Indianapolis station WISH says it has joined a group of Indiana residents who are looking to preserve access to local news.
WISH has announced it is a newsroom partner to The Indiana Local News Initiative, which has raised $10 million. The initiative has announced plans to launch a 25-person news organization to “produce accountability reporting” and start “innovative community journalism programs” in central Indiana. In addition, the group hopes to launch a newsroom in Gary, and provide support to Franklin College’s TheStatehouseFile.com, The Indianapolis Recorder newspaper, and Public News Service bureau’s Indiana News Service.
“It is very exciting. It’s important and it couldn’t be more important than it is now,” said the board chair of the Indiana Local News Initiative, Karen Ferguson Fuson.
Fuson said the group “developed some ideas about how we could come into the nonprofit space using that research and develop this organization, but that the key was collaboration” after listening to more than 1,000 state residents.
“None of us are delivering to every audience in the state of Indiana, so it makes sense that it’s kind of the Hoosier way to come together and collaborate and figure out how we can work together, how we can fill gaps, not be redundant, and really make sure we serve the people of Indiana,” Fuson said.
She says they hope to start producing local news before the end of the year.
Job openings for the initiative can be found on the group’s website. Click here to view.