Helping news entrepreneurs and their communities flourish everywhere
By Amy L. Kovac-Ashley
Can you feel the momentum? We sure can. Tiny News Collective has added 10 new member startups over the past few months, and they reach an amazing amalgamation of communities around the nation. They serve immigrant and diaspora communities, Spanish-language and Latinx communities and so many more. And all of them are covering communities that either don’t have a news outlet or have very little existing coverage. These founders cover a diversity of places, have a diversity of audiences and are themselves diverse. Some have traditional journalism backgrounds and some don’t, but all of them have a deep understanding of their communities’ needs.
It’s truly awe-inspiring to see the list of organizations that have joined TNC recently:
These new members, along with our other TNC members, now represent 23 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Among them, we have a growing number of founders serving Latinx communities, which deserve better, more culturally competent coverage. In that, we are in solidarity with the newly launched Latino Media Consortium, of which The Latino Newsletter is an inaugural member. Other newbies in our network are producing local news in places where the current news landscape is anemic. That includes Estes Valley Voice in Colorado, Ottawa News Network in Ohio and Tucson Spotlight in Southern Arizona.
As our momentum grows with new members, it’s gratifying to see older members welcome the new ones to our community, offering the peer support that makes us who we are. We can’t wait to welcome even more new members to this nurturing community.
This growth offers us an opportunity to start creating cohorts of founders who serve similar communities (e.g., Latinx founders) or topics (e.g., arts and culture), as well as those in a similar point in their startup journeys (pre-launch, newly launched and those 1-3 years in). In this way, Tiny News can offer differentiated learning for our founders to help them succeed. It’s truly exciting to see our mission in action.
Tiny News partners with Datasketch for metrics support
TNC is excited to announce a new partnership with Datasketch as we move into the next phase of our metrics project, where we will design, build and roll out custom metrics dashboards and training for cohorts of our members. We’ve worked closely with Datasketch to develop the vision for the TNC data program on their platform, and we are now collaborating on the design and build phase. Datasketch will also create an aggregate dashboard for TNC to track and learn from members’ data, in an effort to provide targeted training and assistance to help them meet their goals. The partnership will go through 2026, with a possibility of extending it.
"At Datasketch, we believe that data has the power to transform journalism, especially for small, emerging newsrooms. Our partnership with Tiny News Collective is more than just building dashboards — it's about empowering local journalists with the tools and knowledge to understand their impact and better serve their communities." said J.P. Marin Diaz, founder and CEO of Datasketch.
Learn more about the partnership here.
5 Questions with Makeda Easter of the art rebellion
In our latest “5 Questions With” feature, we talked with Makeda Easter of the art rebellion, launched in 2022 to help uplift and empower artists, cultural workers and creatives. Her goal is to help artists understand how they can make art a viable career path and push back against oppressive systems. Makeda has been running an insightful series called the Artist Pay Project to understand how artists can survive and thrive in a society that typically under-compensates their work.
“I’ve received really good feedback from people as I've shared the stories on social media or in the newsletter,” Makeda said. “There's a lot of frustration from people seeing these stories from artists. And it's unfortunate that they have to live this way. I'm hoping to do more of those artist pay snapshots, but I also want to do more work to empower artists. I think that's the next phase of the project.”
Read the entire feature to learn more about Makeda’s impactful work.
Tiny News shows up in a big way at the Sustainability Summit
Scenes of TNCers from around the 2024 Independent News Sustainability Summit in Chicago
TNC staff and members were all over the 2024 Independent News Sustainability Summit in Chicago earlier this month. Several members were featured speakers, including Cara Kuhlman of Future Tides, Makeda Easter of the art rebellion and Claudia Amaro of Planeta Venus. You can see slides from Cara's presentation on innovative revenue streams focused on her Future Tides Tours program (starting on slide 28) and from Makeda's presentation on how to reach people where they are through seeing journalism as art (starting on slide 12).
There were so many of us in attendance — including longtime members and brand-new members — that we even had our own meetup offsite where many of us met for the first time.
🗳️ New member Ethiopique, serving the Ethiopian community in the Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia area with news in Amharic, signed a deal with the Associated Press to gain access to U.S. election news stories. That’s a big win for a small publisher and founder Henok Mengistu! 💖
🚀 Getting younger folks involved in election coverage is a great idea. Kudos to The Latino Newsletter founder Julio Ricardo Varela for his new partnership with New England Public Media called the Latino Election Project. The nine-week project will train three high school journalists from Springfield, Mass., in multimedia production focused on the election. Read more about this innovative program.
đź’¬ TNC member Mat-Su Sentinel and founder Amy Bushatz received funding from Microsoft through the Rural News Network, a project of the Institute for Nonprofit News. The grant will help the Sentinel join the innovative TextRURAL service and run targeted ads. Learn more about the recent funding for the Rural News Network here.
⚡ Go Shockers! The SHOUT founders Emily Christensen and Teri Mott (seen above, left to right) got a shout-out of their own in their Wichita State University alumni publication. “We share a passion for the arts, a commitment to accessibility and a certain level of awe at the exceptional talent we see all around us,” they told the pub.
🎉 Big congratulations to TMBP Media and founder Dr. LaTasha Eley Kelly (a.k.a. The Millennial Black Professor) for surpassing 1,000 followers on YouTube, recently hitting more than 1,300 followers. She currently has three different series on YouTube: BLACK in One Place, Dr. Tasha Presents and Life Un-dissertated. To learn more about her media prowess, check out our feature on Dr. Tasha.
News Product Alliance Summit
Held this year on October 11, the NPA Summit is a hands-on virtual conference where everyone who attends actively participates. There’s a mix of introductory and intermediate-to-advanced level sessions.
Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program at Columbia Journalism School
This highly regarded program is offering four tuition-free slots for the 2025 leadership training program. Apply here by October 13.
AI Journalism Labs at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY
The school is launching two tuition-free labs to help journalists explore the potential for generative AI. Apply here by October 18.
What’s Possible with Broadstreet webinar from Broadstreet Ads
A deeper look at the popular ad platform on October 23 at 1 p.m. ET
Listening Post Collective Playbook
The playbook is a free, self-paced, online platform that walks users step-by-step through the process of a community-led information ecosystem assessment. Now in Spanish!
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Thanks for reading the latest edition of the Big Blast from Tiny News. Be sure to follow us on social media to keep up with the latest from TNC and our amazing group of founders!
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tiny-news-collective/
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The Big Blast Credits
Written by Amy L. Kovac-Ashley, with Mark Glaser
Edited by Amy L. Kovac-Ashley and Andrea Faye Hart
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