A support group and a lab in the St. Louis area provide resources for people with the allergy to mammal products — and evidence that its effects can be reversed.
A Pew Research Center analysis shows that the newspaper industry’s "financial fortunes and subscriber base have been in decline since the mid-2000s." Credit: Pew Research Center
Today's newsletter comes from Sara Shipley Hiles, the Ag & Water Desk's Executive Director.
Sara is an award-winning journalist and journalism educator with almost 30 years’ experience in the field. She specializes in environmental and investigative reporting and is a recognized journalism teacher and editor with a dozen years of teaching experience.
As Executive Director she makes sure the Desk runs smoothly and that our work is funded. To that end, she has a note about sustainability and what roles our audience might play. Further down you'll also see recent stories from our reporters and the region. I'll let Sara take it from here!
Irina Zhorov Assistant Director, Ag & Water Desk
Who pays for the news?
Advertisers, subscribers, members? Foundations and donors? Website viewers? You?
The answer, these days, is all of the above. Gone are the days when advertising revenue – think real estate, cars, and classified ads – generously funded the journalism side of the house. With the rise of the internet, advertising sales plummeted. Online ads and subscriptions don’t replace what was lost.
Now news outlets are rethinking their revenue streams, and many are revamping their mission statements. For some, a for-profit model makes sense. For others, a nonprofit model lets journalists focus on serving the community regardless of who can pay. The Ag & Water Desk counts both kinds of newsrooms among our partners.
I just returned from the LION Publishers Independent News Sustainability Summit in Chicago. The conference provided tips and advice to those seeking to run a financially sustainable news business while strengthening local news. I heard about creative approaches to building an audience, connecting with underserved communities, and creating new revenue streams.
At the Ag & Water Desk, we want to help community-focused environmental journalism grow and thrive. To do that, we need new and diverse sources of funding, including individuals who believe, as we do, that journalism is a public good. For the first time, the Desk is eligible to participate in NewsMatch this year. Managed by the Institute for Nonprofit News, NewsMatch matches individual contributions to nonprofit newsrooms with gifts from national funders. This program will double small individual gifts made to the Desk from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31. Watch this space for more details.
Can we count on you?
Yours,
Sara Shipley Hiles Executive Director, Ag & Water Desk
The land is home to a diverse array of aquatic and terrestrial life, decades-old archaeological sites and contains a major part of the upper fork of the Wolf River, which flows into the Mississippi River and feeds the aquifer system responsible for Memphis’ water supply.
By Cassandra Stephenson, Tennessee Lookout
Tennessee is working to purchase 5,477 acres of forest land near Grand Junction from the Hobart Ames Foundation. The land is part of the Wolf River watershed. Credit: Wolf River Conservancy
