Local News Bright Spot Award Nominees for March

Vote now to help us highlight an exceptional local news outlet

Each month, the Media and Democracy Project (MAD) gives a Local News Bright Spot Award to an outstanding outlet providing news coverage at the local or state levels. We ask our members to choose from those we nominate for this honor. So, please review our nominees and vote in the poll below.

For March, 2024, our nominees are the Kansas City Defender, the Austin Bulldog and the Maine Monitor.

The Kansas City Defender is a small but fierce outlet that dubs itself “The World’s Most Innovative Black News Start-up” and has been featured by the Nieman Journalism Lab. Representative stories include:

• Packed Chambers at KC Budget Hearings: Community Members Demand R.E.A.C.H Program and Transit Improvements

• A New Kansas City Ordinance Outlaws Sources of Income Discrimination and Allows Vouchers for Housing

The Austin Bulldog seeks to be trusted independent voice for government accountability. Founded in 2011, its focus is in-depth investigative journalism. Representative stories include:

• Six council members and numerous lobbyists appear to have criminally violated city’s lobby law

• First-ever opportunity to elect appraisal board members

State governments have an enormous impact on people’s lives but news coverage of them is often inadequate. The Maine Monitor, operated and published by the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, helps address that problem. Representative stories include:

• All Maine students can now get free lunches, no application needed. What does that mean for poverty data?

• Coastal towns, businesses contemplate whether to rebuild or retreat

We use a voting system called Score Voting. It has many of the advantages of Ranked Choice Voting and will be familiar if you’ve rated restaurants, books or podcasts. Please review the publications above and give each of these outlets a ranking: 5 stars being the highest. Note: you must be a subscriber to our substack to vote in these polls (subscription is free).

Thanks in advance for your valuable input.

Please add any observations you have or suggestions for outlets that should be added to our Local News Directory or nominated for future Bright Spot awards.