Media policy innovation
Info Districts
Public goods should be publicly maintained. Info Districts develops policy models for special service districts and other public media funds and institutions that serve community needs.
Building modern civic information utilities
Info Districts explores how special service districts and other public media funds and institutions can support community-serving local news and information.
This program treats civic news and information as an unfunded public good and gives communities structures to shape how local information utilities can be organized and funded.
Resources
From Info Districts
Financing civic information as public infrastructure (opens in a new window)
A News Futures working group white paper co-authored by Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Coop, proposes new ways to finance civic information as public infrastructure.
How The Jersey Bee treats journalism as a social service (opens in a new window)
In Nieman Lab, Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, argues that U.S. news media is driven by a culture of breaking news and deficit-centered reporting that fails to address communities' social-emotional needs, calling for journalism to be developed as a social service.
Journalism as repair and power building (opens in a new window)
In a presentation for LION Publishers, Community Info Coop founder and CEO outlines The Jersey Bee's dual mission to serve working people and communities of color and develop a service model for local news as a public utility.
How The Jersey Bee uses journalism to improve public health (opens in a new window)
In Current, The Jersey Bee describes how its reporting, newsletters, resource textline, and more improve the social determinants of health for New Jersey residents.
What local news can learn from public libraries (opens in a new window)
In Nieman Lab, Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, explores the development of public libraries in the U.S., highlighting how local governments were the first to innovate and invest in community access to information, calling for public funding and investment in civic news and information for all.
Philanthropy must focus on participatory local journalism (opens in a new window)
In Nieman Lab, Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, describes how corporate media undermine nonprofit and independent news organizations and limit the public benefit of media policy, urging funders and investors to support participatory local journalism organizations.
Beyond commercial local news (opens in a new window)
In Nieman Lab, Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, argues that the state of commercial newspaper ownership requires public investment in non-commercial alternatives.
Info Districts discussed as a model for funding local news (opens in a new window)
On the It’s All Journalism podcast, Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, discusses how resident-funded information districts could support public service local news.
Data for Progress poll finds support for Info Districts as a local news funding model (opens in a new window)
In a Data for Progress survey, 62 percent of respondents supported creating local information districts, a higher share than supported the other public media funding proposals tested.
Nieman Lab examines New Jersey’s path to Info Districts (opens in a new window)
Joshua Benton reviews Community Info Coop’s legal analysis of New Jersey special district law and the possibility of funding local information through community-governed districts.
Legal analysis explores a path to Info Districts in New Jersey
Community Info Coop commissioned an analysis of New Jersey special district law to assess whether local information districts could be established under the state’s existing framework.
Could Info Districts sustain the information networks built during COVID-19?
Énois co-founder Nina Weingrill connects Brazilian mutual-aid networks to the Info Districts model, introducing a Portuguese translation of Community Info Coop’s Info Districts guide.
Community Info Coop raises $45,000 to expand Info Districts project
Support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and Reynolds Journalism Institute helped Community Info Coop launch the Bloomfield Information Project, a precursor to The Jersey Bee, and document the Info Districts model.
Knight Foundation names Info Districts a local news model to watch (opens in a new window)
In a Knight Foundation article on emerging business models, Mark Glaser highlights information districts as a way communities could use public funding to support local news.
Info Districts builds on research success with local campaigns, sister project
Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, writes about the three years of Info Districts and announces the launch of the Just Transition initiative and local info district campaigns.
Colorado Media Project recommends a state law for Info Districts (opens in a new window)
The Colorado Media Project’s 2019 report on local news as a public good recommended enabling legislation to allow municipalities to establish information districts as one way to support community news and information.
KUNC profiles Longmont effort to establish an Info District to fund local news (opens in a new window)
KUNC reports on a proposal in Longmont, Colorado, to support local news through a library-linked information district as part of a Colorado Media Project study of public funding options.
Towards a public choice for local news and information
Community Info Coop’s "How to Launch an Info District" guide outlines how residents could organize, fund, and govern information districts built around their communities’ news and information needs.
Columbia Journalism Review explores governance questions in Longmont library-district news proposal (opens in a new window)
Writing for Columbia Journalism Review, Corey Hutchins examines how a proposed library district with a local news component in Longmont, Colorado, prompted debate over editorial independence and public oversight.
RJI fellowship supports research on community information districts (opens in a new window)
The Reynolds Journalism Institute selected Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, as a 2018–19 fellow to develop information districts as a community-funded local news model.
Community Info Coop hosts international panel on public media funding (opens in a new window)
Community Info Coop organized a panel on public media innovation with leaders from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada at the 2019 International Journalism Festival.
How Info Districts could address missing markets for local news
Community Info Coop analyzes the economic conditions that create local news deserts and how Info Districts enable the trust, coordination, and financing needed to meet information needs.
Knight Commission testimony describes how Info Districts could strengthen trust between newsrooms and communities (opens in a new window)
Writing for the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy, Joe Amditis describes how the Info Districts and other forms of public funding that enable resident participation and journalist accountability could improve trust between local news providers and the communities they serve.
Nieman Lab examines proposal for Info Districts, a public utility model for local news (opens in a new window)
Nieman Lab profiles Info Districts, Community Info Coop's proposal for communities to fund and govern local news as a public utility.
Kickstarter campaign backs launch of Info Districts Project (opens in a new window)
Community Info Coop’s 2018 campaign raised seed funding to formalize organization, launch Info Districts to explore public utility model for local news.
Community Info Coop founder among MediaShift's top digital media innovators in 2017 (opens in a new window)
MediaShift named Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, to its 2017 list of top digital media innovators, highlighting the info districts model.
Journalism is a public service. Why don’t we fund it like one? (opens in a new window)
In Columbia Journalism Review, Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, proposes community information districts as a way for residents to fund and help shape local news.
Info Districts offer a public funding model for local journalism
Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, introduced "community information districts" as a solution to the financial crisis in local news before launching the organization.
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