Jersey Vindicator announces ‘County Chroniclers’ program to cover county commission meetings in New Jersey
Participants will receive training, small stipend, and editorial support from the Vindicator
The Jersey Vindicator, an independent, nonpartisan investigative newsroom based in New Jersey, just announced the launch of a new county-level reporting program, an important development for New Jersey residents and an optimistic development for the state’s local news ecosystem.
The program is called “County Chroniclers,” and the goal is to fill a gaping (and growing) hole in New Jersey’s local news ecosystem, which has seen waves of layoffs, buyouts, and newsroom closures over the last two decades — with many NJ communities losing dedicated reporters covering both regional and local issues.
This erosion of local beat reporting, especially at the county level, has left residents out of the loop on key decisions around taxes, infrastructure, services, and governance transparency.
Krystal Knapp — longtime NJ News Commons member and founder of Planet Princeton, and now the Jersey Vindicator — is spearheading the program in New Jersey and looking for volunteers from across the state to cover county commission meetings.
In a post announcing the new program on the Vindicator’s website, Knapp said her readers feel in the dark about county-level developments that stand to significantly impact their lives.
In interviews with more than three dozen people, the lack of county government coverage was a repeated theme. New Jersey residents have also sent the Vindicator numerous tips about issues that need investigating at the county level.
The new program from the Vindicator comes as other organizations across New Jersey and across the country have launched similar programs to provide documentation of public meetings and local government activities. The most well-known at the national level is Documenters, run by City Bureau.
From the Documenters “About” page:
The Documenters Network was created in 2018 by City Bureau, a nonprofit civic journalism lab that goes beyond informing the public. We focus on equipping people to access and produce the information they need. We make our work, process and tools as open and useful as possible.
Documenters.org centralizes public meeting dates, times, locations, official records and original documentation at the city, county, and state-level in one searchable location.
Documenters Network sites currently operate in fifteen cities, including Akron, Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Fresno, Gary, Ind.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Indianapolis; Minneapolis; Omaha; Philadelphia; San Diego; and Spokane.
The NJ Civic Information Consortium, a first-in-the-nation nonprofit dedicated to using public funding to support local news and information providers serving New Jersey residents, is also in the process of launching Documenters sites in the Garden State.
The NJ Documenters programs was created in partnership with City Bureau with the stated goal of “promoting civic engagement and transparency within communities across New Jersey.”
From the NJ Documenters press release:
The host organizations for the NJ Documenters program are crucial in ensuring the success and impact of the initiative. As a host site, each organization will be responsible for overseeing the operations of the program in its respective locations. This includes recruiting and training Documenters, scheduling their assignments, and providing them with the necessary resources and support.
Host sites will also play a key role in editing and posting the content produced by Documenters, ensuring accuracy, clarity, and adherence to journalistic standards. Additionally, they will be responsible for promoting and raising awareness about the NJ Documenters program within their communities. By fulfilling these responsibilities, the host sites will contribute to the overall goal of promoting civic engagement, transparency, and informed decision-making in New Jersey.
Against this backdrop, the Vindicator’s County Chroniclers program is offering to train volunteers to attend meetings, document proceedings, and flag issues for potential stories will help reconnect residents to vital county-level information. Volunteers will also be paid a small stipend for their time.
Researchers have found that, over time, illuminating county shortcomings can lead to positive changes for taxpayers, more informed communities, and better outcomes for local residents. In spotlighting gaps in governance transparency and providing deeper issue coverage, the County Chroniclers program has the potential to strengthen accountability journalism and support more watchdog reporting in New Jersey.
As the work grows, this kind of accountability reporting from the Vindicator and others in the state will provide a more comprehensive and accurate picture of what’s unfolding across New Jersey.
👋 Interested in participating?
Fill out the form at the bottom of this page on the Jersey Vindicator’s website.
Joe Amditis is assistant director of products and events at the Center for Cooperative Media. Contact him at amditisj@montclair.edu or on Twitter at @jsamditis.
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 support an informed society in New Jersey and beyond. The Center is supported with funding from Montclair State University, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Democracy Fund, the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, the Independence Public Media Foundation, Rita Allen Foundation, Inasmuch Foundation and John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. For more information, visit centerforcooperativemedia.org.
