Potential Partners in Community Engagement

Every free community paper publisher I've met has stories about their support for hometown groups. Volunteer service, donations of cash and pulp and ink to projects as diverse as their communities. These partnerships build a better place and reinforce our role as local leaders. They generally fall in the category of charity, not business -- but what about opportunities serve both?

When I entered the contentious policy debate surrounding "Saving News" and the "Future of Media," I came across some very interesting examples of this in community media. Local partnerships where publishers are getting story leads and new advertiser requests, while expanding audience and fostering community dialogue. This potentially promising area of community engagement is happening through partnerships with our peers in local, nonprofit community media including Low Power FM Radio and Public Access Television.

In Philadelphia, University City Review has teamed up with LPFM Community Radio Station 88.1 WPEB FM to produce the UC Review Community News Hour. The program is hosted by Editor and Publisher, Bob Christian and Staff Reporter, Nicole Contosta. Each week they provide neighborhood news, a calendar of events, as well as newsmaker interviews with many of the interesting people in their West Philadelphia community. In our Nation’s Capitol, Washington Informer Publisher, Denise Rolark Barnes hosts area leaders and newsmakers for in-depth discussions of the most pressing issues in her community on her program, Washington Informer News. Each week, viewpoint and perspective on politics, social issues, public and community affairs can be seen on DCTV, Comcast Channels 95 and 96, RCN 10 and 11, and on Verizon.

Now is the perfect time to explore whether there might be a good fit for your paper. Community media centers, which create and transmit PEG programming, have dwindling resources and will welcome new opportunities to team up. At the same time, LPFM stations are set to explode across the landscape, with many as 2,000 new noncommercial stations expected nationally by 2013. While some currently dot the rural landscape, with a modest transmission range of 10 to 15 miles, new licenses will be granted in cities and suburbs with a range of a few neighborhoods. A result of the Local Community Radio Act, which reduces the amount of bandwidth allowed between existing FM stations, these volunteer broadcasters will be in the community interest business and not the advertising business.

No formal census has been taken within our industry on for-profit/nonprofit media partnerships like these case studies with LPFM and PEG, but their success should be explored and any similar stories shared. More so, considering current economics and the recent passage of the Local Community Radio Act. For now you can find a low power, non-profit station in your area here: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/fmq.html by searching for LPFM under "Service type" and interactive maps are coming in the near future.