ways to use new media and technology to keep residents informed and engaged.
“Information is as important to a thriving democracy as clean air, jobs and schools. As leaders, local foundations are taking the initiative to meet those information needs,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the challenge. “This project and others like it help ensure that everyone has the information necessary to make decisions about their governments and their lives.”
In addition to providing funding for five reporting positions, the grant will also enable the creation of a Write for Arkansas website where the reporters’ stories will be collected in a searchable archive and where the reporters will blog about their communities and experiences.
The Arkansas Press Association will partner with ARCF to recruit participating newspapers. The newspapers themselves will then select reporters to fill the new positions created through the program.
“Delivering a high volume of quality local news has long been the challenge of community newspapers in Arkansas and across the nation,” said Tom Larimer, executive director, Arkansas Press Association. “The Knight Foundation grant will go a long way toward filling a gap in local news coverage created by difficult economic conditions that have befallen newspapers along with other businesses in communities across Arkansas and the nation. This grant to assist community newspapers in keeping readers informed about important events in their respective communities is certainly a creative approach and one I think will be well received by newspaper publishers and editors.”
About Arkansas Community Foundation
Arkansas Community Foundation has the capacity to engage communities in a thoughtful exploration of critical issues and can help assemble the resources to implement solutions. Arkansas’s statewide community foundation has more than $120 million in assets and has provided more than $70 million in grants since it began operation in 1976. Contributions to ARCF, its funds and any of its 27 local affiliate offices are fully tax deductible. For more, visit www.arcf.org.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.
For more information, contact:
Heather Larkin
ARCF President and CEO
501-372-1116
Marc Fest
Knight Foundation Vice President for Communications
305-908-2677