Center for Cooperative Media announces NJ Media Mentors volunteer program
Especially over the last 10 years, a lot of people who spent decades working for news organizations have left their jobs. They’ve been bought out, retired or got tired of the turmoil in the media industry.
Many of those people have a wealth of knowledge about all aspects of the business: Some worked as editors, some were talented reporters, others are incredible copy editors, advertising sales managers and more.
If this describes you or someone you know, have you ever considered volunteering your experience to mentor an independent local news outlet?
Today, the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University is announcing its new NJ Media Mentors volunteer program. The initiative seeks to recruit retirees who worked in some capacity for a news organization and are willing to serve as volunteers to mentor local news outlets in our state. We especially seek to pair volunteers with entrepreneurs of color and those serving marginalized communities.
The idea for this program comes from Josie Gonsalves, the publisher of Public Square, a new news nonprofit based in Newark. It is modeled loosely after SCORE, the largest network of free volunteer small business mentors in the U.S.
We’re looking for people with all sorts of expertise. If you’re willing to give some of your time, sign up!
We’ll pair volunteers with local news leaders for mentorship. New Jersey is lucky to have a growing number of independently owned nonprofit and for-profit news.
Use the button below or click here to sign up to be a mentor, and if you’re looking to get connected with a mentor, you can browse the database we’ll eventually publish or you can just email us at info@centerforcooperativemedia.org and we’ll make the match!
Stefanie Murray is the director of the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. Contact her at murrayst@montclair.edu.
About the Center for Cooperative Media: The Center is a primarily grant-funded program of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. Its mission is to grow and strengthen local journalism, and in doing so serve New Jersey residents. The Center is supported with funding from Montclair State University, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, the New Jersey Local News Lab (a partnership of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, and Community Foundation of New Jersey), and the Abrams Foundation. For more information, visit CenterforCooperativeMedia.org.
