More than 1,300 communities have lost their local newspaper. We are working to preserve our local news outlets by adding digital, community participation and collaborative reporting to bring big stories home to the hyper-local level.
This holiday season your donations up to $500 each to either The Paper or The Independent are matched by the New Mexico Local News Fund, a New Mexico non-profit helping to save and expand local news in the Land of Enchantment.
Help us pay great local journalists for their work (and more local news, arts, and investigative reporting).
Check out two ways to give: 1) support The Paper, or 2) support The Independent (or support both!)
Support The Paper.
Reader-supported independent news in Albuquerque.
When Albuquerque lost The Weekly Alibi (RIP), a team of local reporters, designers and news junkies teamed up to start The Paper, the city’s new go-to alt-weekly source for news, arts, entertainment and events.
What will donations go to?
Last year, reader donations supported reporting by Tierna Unruh-Enos who was the first to report on video of former Otero County commissioner and Cowboys For Trump leader on the steps of the US Capitol on January 6th. That video and her reporting were used by House prosecutors in the impeachment trial of President Trump and his subsequent legal and political troubles won the Best National Right-Wing Extremism Coverage award from the Association of Alternative news.
Your donations also supported Jonathan Sims, an Acoma journalist whose investigation of Albuquerque’s Indian School legacy rediscovered the former Indian school graves under an Albuquerque park. That reporting won Jon top State and National Awards for ongoing news coverage.
So what will this year’s donations do? We don’t know what great stories they’ll turn up, but 100% of reader donations pay independent New Mexico journalists in The Paper.
DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT: Your donation, up to $500, is matched by the New Mexico Local News Fund.
Donate $100
or any amount you choose
All donations up to $500 doubled by the New Mexico Local News Fund
Support The Independent.
Help us save the East Mountain / Edgewood /Estancia Valley’s last newspaper
The Independent was started as a community newspaper around a kitchen table in Tijeras in 1999. In the 23 years since, it has outlasted every other newspaper devoted to the East Mountains and Estancia Valley, making it the last source of local news for an incredible 4,000 square miles (that’s larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined!)
But earlier this year when Covid forced them to close their newsroom, reporters and staff were hit hard. Coming back, many volunteered to work without pay to keep the local paper going. But last month, longtime editor and owner Leota Harriman announced that her beloved local paper would close, potentially creating one of the largest news deserts in the country.
What will donations go to?
With your help, we’re stepping in to give The Independent a fresh start. We are stepping in to bring The Independent back. We’re ensuring every reporter is paid and bringing new web and office tools on the backend to let the reporters get back to reporting without worrying about debt.
The Local News Fund is matching up to $5000 of donations from #GivingTuesday through the end of the year ($500 max match per donor). Help us save this critical local paper with a donation today.
All donations up to $500 doubled by the New Mexico Local News Fund