Support Journalism That Matters – Tweet Your Giving

If you believe in nonprofit journalism, it is time to support it. And if you support nonprofit journalism it’s time to go public with that support.

Tweet @jcstearns: Tell me what journalism nonprofits you donate to and why. Then tag it #give4news.

I’ll choose two of my favorite responses and will donate to those newsrooms as well. Plus I’ll give those two people subscriptions to one of two great nonprofit journalism magazines – Orion Magazine and Mother Jones.

(Also, please consider a donation to a group that fights for press freedom – more on that below)

We are at an exciting moment when it is now possible to imagine nonprofit journalism becoming a much more prominent part of America’s media ecosystem. But to make the leap from start-up to sustainability we need to step up our support for nonprofit news and encourage others to do the same.

Other than donating to their public broadcasting stations, for the most part people are not used to donating to support the journalism they get in their inbox or their mailbox, in their Twitter stream or via their Facebook wall. That has to change.

Nonprofit journalism comes in all shapes and sizes: all-volunteer local community radio stations, data driven government watchdogs, big investigative newsrooms, online streaming operations and more. What they all share is that they can’t survive on grants alone.

Foundations have helped to jump start nonprofit journalism but communities are going to be what sustains it over the long haul. Let’s start now.

(Nonprofit journalism also faces a range of threats – from first amendment battles to jumping through hoops at the IRS – if you want to fund the fight to defend and expand nonprofit media consider a donation to Free Press. At Free Press we work every day to fight for the public’s rights, for policies that support quality journalism, and to ensure all people have access to an open and free Internet.)

Use this link to tweet now: Tweet Your Giving