By Mirror Staff
Local matters. For a community newspaper like the Lake George Mirror, that is an understatement. But “Local Matters” is also a new project launched by the Adirondack Community Foundation and the Lake George Mirror to support consistent and continuous reporting from local communities.
The fund, called the Lake George Mirror Journalism Initiative Fund, allows anyone to make a tax-deductible donation to help fund the hiring of editors and reporters to cover the news of communities within the Lake George watershed.
Tony Hall, editor of the Lake George Mirror
Adirondack Community Foundation will serve as fiscal sponsor for the “Local Matters” project, accepting contributions from the public and administering the funds to ensure they are used for the charitable purposes for which they were intended.
Established in 1880, the Lake George Mirror has, for most of its history, been “a summer resort newspaper,” reporting the news of greatest interest to summer residents and visitors.
When Lisa and Tony Hall purchased the newspaper in 1998, they expanded the paper’s coverage to include issues such as environmental conservation, the arts and the Lake George region’s rich history. They also extended its publication schedule – from eight weeks a summer to 27 weeks a year, with monthly editions in the off-season.
With the Mirror’s limited staff and limited budget, however, even those efforts could not keep pace with the decline in local news coverage in the Lake George region, where the numbers of newspaper subscribers and advertisers have dwindled and reporting staffs have been slashed and budgets cut to the bare minimum.
The “Local Matters” project of the Lake George Mirror and Adirondack Community Foundation hopes to remedy that deficit. With support from donors, the Mirror’s coverage of municipal boards, churches and synagogues, schools, libraries, first responders and civic organizations within the Lake George watershed will replicate that of a full service, traditional community newspaper.
The project is already placing reporters in board rooms. If successful, it will will not only place reporters in every public meeting and civic gathering in the Lake George watershed, it will extend the Mirror’s publication schedule even further.
Every news article published with support from the Lake George Mirror Journalism Initiative Fund is available to readers at no cost from the website of the Lake George Mirror.
“We are grateful to Adirondack Community Foundation for its support of the Lake George Mirror in particular and for local journalism in general. Its board and staff recognize that journalism, which is a hub of information, keeping the public informed about the matters closest to their concerns, is vital to sustaining the ties that knit a community together,” said Lake George Mirror editor Tony Hall.
“Everyone should have ready access to trusted news sources that provide high-quality and reliable information and coverage of news at the local, state, and national levels, ” said President & CEO of ACF Cali Brooks. “For close to thirty years, the community foundation has been a source of funding to our community partners like the Lake George Mirror and we look forward to working with more donors in the Lake George basin to build a stronger base into the future.”
To donate to the fund, click the button on the Lake George Mirror’s website or go to adkcommunityfoundation.org, click the “Give Back” button and scroll down to “Lake George Mirror Local Journalism Fund.”
If you are interested in reporting from your community for Local Matters, write news@lake georgemirror.com
