President's Message

May 6, 2019

2020 Census Projects

Is your station involved in an outreach project for the 2020 Census? Or are you partnering with local and state government to get information about the Census out to the communities you serve? 

Now's a good time to start thinking about these kinds of projects - and to get in contact with local government offices and regional offices of the Census about way your channels can help with the effort.

And there are all sorts of good outcomes for doing Census projects in your community - not least of which is improving the impact of federal investment and spending formulas on local communities. 

Public radio station KPCC has done a nice summary of items to consider with Census outreach and reporting. View the summary here.

You can find more information about partnering with the US Census here.

And if you are already doing or planning a Census project, let me know at mwassenaar@allcommunitymedia.org so we can share your projects with other members!

WSJ on Local News Crisis

A pretty enlightening read from The Wall Street Journal this weekend on the crisis in local news reporting. You can find it here.

Some 1800 local newspapers have closed the past fifteen years - and there are now 200 counties in the United States with no local newspapers. 

What's also interesting in the article's analysis is a breakdown of whether online publishing has actually helped local news or not - especially as Google and Facebook dominate online advertising sales. The article also points to the corrosive effect of hedge fund ownership on the industry, and the need for local experimentation and investment to fight news deserts.

Take a few moments and share the piece with other people in your community who care about the state of local information.

8400

We're at 8400 letters to Congress opposing the FNPRM on cable franchising! Keep promoting the petition page to your viewers, members and partners.

If your Senator or Congress member has not yet written a letter to the FCC expressing concern about the rule-making, please reach out to your contacts today. And if you have no contacts, maybe this is a good excuse to make some....just saying!

Either way, we can provide you tools and support to make that request. Contact me at mwassenaar@allcommunitymedia.org so we can help.

Mike Wassenaar
President & CEO
The Alliance for Community Media