The Media and kahokamedia.com have been selected to receive funds from Google’s Journalism Emergency Relief Fund.
“Thank you for applying to Google News Initiative’s Journalism Emergency Relief Fund (JERF). We received over 12,000 applications from more than 100 eligible countries and we are happy to confirm that your application … has been approved to receive (funds) from the JERF, in our first wave of announcement,” an email received this week read.
The Fund’s aim is to support the production of original journalism for local communities in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. More information on Google’s JERF fund can be found at https://newsinitiative.withgoogle.com/journalism-emergency-relief-fund.
“We’re excited and honored to receive this funding,” said NEMOnews Media Group publisher Mike Scott. “With so many businesses temporarily closed, it has been a challenging couple of months for all newspapers. Many of the readers we serve are older, or don’t have reliable internet access, so the newspaper remains an important way to provide them with the information they need in this uncertain time.”
Over the past few months, The Media and other NEMOnews Media Group newspapers and websites have published numerous COVID-19 impact stories, such as the “How To Re-Open?” story in this issue.
We have also produced many Facebook Live interviews with public health officials to keep our readers up to date with the COVID-19 situation.
