The Patagonia Regional Times is proud to announce our recent grant award from The Local News Initiative of Southern Arizona, an initiative of the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona. The award was granted to six organizations, supporting local news throughout Southern Arizona. In total, 18 news organizations applied for the first round of grant funding. The recipients were selected by a grants committee comprised of diverse community volunteers from throughout Southern Arizona.
The initiative aims to put a spotlight on ten the last two decades, the local news crisis has been spreading to communities across the U.S. as the collapse of the traditional advertising business model for local news has led to the shutdown of more than 2,200 local newspapers and the elimination of thousands of local journalism jobs. When asked what this grant award PRT Editor, Marion Vendituoli had this to say about the initiative, “Many of our volunteers have never participated in journalism. Facilitating their growth and development as reporters is incredibly gratifying. Their diversity of experience and viewpoints gives the PRT a true voice of our community and sustains our grassroots organization and mission.” Click here to read the entire press release and more about the initiative.