The North Carolina Local News Lab Fund renews support of a wide range of trusted messengers who connect their communities with the information they need to thrive.

Three learnings from place-based ecosystem funding.

The NC News Lab Fund takes lead role in Press Forward Local North Carolina. Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust and Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation will co-chair Press Forward North Carolina under the leadership of the Fund.

JMPRO Community Media bridges the digital divide with a multi-channel distribution strategy tailored to Western NC’s immigrant communities.

Charlotte public radio station WFAE helps people find, trust, and use information about public health.

1) Expand your vision of who informs communities, 2) Measure what really matters.

Code the Dream’s app UpState makes it easier for people to understand what’s happening in North Carolina’s General Assembly—access and sunshine that drive accountability.

News and information distribution is all around us, even when we don’t see it. By recognizing and funding these invisible but vital networks, we can begin to visualize our information landscape in a new way.

We're hiring a North Carolina-based Associate Director who will play an essential role in advancing the Fund's mission and helping to translate that mission into concrete strategies and tactics.

Community-centric media offer a remedy to systems that don’t serve everyone. Their ways of working, deep relationships, and gap-filling reach ensure communities have the news and information they need, as we see in our grant partners’ work. They are also ready partners for funders looking to reach and serve historically marginalized people and geographies.

Thanks to Merald Holloway for the photo of Magaly Urdiales, Julio Tordoya of JMPro Community Media and Fund Director Lizzy Hazeltine at the NCNG conference.

As we head into 2023 and our sixth year, investment in North Carolina’s news and information ecosystem is growing, which will lead to more collaboration and good work. We will continue to build relationships, make connections, and open doors—as ever, in service of our shared vision and of North Carolina’s people. 

This latest grant cycle brings the Fund closer to its vision of a resilient North Carolina, where all communities have access to trusted and reliable news for a stronger, healthier democracy.

Transformational gift positions the NC Local News Lab Fund to scale its impact and investments in an accessible news and information ecosystem in North Carolina.

Gene Gallin via Unsplash