NJ Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald Delivers Hopeful Message to NJ Civic Information Consortium
Ayinde Merrill, program director for the NJ Civic Information Consortium speaks at its community media summit at The College of New Jersey on April 15, 2025. Photo by AC JosepH Media
AC JosepH Media
EWING TOWNSHIP – Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald delivered a hopeful tone to attendees at the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium’s inaugural For the Love of Local News: Community Media Project Summit on April 15, despite Gov. Phil Murphy’s budget that defunds the NJCIC.
NJCIC has been vital in funding ethnic and community outlets around New Jersey and has stood as a national model in sustaining the local news ecosystems in current news deserts and other locations that could become additional news deserts without support.
Led by Chris Daggett, board chair of the NJCIC and its interim executive director, and Ayinde Merrill, NJCIC’s program director, the summit brought together journalists, nonprofit leaders, funders, grantees, and engaged residents to discuss the future of New Jersey’s media ecosystem and the vital need for quality community news and information.
“I am troubled when we ask people where you get your news — they don’t talk about local journalism anymore,” said Greenwald (D-Burlington, Camden) during his remarks on Tuesday. “The demise of journalism got here sooner than I thought. I think that the work that you do is invaluable to the protection of free elections, public policy, democracy and choice amongst candidates.”
The conference highlighted the essential role local news plays in fostering civic engagement and community connection. Conference speakers emphasized that when residents have access to reliable, community-centered information, they are more likely to stay informed, engaged, and involved in public life.
In contrast, when local news is absent, civic participation and trust in institutions tend to decline. Organizers also underscored the challenges faced by local news outlets in securing the resources needed to continue providing the critical information communities rely on.
Greenwald has long been an advocate for local journalism. He sponsored the 2018 legislation that created the Civic Information Consortium and has been instrumental in securing additional funding for the Consortium in the state budget.
The day was full of workshops looking to examine and amplify local community news.
Melissa Helmbrecht, president and executive director of Give Something Back, gave a talk on using the community as a newsroom and building sustainability for new organizations. Through Hopeloft in Bridgeton, she has helped the organization with groundbreaking work in community-driven rnityeporting.
Through real-world examples from partnerships with private, federal, and state funding opportunities, participants will explore how fostering local voices, and grassroots collaboration can strengthen journalism’s impact and financial sustainability.
The summit held a session on the needs of Black and Latino newsrooms, led by Vanessa Maria Graber, News Voices Director of Free Press/Free Press Action Fund with Frank Santos, Revenue Strategy & Design, Black in Jersey and Mark Tyler, Founder/Publisher of Atlantic City Focus.
Max Resnik, City Bureau’s Director of Network Services for the Documenters Network, based in Brooklyn, held a session on public meeting coverage through Documenters in New Jersey.
Lynne Brennen from Blue Engine Collaborative, joined Liz George of Montclair Local and Mary Galioto of MercerMe, in discussing the 2024 New Jersey Technology and Sustainability Accelerator and how it made real progress toward financial sustainability by bringing a disciplined approach to each organization’s unique mix of people, financial position, products, audience and process.
The workshop on news entrepreneurs was led by Ambreen Ali, a longtime journalist and the founding editor of Central Desi, a news outlet covering the South Asian community, Adrienne Romero, the co-founder of Slice of Culture, a news outlet covering Hudson County and Kenneth Miles, the founder and publisher of the Trenton Journal.
A workshop on information, news and digital media literacy was led by Media Studies educator Tom Piotrowski and TCNJ Education Librarian Ewa Dziedzic-Elliott. They were joined by Rutgers-Newark journalism professor, Carla Murphy. Murphy, who is also a media organizer, spent the last year co-writing education policy for the Media Policy Collaborative and is a member of News Futures, a national coalition with a mission to create more responsive and participatory local news ecosystems.
In a workshop discussing why university-led news reporting is important in filling the gap news was led by Sarah Gamard, a program manager for the Center for Community News, and Mark Berkey-Gerard, an associate professor of journalism at Rowan University, where he teaches news media literacy, digital reporting and data journalism courses.
Another workshop focusing on how community colleges can help fuel the local news ecosystem was led by Holly K. Johnson, professor of communication and journalism at Mercer County Community College, and Cole Goins, managing director of the Journalism + Design lab at The New School.
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