BIG NEWS: inewsource has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and we’re incredibly proud to be among its newest grantees.
This three-year investment is an important vote of confidence in our journalism and in the future we’re building for local news in San Diego.
The gift was inspired by our community-focused reporting in the South Bay and along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Recent stories include HOME SICK, an immersive investigation into the human toll of the Tijuana River sewage crisis for which we interviewed more than 100 people living and working near the pollution.
The project, which just won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Innovation, demonstrates what’s possible when journalists spend time in communities, listen deeply and pursue stories with rigor, creativity and care.
Experience our reporting project
HOME SICK: Chronic illness and longing define life in the Tijuana River valley
inewsource interviewed 100 people in San Diego’s South Bay communities about how pollution from sewage spills is making some people sick.
At inewsource a focus on community drives everything we do. Our Documenters have been attending public meetings in the South Bay and central San Diego for almost two years. Through the civic engagement program, we train and pay community members to document what happens at public meetings, helping us surface and share important news.
Our investigative reporters have delivered in-depth, authoritative and balanced reporting to audiences living along the border from San Diego and Tijuana east to Yuma. Recent reporting has covered massive data center projects dividing communities to immigrant detentions and barriers to health care.
The MacArthur Foundation “supports creative people, effective institutions, and influential networks building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.” To have the foundation’s support as we prepare for an ambitious new chapter at inewsource is especially meaningful.
Over the coming months, we’ll have much more to share about where we’re headed and how we plan to bring more original, community-centered journalism to more people across the San Diego region.
For now, we’re celebrating this extraordinary investment in our newsroom, our journalists and the communities we serve.
Jamie Self
CEO & Editor
P.S. Sign up for our newsletters here. (Daily Digest to never miss a story, ever. And Amplify South Bay for our South Bay coverage.) And become an inewsource member today to help us sustain this important work.
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Blog: Updates from the newsroom on philanthropy, awards, staff and more.
