From the Publisher
Dear Salem County,
I have some good news to share, and you are the reason for it.
Earlier this week The News of Salem County was awarded a $50,000 grant from Press Forward New Jersey. Press Forward New Jersey is housed at the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium and works in partnership with the Community Foundation of South Jersey, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The grant was one of 13 awarded across South Jersey this round, totaling $570,000, to strengthen local news in communities that have gone too long without it.
Salem County is one of those communities. For more than six years, we have had no dependable, breaking news source of our own. Residents have learned about a road closure, a school board vote, a fire or a town council decision after the fact, or from a rumor, or not at all. It is hard to take part in local government, support our schools, or look out for one another when nobody is in the room writing down what happened.
This grant says that Salem County matters and that our stories are worth telling well.
I want to thank the Civic Information Consortium and everyone at Press Forward New Jersey, including Executive Director Lisa Sahulka and the review team, for believing in a small, hyperlocal newsroom in the county where I grew up. I also thank the Community Foundation of South Jersey for its partnership. And I thank every reader who clicked, shared, commented, sent a tip, or told a neighbor about us.
What this grant will help us do
Cover your government. We will be in the room at more municipal meetings and more school board meetings across the county. Those are the places where decisions about your taxes, your schools, your roads and your safety get made, and too often no one has been there to report on them. Consider The News of Salem County, as they used to say back in the day of print journalism, your paper of record.
Hold power to account, fairly. People in elected office and in county and local government jobs hold our trust and real power over our daily lives. That comes with responsibility, and for years there has been no local news source consistently watching how it is used. If an official is doing a great job, you should know it, and we will say so. If someone is doing a poor job, you should know that too, and we will report it. The standard is the same either way: the facts, reported without fear or favor.
Create local work. This grant will let us offer contract and part-time jobs to people right here in Salem County. That means local writers, photographers and other creators, with creative content that residents haven’t seen in years and that local talent hasn’t had a chance to produce. Salem County has a lot of talented people, and they deserve a place to publish.
Recognize our students. We will keep covering local high school sports, as we have this fall, and the students and other local efforts that have gone unrecognized for far too long.
Build the foundation. The grant supports expanded local reporting, leadership support and operational improvements, so we can work more securely, efficiently and effectively and keep our news free for every resident.
Stay local, and stay focused on the news. This is the part that matters most to me. A brand-new news company has to spend much of its early life chasing advertisements, sponsorships and partnerships just to survive. This grant gives us breathing room and seed money to rebuild, so our first job can be what it should be: nonpartisan, factual news and information for you. It also lets The News of Salem County stay locally and privately owned, which means decisions about what we cover are made here, by people who live here.
Every story will still be verified with at least two separate sources (along with additional information) before we publish it. This funding does not change who we answer to. We answer to you.
The News of Salem County is more than a business to me. It is a community asset, and it belongs to all of us. This grant is a start, and it goes to work for you right away.
If you have a story we should be covering, a meeting we should be attending, or a local writer or photographer who should be working with us, please reach out at zach@thenewsofsalemcounty.com or 856-981-1021. Tell us what Salem County needs from its local news, and we will do our best to deliver it.
With gratitude,
Zachary Ahl
Publisher, The News of Salem County