Today marks the launch of The Columbia Paper Journalism Fund, a partnership with Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation to support local reporting. The fund will enable individual donors and funders to make tax-deductible contributions to support coverage of education, economic development, the arts, the environment and health care, in print and online, by this critical news source.

The goal of the fund is to secure permanent charitable resources to sustain and expand reporting that contributes to the civic, cultural and economic vibrancy of Columbia County.

Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation will serve as fiscal sponsor for this effort, receiving contributions from the public and administering the funds to ensure they are used for the intended purpose. This is one of several projects in the region for which Berkshire Taconic serves in this sponsorship role.

For 12 years, The Columbia Paper has provided high-quality, objective coverage of the issues most important to the county’s residents, helping bring transparency and clarity to the work of public and private actors. Reporting by the paper helps hold authorities to account, empowers communities by reflecting their experience and encouraging participation in civic life, and shines a spotlight on emerging topics.

“With democracy under threat, helping to preserve local institutions like a free press is one way Berkshire Taconic can contribute to strengthening our communities,” said Peter Taylor, president of Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. “The Columbia Paper’s coverage of the local communities it serves is well-aligned with the foundation’s strategic priorities – community engagement, educational attainment and economic opportunity – and our values of achieving impact and inspiring generosity.”

The Columbia Paper will maintain editorial control over content produced with resources from the fund. Contributors and funders will not have any input into the reporting of stories or specific content that will be produced using the fund. Funders won’t be aware of specific stories The Columbia Paper is working on, and will not review them before publication nor have special access to reporters. Readers will always know who funders are based on updates to the paper’s website.

“We are pleased to invite individual supporters and other funders to help us sustain and expand our local reporting,” said Parry Teasdale, editor and publisher of The Columbia Paper. “As our business model evolves, we look to new partnerships to help us serve local communities with news and information that would otherwise not be available to them.”

To learn more, visit columbiapaper.com. To support this work, donors may contact Kara Mikulich, Chief Philanthropy Officer, at kmikulich@berkshiretaconic.org or make a donation through our website.