At PublicSource, our mission highlights producing journalism rooted in transparency. In reality, we extend our pursuit of transparency beyond our journalism to the way that we execute the work of our nonprofit news organization.
To that aim, we would like to share information about our sponsorship program with you, our readers. You may have noticed that we’ve recently shared sponsorship messages from some organizations that support our mission.
These messages have come in our PublicSource roundup email newsletter, the occasional email and recently, publication of sponsored content.
We made the decision to accept sponsorships for several reasons:
PublicSource is financially supported by over 20 different local and national philanthropic funders as well as over 1,100 individual readers, who we refer to as our members. We’ve worked hard over the last six years to build a diverse base of support that means we’re truly independent from any single source of funding. Accepting sponsorships is another revenue stream that allows us to continue to diversify our funding and grow our team to continue to cover the untold stories of Pittsburgh.
Additionally, we hear from our readers all the time that they wish more people knew about PublicSource. Building relationships with local organizations is one way to help us get the word out about our work while helping other organizations get the word out about theirs. We are working to build mutually beneficial relationships that will help supporters of a variety of organizations learn more about assets in our community.
We want you to be aware that we have established standards for sponsorship, including:
- Sponsors do not influence our editorial coverage. Sponsors work with members of PublicSource’s business partnerships team. If a sponsor has an idea for editorial coverage, we request that they personally reach out to the PublicSource editors to discuss their idea in the same way anyone would contact them. The business partnerships team does not facilitate editorial relationships.
- All sponsorships are clearly marked as such.
- Our staff reporters do not produce sponsored content and are not involved in the process of creating this content. Our editors may help to edit an advertisement or piece of featured content to adhere to PublicSource standards, but content comes from the advertiser or a freelance content creator.
- We are offering free media sponsorships to local nonprofits who aren’t able to afford to pay for our services. We see this as aligned with our mission and a way of giving back to the community.
If you see a sponsorship that is of interest to you, please consider learning more and supporting the organizations that are working with PublicSource. This is a way that you can support us outside of your membership and your readership, and we greatly appreciate your consideration for these organizations.
And, if you’re affiliated with a local business or organization that would find value in partnering with PublicSource, please drop a note to Tim Anderson, our business partnerships coordinator, at tim@publicsource.org.
The sponsors, members and foundations who value independent local journalism are the reason we continue to stay free and available to the public. Thank you for helping us continue to be Pittsburgh’s essential public source.
