Twin Cities Media Alliance
Background and Purpose
The seeds of the Twin Cities Media Alliance (Alliance) were planted in the mid-1990s when an informal group of journalists and media professionals from local media met to discuss trends in the profession. Interest in creating an alliance was spurred in late 2004 when local FCC hearings on media consolidation highlighted both the perceived inadequacy of local mainstream news coverage and the growth and development of community news media outlets.
The Alliance received its 501(c)(3) status in April 2006. Their mission is to bring together media professionals and engaged citizens to improve the quality, accountability and diversity of the local media. They do this through partnerships with over 40 community news outlets - both ethnically-specific and neighborhood-based papers. The Alliance helps to identify partner needs and to then undertake projects that will further their common interests.
The centerpiece of Twin Cities Media Alliance’s work is the Twin Cities Daily Planet - an on-line news site and syndication service at www.tcdailyplanet.net. Since its launch in May 2006, traffic has grown and now averages 2,000 hits a day. In addition to operating this site, the Alliance provides support to help media partners increase internal capacity with technical assistance and stories from the Daily Planet that partners can publish without fees. Twin Cities Media Alliance also sponsors public forums and offers training to community journalists.
Current Request
With the Saint Paul Pioneer Press’s recent cuts, the paper is devoting fewer resources to covering increasingly diverse urban neighborhoods, communities and issues. Last year, the Twin Cities Media Alliance created the Saint Paul Community Newsdesk to try and help fill that gap.
The goal of the Newsdesk is to enable the voices of marginalized, immigrant and ethnic communities to reach a larger audience and to give community members new tools for communication and civic engagement. Ultimately their work is about giving residents of Saint Paul access to the kind and quantity of local news and information they need in order to become active participants in the life of their community.
In their discussion with their partners, the Alliance learned that two of the greatest challenges these media outlets face are finding skilled reporters from within their communities and securing the financial resources to pay them adequately for their work. The activities of the Newsdesk has been to offer journalism and short form video workshops, to help cover payment to writers, to share original story content, and to facilitate the sharing of news and information by local neighborhood and community organizations.
The board approved a grant of $20,000 to Twin Cities Media Alliance to help finance the budget for the Saint Paul Newsdesk.