Courier Launches New Digital-First Bilingual Newsroom in Nevada
Ninth state-based outlet in COURIER Newsroom’s pro-democracy news network
NEVADA — Today, COURIER Newsroom, a pro-democracy digital news network founded to combat disinformation and strengthen democracy, is announcing the launch of a newsroom in Nevada, its ninth newsroom nationally. The Nevadan – El Nevadense will be a completely bilingual English-Spanish outlet.
COURIER’s network of local newsrooms is dedicated to providing honest, relevant news and stories to the communities we report from on the platforms readers spend their time — TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. Nevada is the ninth newsroom in the COURIER network, following Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
ABOUT THE NEVADAN – EL NEVADENSE
Launching as a bilingual outlet and committed to producing digitally-native Spanish-first reporting, El Nevadense – The Nevadan, is launching at a time when too many Nevadans find themselves left behind by mainstream media companies — folks who have to fend off the threats of disinformation, misinformation, and “both-sidesism” on their own.
Newsrooms in the COURIER network produce reporting for the social media platforms, like TIkTok and Instagram, where its audiences spend their time, with an emphasis on video, graphics, and skimmable newsletters to inform and engage audiences in the ways they consume information today.
The Nevadan – El Nevadense launches under the in-state, on-the-ground leadership of Emilia Pablo Bazan, a graduate of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. Emilia has over 15 years of experience working as a journalist in broadcast television — she has worked for PBS Frontline World, as a Dateline NBC fellow, and later for Telemundo Las Vegas and Univision Nevada. She founded the first trilingual television and radio program in the Silver State, the place she has called home since 2006.
Frank Alejandre, an experienced local journalist who has worked for El Mundo Newspaper and the Las Vegas Review Journal en Español, will join The Nevadan – El Nevadense as its first Community Editor. He has worked as a journalist in Las Vegas for over 30 years. He is a graduate from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). A resident of Las Vegas for 33 years. His passion is giving a voice to the voiceless.
THE COURIER MODEL
As part of the COURIER network, The Nevadan – El Nevadense is committed to serving passive news consumers in communities across the Battle Born state.
The Nevadan – El Nevadense will never use a paywall to gate-keep content.
The Nevadan – El Nevadense is built on four years of learnings from across the COURIER network, which means its leaders understand how best to welcome and engage folks who get their news by scrolling on social media.
When Americans in COURIER’s audience are exposed to its reporting, they’re more likely to become active participants in democracy. In fact, COURIER believes so deeply that its model works, that it boosts its reporting through social media ads around salient moments to ensure could-be voters are informed via incidental exposure to good information.
Through community-based and human-centered factual, relevant reporting, COURIER reaches its target audience with a balance of the community content they’re searching for — like where to go hiking or the best coffee shops in Reno — and the civic-oriented reporting they need, to be more active participants in American democracy.
Unique to COURIER is its Content Organizing program, which was designed to deepen relationships and amplify the voices of values-aligned and grassroots organizations on the ground; and, to dramatically scale its content’s organic reach. COURIER organizers are community-focused and dedicated to ensuring each state newsroom is value-added and infrastructure strengthening; helping ensure essential information has a surround-sound impact.
VALUE-BASED JOURNALISM
As a civic news organization, COURIER’s journalists will focus their reporting around efforts to strengthen communities, rebuild struggling economies, expand access to health care and child care, address the climate crisis, and reduce inequality in all forms — and covering the leaders championing those efforts. The Nevadan – El Nevadense will be relentless in its coverage of attempts or actions to undermine democratic institutions, especially voting rights, and ballot access; and, we will make a special effort to report on public actors who are advancing those efforts.
HOW WE’RE FUNDED
Courier Newsroom is a public benefit corporation owned by Good Information Inc., and supported by a variety of funding sources, including reader contributions, sponsors, and philanthropic and corporate underwriting.
Editorial independence is a core tenet of our work and we maintain an editorial firewall between our funding sources and newsrooms that ensures that our underwriters would never influence our journalism.
“A MEDIA POWERHOUSE FOR THE LEFT” – WIRED
Columbia Journalism Review: “The ‘Gander, like Courier’s other seven newsrooms, avoids what’s called ‘bothsidesism.’ The basic idea being that there’s a tendency in journalism to represent both sides of an argument, which presents things as equal, although they might not be.”
Washington Post: “[COURIER] has gone to extensive lengths to try to earn journalistic credibility. McGowan has gone to extensive lengths to try to earn journalistic credibility for her newsrooms, which publish on sites with names like UpNorthNews in Wisconsin and The Gander in Michigan. Their coverage is far broader than just election news…”
WIRED Magazine: “The best antidote to disinformation,” McGowan says, “is increasing the volume of good, factual information” in the places where low-quality information is spreading.”
FROM EMILIA PABLO BAZAN
“Having called Nevada home for the last 18 years, I know first hand the need for community-based, factual, trusted reporting both in English but also for a rapidly growing population of Spanish-speaking Nevadans,” said Pablo Bazan. “I am honored to pioneer this new project in the Silver State. It is exciting and fills me with joy to work hard on a daily basis for a multicultural community that urgently seeks a variety of information — from the best places to eat to resources offered by their government.”
FROM THE PUBLISHER
“Around the country today, local newsrooms are collapsing — corporate media giants are buying up local outlets, laying off staff, and shuttering operations,” said COURIER’s Founder and Publisher, Tara McGowan. “Their collapse means a gap in good, quality, trusted journalism from trusted sources. At COURIER’s we’re filling that gap and reimagining what local news from local voices look like. By delivering our audience reporting they need on topics they care about, we’re strengthening their ties to the community and encouraging folks to take a more active role in our democracy. We believe newsrooms have an obligation to preserve, protect, and defend American democracy and we’re thrilled to bring that mission to Nevada.”
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