Earlier this year, I wrote about Mississippi Today which is a success story for non-profit newsrooms. This week, they’ve launched a new sister organization in New Orleans called Verite.
Both Verite and Mississippi Today are going to be part of a network of mission-driven, local news organizations called “Deep South Today”.
I’ve been blogging about local WordPress-powered news this year. Partly that’s been driven by a gut-feeling that something is exciting is in the early, formative stages. This is the kind of launch that confirms that feeling.
Verite’s Editor-in-Chief Terry Baquet is the brother of Dean Baquet, former editor of the New York Times. Terry published this launch post last week:
Verite is a diverse, Black-led nonprofit news organization that launches today to serve communities in the Greater New Orleans area and beyond.
A key part of Verite’s goals is to mentor young journalists:
We will do this while creating a fellowship program to educate and mentor aspiring minority journalists so they can eventually take their voices and talent to other newsrooms across the state and the nation helping to fill a void that all media organizations are struggling to overcome.
Adweek has good background on this launch. The report that Verite has raised almost $3 million to launch this project. Donors include The Ford Foundation and the American Journalism Project.
Deep South Today is a 501(c) non-profit that is also home to Mississippi Today. Verite and Mississippi Today will share content and resources, and hopefully enable to the launch of more sites across the south. Verite also plans to collaborate with similar newsrooms including Louisiana Illuminator. All these sites (Verite, Mississippi Today and Louisiana Illuminator) are powered by WordPress.
