Across the country, communities losing local newspaper or broadcast reporting are driving an extraordinary rebirth of local news. Nowhere is the phenomenon more apparent than in Massachusetts, where more than a dozen nonprofit local newsrooms have launched in just a few years. They represent a new community-driven model for news, as civic leaders, volunteers and journalists work together to reinvent news as independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan outlets supported by the community as a public service. Come meet the people behind the “Massachusetts phenomenon” — the community leaders and journalists joining forces and reinventing how we think about journalism as a civic service to keep communities connected, informed and engaged.

Please join the discussion led and introduced by Nancy Gibbs (Lombard Director of the Shorenstein Center and Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice of Press, Politics and Public Policy), and moderated with Sue Cross (executive director and CEO, the Institute for Nonprofit News).

Panelists include:

Walter Robinson, Editor-at-Large, The Boston Globe and board member, The New Bedford Light and former
Howard Sholkin, Director, The Newton Beacon
Bryan McGonigle, Editor, The Newton Beacon
Lean Camara, Chief Strategy Officer, The New Bedford Light
Andy Tomolonis, Editor, The New Bedford Light
Geeta Pradham, President, Cambridge Community Foundation
Greg Ball, board member, Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and Horizon Mass

This event is co-sponsored by the Institute for Nonprofit News, a nationwide network of more than 425 nonprofit news outlets, reporting as a public service.

This event is open to the public and all Harvard community members. This event will be livestreamed on our YouTube page.