Editorial of October 24, 2024

Iron String Press: Pressing Forward

Two hundred and five small local news outlets—including one in every U.S. state—will receive a share of $20 million to close persistent coverage gaps in their communities, thanks to funding from Press Forward, the nationwide movement to strengthen communities by reinvigorating local news.

Grant awardees were announced on Wednesday, October 16. Otsego County’s own Iron String Press—publishers of “The Freeman’s Journal” and “Hometown Oneonta” weekly newspapers and of the AllOtsego.com website—is one of them.

According to a media release issued by Press Forward:

The steady and significant decline in the availability of reliable, fact-based local news across the country is connected to growing threats to democracy, increasing polarization, and the spread of disinformation. At the same time, over a decade of investment in journalism experimentation and transformation have produced new models and solutions that are ready to scale, and a new generation of leaders prepared to reinvent and revitalize the field.

Motivated by the extraordinary quality and number of proposals, Press Forward is funding twice as many news organizations as it anticipated initially through its first open call. According to a press release, the recipients, the majority receiving $100,000 in general operating support, were selected from a total of 931 proposals from newsrooms with annual budgets of less than $1 million.

Press Forward describes the grant recipients as a “bright mosaic of independent, non-partisan sources reimagining what local news looks like across America.”