Today four immigrant serving nonprofit newsrooms and the media support organization Listening Post Collective announce the formation of the Immigrant News Coalition. This peer-led collaboration of independent local news publishers Documented, Conecta Arizona, Sahan Journal and El Tímpano will collaborate to stabilize and scale their work and that of peer organizations, ensuring America’s immigrant communities have reliable access to news and information that serves their needs and reflects their experiences.
America has seen a decline of immigrant facing newsrooms in recent years, with over 150 ethnic media outlets shuttering since 2020, leaving small towns as well as major cities alike with a lack of news offered in other languages.
All of this comes at a time when the need for accurate, relevant and timely information for immigrant communities couldn’t be more critical as America experiences rapid shifts in federal immigration policies and enforcement that have had immense effects on immigrant communities, alongside a rise in dis- and misinformation accelerated by social media and AI. According to polling from KFF, nearly half of immigrants in America identify lacking information about the potential impact of US immigration policies on their lives.
A bright spot has been the emergence of a new generation of immigrant facing newsrooms that use community-centered approaches to serving immigrant audiences, filling critical information gaps in multiple languages and platforms, through two-way conversations and by bringing service and accountability journalism to the platforms immigrants use.
INC’s founding partners will work together around operational innovation, collaboration and strengthening the field of immigrant-serving news.
The coalition will receive ongoing support from Listening Post Collective including civic media design strategies, impact tracking and more. The establishment of the coalition is enabled by new grant funding as part of Press Forward’s Open Call on Infrastructure with an award of $1.5 million over three years to test and experiment with revenue strategies to build the coalition’s long-term sustainability and inform other immigrant-serving newsrooms and with a $350,000, two-year grant from Democracy Fund that will build out the scaffolding of INC’s core peer-to-peer leadership work.
About the Immigrant News Coalition’s founding members
Documented is an independent, nonprofit newsroom dedicated to reporting with and for immigrant communities in New York City. By providing original, responsive reporting and actionable resource guides in English, Spanish, Chinese and Haitian Creole, Documented represents a radically different community-driven approach to journalism and information that impacts the everyday experiences of immigrants.
Conecta Arizona is an innovative nonprofit news organization that empowers Spanish-speaking communities in the Arizona-Sonora border region with accurate, accessible, and engaging news from a bicultural and bilingual perspective. Founded in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, it began as a WhatsApp-based service to combat misinformation and continues to serve as a trusted source for community-centered reporting.
El Tímpano – Spanish for “eardrum”— informs, engages, and amplifies the voices of the Bay Area’s Latino and Mayan immigrants. Its strategies have been designed through deep listening and collaboration with the communities it serves. They include a Spanish-language SMS platform, Maya Mam-language video bulletins, disinformation defense workshops, community-powered accountability journalism, and extensive community partnerships.
Sahan Journal provides immigrants and communities of color with free, fair, and responsive journalism that shows everyone the way to a more equitable Minnesota. Founded in 2019, Sahan has grown from a startup into a 23-person newsroom that offers unique, community-centered coverage of topics like education, health, business and labor, climate, and public safety. Sahan has emerged as a nonprofit news leader for its innovative approaches to sustainable revenue and audience engagement — while fostering trust, belonging, accountability, and civic participation.
The Listening Post Collective helps grassroots information providers across the U.S. listen to their communities and develop responsive news products, especially in areas where traditional media does not meet the needs of the people it is intended to serve. LPC is part of the global organization Internews, which has brought these same strategies to communities in 100+ countries.
