Public newspapers
The Corporation for Public Community Newspapers
CPCN pioneered the concept of public newspapers in 1996 - community news created collaboratively by local residents, promoting the individual potential necessary for self-governance and civic life.
CPCN has a long tradition of public service that includes operation of Western Montana's award-winning weekly community newspaper, the Clark Fork Chronicle.
This year, the Board voted unanimously to explore potential whistleblower reporting and support programs with Columbia River watershed and North American watershed partners. Whistleblowers may need financial resources to tide them over while our society's institutions are adjusting to their new truths. (Last year the Board added its regional Murrow Award-winning Whole Community News project during our Sept. 23 annual meeting.) CPCN currently supports six special projects:
Neighborhood Network News
As part of its 2020-2021 Neighborhood Network News initiative, CPCN supports citizen journalists tackling issues of interest in their Eugene, Oregon neighborhoods.
As part of this outreach, we will work with all Eugene neighborhood organizations and partner with local Eugene print, TV, radio, and social media outlets. We are starting our second year as partners with KEPW News.
News of the Future
The 1787 Constitution of the United States, established as the supreme law of the land at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, was a great innovation in its day. It represented Novus Ordo Seclorum, a new order of the ages,.
But since the Civil War amendments and the legal end of color caste slavery, we no longer need a Senate, House, Electoral College, or any of the "Great Compromise" legal machinery which has contributed to structural racism in our nation. Our social compact, as represented by our foundational documents, is due for an upgrade.
What might our new governance look like? What news would we the people need to effectively function as citizens under a second American Novus Ordo Seclorum, designed to respect and protect all human beings, species, and the planet?
Journo Duty
We summon you...to Journo Duty! At CPCN we view journalism as both product and process.
Beyond the product of published news stories, the process of journalism creates better, more informed citizens and improves our capacity for self-governance.
The quick-paced and highly-structured "Journo Duty" program summons citizens to perform their civic duty as citizen journalists for a day. Journos are asked to identify the most important story in their community not being told; experienced journalists help the journo produce that story, and at the end the team discusses the entire process.
Whole Community Preparedness
Many victims of the Camp Fire were overtaken in their stopped cars as they tried to evacuate from Paradise, California. With drought, wildfire, extreme weather, and the periodic Cascadia Subduction Zone event threatening millions of residents of the Pacific Northwest, we promote a comprehensive Exercise and Evaluation Plan to help nearby neighbors practice watching out for one another in disasters.
Street News
This project seeks to increase reporting on issues facing human beings during the climate change refugee crisis of the 2020s, with an emphasis on our new neighbors in Eugene Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.
Support for Whistleblowers
This project seeks to demonstrate the need to support government and corporate whistleblowers. Based on our interview with Northwest Natural Gas whistleblower Gary Dye, we learned that whistleblowers often face strategic lawsuits and other economic pressures from powerful institutions. This project reports on local whistleblowers and their treatment by former colleagues, and looks to partner with other journalism organizations to create a Whistleblower Support Fund.