When Donna Ladd, Stephen Barnette and I started the Jackson Free Press in September 2002, with a lot of help from then Jackson State professor Jimmy Mumford and our first advertising rep Alisa Price, we hoped to make a difference in Jackson, Mississippi, by bringing “free press” journalism to the city and region. Borrowing heavily from the alternative newsweekly model, we wanted to mix accountability journalism, media criticism and culture coverage to build an inclusive publication that would help bring Jackson’s residents together, improve the quality of life for all of us, and create a rich tapestry of human relationships and connections in the capital city.
The JFP went hard on accountability journalism. Reporting showed us that “Two Lakes,” the first version of what is now called “One Lake,” was a demonstrably stupid idea that would set back flood control in Jackson for decades, which it has; the Clarion-Ledger’s one-note “Jackpot Justice” obsession was carrying water for the powerful at the expense of regular Mississippians; and the war footing we were on after 9/11 would lead to the militarization of our police and homeland security that we suffer through to this day. Then there was Mayor Frank Melton who went on trial twice due to Donna and her team’s fearless reporting about a troubling man that other media glorified.
The Jackson Free Press had a nearly 20-year run, finally slowed to a near standstill by the pandemic in March 2020. When the folks at Hal and Mal’s called me up to say they couldn’t run their music ad that week—which they’d run for nearly all of those two decades—I knew we were in for a reckoning. Fortunately, Donna had already been laying the groundwork for the non-profit Mississippi Free Press, which sprang into action that same month, reporting on statewide challenges amid COVID, shutdowns, government challenges and solutions, George Floyd, the Mississippi flag, and so much more during that remarkable time.
Interesting Experiments in Local Journalism
We did a lot of good work at the JFP over those two decades, but the one nut that was hard to crack was making a good living at it. I described Jackson Free Press as a “low-profit corporation” during its tenure—not a nonprofit by design, but darned close. That meant both Donna and I took salaries that rivaled the starter jobs we’d held in the 1980s and ‘90s. Our staff made the kind of money that proved they had a passion for journalism and for the culture we were able to create, because if their passion was for financial independence, so many of them wouldn’t still be on the MFP masthead two decades later.
Since we launched the Jackson Free Press with miniscule resources on September 22, 2002, Donna had wanted to do a “statewide” Mississippi Free Press; both MFP and JFP are named in homage to a brave Civil Rights Movement newspaper in Jackson in the 1960s run by a courageous multiracial group of Mississippians and civil-rights seekers from elsewhere. In fact, Donna asked me to reserve the URL mississippifreepress.com when we launched the JFP so she’d have it someday. For the next 20 years, she pondered to herself and me how to do that effectively, to really serve the people. It was a hard financial puzzle to solve until she lit upon starting a nonprofit newsroom in 2019.
Donna and Kimberly Griffin, her co-founder at MFP (and previously my revenue partner as associate publisher of the JFP), cracked that nut when they began to succeed and grow rapidly as a nonprofit. MFP has some of the highest percentages of both reader revenue and readership in the local news sector, and those individual contributions—yours—are something that national philanthropy and “large” donors notice. The people who read the MFP don’t just “keep it afloat.” They make it possible for the MFP’s staff to receive livable-wage paychecks, benefits, and to work in an organization that focuses on both serious journalism and live-work balance.
Thank you for investing in the Free Press legacy in Mississippi.
The other nut that Donna and her team have cracked is designing “statewide” journalism that increasingly serves Mississippians in news deserts across the state—which is easier when your primary revenue stream isn’t local advertising. When we ran the JFP, I always called new statewide publications an “interesting experiment,” which was my code phrase for “something someone else funds while we learn from their mistakes.”
The challenge was simple but daunting: How does a publication based in one part of the state learn about, report and write stories of interest to people in other parts of the state?
The Road Taken Too Often
The easy answer is The Road Taken Too Often—the “statewide” publication reports on and centers the powerful people in the capital city and the Legislature, pretending that’s of interest to the folks in Vaiden, Toomsuba and Kiln. Write down what the powerful have to say, throw in some coverage of legislative sausage-making and partisan horse races, work in some of that “who is the more, truly, actually conservative candidate” political language being tossed between our state’s 1.5 political parties, and hope that at least whoever pays for what you’re doing is excited to see it.
But Donna and team have cracked this nut another way. They are laser-focused on expanding their on-the-ground coverage within the state (their rapidly expanding eight-bureau plan) while encouraging for-profit media outlets around the state to republish Mississippi Free Press investigations and solutions journalism at no cost to the local outlet. As Donna says often, “We’re a nonprofit. We don’t compete with other news outlets. We work to support them.”
With the help of both donors and foundations outside Mississippi, and increasingly excited supporters inside the state, MFP is funding reporters where their readers live to positively impact every region of the state with coverage that is solutions-driven and beyond partisanship. Big-impact coverage that focuses on people and the systems—like disappearing scholarships and broken precinct maps—that do not serve them and how to fix it. A new law is a good place to start.
The financial secret: That’s also you.
When you donate to the MFP, you don’t just pay for a story or a photo, a reporter or a photographer, or even the back-office necessary to publish and promote those stories and process the team’s payroll and benefits. Sure, that’s one thing your donation does, but not the only thing.
Your donation also signals to other organizations that there is local support for the unique MFP model—local bureaus with on-the-ground reporters who actually get to know and serve the people in those areas daily—which translates into regional and national support. MFP has been a good bet for national philanthropy like MacArthur and Ford Foundation, Pivot Fund and Borealis Philanthropy because it has so much individual support from readers.
Did you know, for instance, that MFP has three reporters subsidized by Report for America? They have been steadily backing MFP’s bureau growth in recent years with these appointments. Their support allowed Donna to initially afford to hire Torsheta Jackson; she is now a top editor. MFP’s remarkable local support, and tight-knit newsroom that brings huge impact, helps the team raise more funds for Mississippi on the regional and national level. In fact, individual donors and family foundations have covered most of the costs that RFA didn’t for four reporters so far, all of whom are still vital parts of the MFP team. That is, indeed, supporting local reporting across America.
‘Let’s Back A Winner’
So, in honor of 24 years of Free Press reporting in Mississippi—and in recognition of Donna and her team’s success in “cracking the code” on both covering the state and taking care of their people—I’m matching the first $2,400 in donations for our “Celebrating 24 Years” campaign, and co-founder Stephen Barnette is matching the $2,400 after that.
Please donate $24, $240, $2,400, or whatever you can afford to keep truly local, truly Mississippi coverage alive and well in the Magnolia State.
And know that your support goes beyond your contribution and our matches; it encourages funding organizations that might help MFP expand around the state even faster to say “Yes” to more grants, sponsorships and partnerships because they can point to the reader support MFP gets and say, “Let’s back a winner.”
Thanks for your readership and support of the “Free Presses” in Mississippi these many years—and here’s to many more.
This MFP Voices opinion essay reflects the personal opinion of its author(s). The column does not necessarily represent the views of the Mississippi Free Press, its staff or board members. To submit an opinion for the MFP Voices section, send up to 1,200 words and sources fact-checking the included information to voices@mississippifreepress.org. We welcome a wide variety of viewpoints.
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