From Boston to Havana, and points between: Meet the newest Newsrooms to join Civil.

Image courtesy of Jon Tyson (Unsplash)

(Version en Español)

As we count down to Civil’s pending mainnet launch (read: when the Civil Registry is live, and participants in the CVL sale will have their tokens) later this month, we’ve got an exciting update to share in the interim: there are four new Newsrooms that will be joining Civil — including the network’s first two Latin America-based newsrooms.

Here’s who they are, and what you can expect from each of them:

• 14ymedio (Havana / Madrid / Miami). Covers Cuban affairs and Cuban-linked international topics, from a Cuban point of view. 14ymedio is the only independent newsroom inside Cuba. In addition to its Cuba-based staff, it maintains smaller editorial teams in both Madrid and Miami. It takes no government funding, nor funding from any organizations tied to a specific political party. Via Civil, it hopes to raise additional funding to hire needed staff to expand its operations and ability to cover more important, underreported stories. Follow 14ymedio on Twitter (Newsroom — and Tweets — en Español).
• Dromómanos (Mexico City). Focuses on issues across Latin America (and plans to expand beyond this base soon). Traditionally, it has focused on violence, drug trafficking and drug policy, as well as other social aspects such as migration, poverty and inequality. Its Narcoamérica investigation series focused on drug trafficking in 18 countries, from the U.S. to Chile. It was recognized with several journalistic awards, including the Ortega y Gasset and National Journalism Award in Mexico. Its team is currently working on a similar project, In the Wrong Path, about homicide in the seven most violent countries in Latin America. Follow Dromómanos on Twitter. Newsroom en Español.
• The Blackness (Los Angeles / New York City) — Coming in late 2018; will be a multimedia, long-form, investigative reporting Newsroom, focused on shining light on overlooked and untold human interest stories impacting communities of color. The Blackness will leverage a distributed network of diverse journalists. Will be run by Color Farm Media. Learn more about The Blackness via this recent interview with The Breakfast Club (video) and/or this Fast Co. feature. Follow Color Farm on Twitter for the latest.
• The GroundTruth Project (Boston) — In-depth, collaborative reporting from around the world on social justice issues including human rights, climate change, global health and religion. It’s focused on supporting the next generation of reporters with professional guidance, mentorship and opportunity. GroundTruth looks for people and stories that others aren’t covering — often focused on marginalized communities, immigrants, women and children, and emphasizing the voices of people caught in unequal systems of power. Follow GroundTruth on Twitter.

With the exception of The Blackness, which will officially launch later this year, these newsrooms are already up and running. They, along with the existing 14 newsrooms already publishing on Civil, will be among the first Newsrooms to appear on the Civil Registry. They each share Civil’s commitment to pioneering new, more efficient ways for creating, distributing and supporting ethical journalism.

Each of these new Newsrooms is also receiving a grant of CVL tokens, and will be among the initial participants in the CVL economy, along with those who join via the CVL token sale and mission-aligned partners (note that the Civil Media Company will be publishing a transparency report the week of October 8 that will share more detail on initial participants and token distribution).

Here’s a brief roundup of leaders from these Newsrooms, on why they’re joining Civil:

We believe that this new platform is capable of connecting newsrooms and readers in a better, more secure and efficient way by using blockchain technology. We think that being part of Civil will help us create a new business model and explore new ways of becoming a more sustainable and independent newsroom. It is time to look for new, more innovative options for producing high quality journalism.

— Alejandra Sánchez Inzunza, Dromómanos

We operate under the motto “It takes a village to tell a story.” As such, we’re creating a coalition by assembling a distributed network of journalists, tapping into key partner organizations such as HBCUs, NABJ, and others.

— Ben Arnon, The Blackness

We think that the blockchain technology and Civil are going to help us find new readers and exchange information with other Newsrooms on the platform. At the same time, we feel that it will give us more protection against the cyberattacks and the tough government censorship challenges.

— Bertrand de la Grange, 14ymedio

GroundTruth is delighted to join the Civil network because we believe that when news organizations work together to solve tough problems, good things happen. We are intrigued by the possibilities of the blockchain technology and confident in the brilliant people banding together to build this platform. And at the core, we believe in the power of on-the-ground journalism to help create a better world.

— Kevin Grant, GroundTruth

We encourage you to explore each of these Newsrooms if you’re not already familiar. We’re honored to welcome them to the growing Civil network.