News and updates
Reports, ideas, and updates from Community Info Coop and its programs.
58 updates
It shouldn’t take luck to know what’s happening where you live (opens in a new window)
Introducing The Jersey Bee 2030, our public service newsroom's plan to expand its local news and information service across New Jersey and become financially self-sustaining.
Why New Jersey’s civic information investment matters (opens in a new window)
In New Jersey Monitor, Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, describes how The Jersey Bee builds local information infrastructure to respond to community needs, highlighting and promoting New Jersey's successful investments in civic information infrastructure.
The Jersey Bee named a Next Challenge for Media finalist (opens in a new window)
The Jersey Bee was named a 2026 Catalyst Award division finalist in the Next Challenge for Media by the Glen Nelson Center for Media at American Public Media Group.
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.
FT Strategies, Knight Foundation local news sustainability report features The Jersey Bee (opens in a new window)
A report from FT Strategies and the Knight Foundation shows how local news organizations can build financial resilience while centering their communities, highlighting The Jersey Bee in several areas.
What local news can learn from medicine (opens in a new window)
In Nieman Lab, Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, compares modern journalism to early medicine, highlighting how evidence-based approaches to treating disease led to public health breakthroughs, and calls for journalism to develop an evidence-based theory of change for diagnosing and addressing information needs.
Editor & Publisher features The Jersey Bee’s AI news workflow (opens in a new window)
Editor & Publisher examines how newsrooms use AI, including The Jersey Bee’s proprietary technology, Harvest, to gather and prepare local information for its newsletter network.
Hacks/Hackers lists Community Info Coop founder as one of its first AI leaders to follow (opens in a new window)
Hacks/Hackers profiles Community Info Coop founder and CEO Simon Galperin, highlighting The Jersey Bee's proprietary AI-assisted curation platform, Harvest.
Community Info Coop founder Simon Galperin joins CUNY Newmark leadership cohort (opens in a new window)
CUNY’s Newmark J+ names Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op and executive editor of The Jersey Bee, as a Newmark Innovation Fellow among 21 leaders in its 2025–26 executive program cohort.
The Fix profiles how The Jersey Bee uses AI to deliver local news more effectively (opens in a new window)
The Fix highlights how The Jersey Bee uses AI and automation in Harvest, its proprietary curation technology, to help produce and deliver local news briefs across its newsletter network.
The Jersey Bee shares how Harvest curates local information (opens in a new window)
The Jersey Bee describes its provisional patent filing for Harvest, a system that maps local information sources and helps its team curate and distribute civic news across communities.
The Jersey Bee featured in international discussion on community co-created news (opens in a new window)
The International Journalism Festival hosted Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op and executive editor of The Jersey Bee, for a panel on how communities can produce news with journalists.
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.
Community Info Coop partners with The Objective to raise $20,000 to launch a media democracy beat (opens in a new window)
Community Info Coop partnered with The Objective, a nonprofit journalism organization, to organize a pooled fund to launch the first media democracy beat in the U.S.
Just Transition launches KnightDEI.org, investigation into DEI and accountability at the Knight Foundation (opens in a new window)
The Community Info Coop’s Just Transition program released a report on the Knight Foundation, analyzing the private foundation’s commitment to DEI and reporting on allegations of self-dealing and workplace harassment.
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.
Jersey Bee precursor, Bloomfield Info Project, profiled in The Jewish Standard (opens in a new window)
The Jewish Standard profiles Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, and the Bloomfield Info Project, tracing his path into community journalism and the local news model he was building in Bloomfield.
Community Info Coop grant launches ‘Stories Invincible,’ initiative to elevate restorative narratives in Camden (opens in a new window)
The Community Info Coop provides seed funding to launch Stories Invincible, a restorative narrative project in Camden led by the Center for Cooperative Media with support from Movement Alliance Project, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and New Jersey Local News Lab.
Bloomfield Info Project explores reparative local news (opens in a new window)
As a JSK Fellow, Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, describes how the Bloomfield Info Project, the precursor to The Jersey Bee, explored the development of restorative and reparative journalism practices in a local news utility model as an alternative to the more extractive commercial media sector.
Community Info Coop launches New Jersey Community Media Collective (opens in a new window)
Community Info Coop joined Free Press and the New Jersey Local News Lab to organize a statewide, consensus-based collaboration among community media publishers.
Bloomfield Info Project tests a public utility model for local news (opens in a new window)
As a JSK Fellow, Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, describes how the Bloomfield Info Project, the precursor to The Jersey Bee, explored a publicly funded utility model for local news by adapting the Info Districts model.
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.
Community Info Coop founder selected for 2021–22 JSK Community Impact Fellowship (opens in a new window)
Stanford University's John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships selected Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, to develop the Bloomfield Information Project, the precursor to The Jersey Bee, in a 2021–22 Community Impact Fellowship.
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.
Conversations with Knight Foundation stakeholders raise concerns about far-right ties (opens in a new window)
In The Objective, Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Coop, reports on conversations with journalism and civic leaders about the Knight Foundation's ties to far-right figures and ideology.
A $1 billion proposal for media reparations (opens in a new window)
In Nieman Lab, Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, joins Alicia Bell in envisioning directing $1 billion of Knight Foundation wealth to media justice initiatives as part of Media 2070’s call for reparations.
A local newsletter workflow to improve information equity
Community Info Coop's local news lab explains a technology-assisted workflow for finding and sharing local news and civic information through a local newsletter.
Inside Bloomfield’s public service journalism lab
Bloomfield Info Project, a precursor to The Jersey Bee, shares its 2020 work on a COVID-19 information dashboard and other services designed around community information needs.
Journalists workshop explores more inclusive newsroom membership programs (opens in a new window)
For SRCCON and OpenNews, Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, shares findings from a workshop where journalists gathered to learn about and develop more inclusive membership models for the communities they serve.
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.
Participatory funding, community ownership are making journalism more equitable (opens in a new window)
In Nieman Lab, Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, points to small-dollar funding, community feedback, unionization, and cooperative ownership as positive trends toward more equitable decision-making in journalism and media.
Journalists workshop asks how newsrooms can share decision-making power (opens in a new window)
For SRCCON:LEAD and OpenNews, Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, shares findings from a workshop where journalists practiced developing democratic decision-making within news organizations.
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.
Journalists workshop explores increasing democracy in the workplace (opens in a new window)
For SRCCON:POWER and OpenNews, Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, shares findings from a 2019 workshop in which journalists explored how to develop more democratic practices in the workplace.
Public alternatives taking root amid commercial news crisis (opens in a new window)
In Nieman Lab, Simon Galperin, founder and CEO of Community Info Co-op, explores the decline of local news through an ecological lens, highlighting how extractive, commercial practices have damaged the journalism ecosystem and noting a resurgence of local news grounded in restorative principles.
How local Wi-Fi networks can support community information sharing
Community Info Coop explores how neighborhood Wi-Fi networks can host local resources and help local news organizations and residents exchange information, including during internet outages.
How participatory budgeting could give communities a say in local journalism
Community Info Coop argues that community participation should shape newsroom budgets and editorial decisions, and explains how participatory budgeting could work for local news.
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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