· Simon Galperin
Simon Galperin · March 2, 2020
The Community Info Coop is launching the Bloomfield Information Project (opens in a new window), a campaign to engage the Bloomfield, N.J. community in designing a new local public media institution dedicated to serving their news and information needs.
The Bloomfield Information Project is an expansion of the Info Districts Project, our flagship program, and is possible thanks to support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation (opens in a new window) and the Reynolds Journalism Institute (opens in a new window) at the University of Missouri.
Info districts are publicly funded local news cooperatives. They are established through a process that brings community members together to identify their news and information needs in order to design and implement solutions to those needs. They are modeled after special taxing districts like business improvement or library districts and are a public policy innovation uniquely suited to addressing the crisis in local news and civic engagement.
The Info Districts Project seeks to build a cooperative network of info districts across the U.S. to unlock the potential of hundreds of cities and counties to become highly engaged and informed communities. This investment from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and Reynolds Journalism Institute is the cornerstone of that future.
The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation has been instrumental in supporting the development of New Jersey’s local news ecosystem. Their support enables us to launch this effort in Bloomfield, N.J and work with local stakeholders and the public to set a vision and goals for Bloomfield’s local news ecosystem.
The Reynolds Journalism Institute is a leader in research and experimentation that strengthens journalism in the service of democracy. With their support, we’ll be able to continue documenting our work for future info district organizers and develop partnerships to seed info districts throughout the United States.