Support from Stanislaus County community gives life to local journalism, reporting team
In recent weeks, we’ve written about the role the coronavirus pandemic has played in the economic disparity between men and women in the workforce and offered answers to questions about vaccines, including guidance about children.
The excellent reporting by Kristina Karisch and ChrisAnna Mink was made possible through funding from Stanislaus Community Foundation, the Stanislaus County Office of Education and Report for America.
A philanthropy-supported approach to local journalism is a growing trend in the industry, allowing news organizations to restore long-departed beats or create new ones as our industry contends with an antiquated business model.
In the last two years, it’s allowed The Bee to focus on children’s health and economic development, important topics lightly touched by thin newsrooms.
>> Contribute to The Modesto Bee’s local reporting fund.
To keep that momentum going, and in an effort to boost local journalism throughout the county, Stanislaus Community Foundation recently launched the McClatchy Local Media Fund, which will invest $350,000 to advance local journalism in Stanislaus County over the next three to five years.
The foundation seeded the fund with $250,000 from the estate of James B. McClatchy, the longtime publisher of the company that owned The Modesto Bee, Sacramento Bee and Fresno Bee. An additional $100,000 came from the Sacramento-based James B. McClatchy Foundation.
The first round of grant funding will include $120,000 in matching dollars to support The Bee’s Economic Mobility Lab, which is composed of three reporters and an editor whose focus will be on covering underserved communities, education and economic development in Stanislaus County.
Similar philanthropy-supported reporting “labs”, or teams, have been created in Fresno — one covering education, another focused on housing, land use, water and more — and in Sacramento, which kicked off its Equity Lab last year.
The Modesto Bee’s Economic Mobility Lab receives generous backing from Stanislaus State University, E.&J. Gallo Winery and the Porges Family Foundation. The news organization also has support from more than 250 community members who donated during fundraising campaigns last year.
It’s the hope of foundation President and CEO Marian Kaanon that the McClatchy Local Media Fund will “increase civic literacy through the advancement of local journalism, community engagement and storytelling.”
It’s our plan that our reporting team – newcomers Andrea Briseño and Emily Isaacman, along with Karisch – will zero in on issues and topics key to our community moving forward. Community engagement and solutions-based journalism will be central to its success.
Our team will be led by Deke Farrow, who was raised in Modesto and has spent more than 25 years at The Bee. Over the last year, he provided readers with critical education coverage as administrators, teachers, parents and students dealt with myriad issues surrounding schools and the pandemic.
Briseño will focus on the disparity within communities in and around Modesto and Stanislaus County with an eye on the underserved. This is an area over coverage where The Bee has admittedly fallen short in recent years.
“Core to our foundation’s vision is to fight to protect the dreams and hopes of the people of the Central Valley and to lift the voices of communities that often go unheard,” said Priscilla Enriquez, CEO of the James B. McClatchy Foundation. “To win this fight, we need local journalism to amplify their stories, and the McClatchy Local Media Fund provides a sustainable, community-based means to do just that.”
To donate to The Bee’s Economic Mobility Lab, click here or go to www.modbee.com/donate.
This story was originally published April 26, 2021 at 7:53 AM.
