Engaging Journeys, Engaged Journalism

We Have Arrived!

Up the Road has received its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.

And now we need your help to get farther up the road.

We’ve been doing our part, including:

  • Steadily “growing” our Board of Directors, now chaired by John Merz, co-founder of Northern California’s immensely successful Snow Goose Festival and recently retired CEO of the Sacramento River Preservation Trust;
  • Joining the Investigative News Network (application pending) and the company of the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Center for Public Integrity, Mother Jones, National Public Radio, ProPublica, and 80-plus other nonprofit U.S. media organizations;
  • Developing Up the Road’s new, more dynamic website, a magazine format accessible on cell phones and tablets as well as online; and
  • Working to become self-sustaining within five years, and finalizing our “action plan” to make that happen.

Our new, fast-paced, and absolutely free online publishing program will begin in August, building upon Up the Road’s previous experience and experiments.

Every Tuesday Up the Road This Week will deliver one or more installments of ongoing investigations, narratives, and essays on topics such as California water, the future of farming in Northern California, and the sustainability of the state of Jefferson.

Then every Thursday comes Up the Road This Weekend, serving up regional travel and on-the-road educational adventures and events—building on the regional travel information first published in Up the Road Editor Kim Weir’s popular and pioneering Northern California Handbook, first published by Moon Publications.

Why Up the Road?

Because there’s a need for serious journalism in Northern California.

At a time when we need well-informed,  engaged citizens, both mainstream and “alternative” news media are in decline. According to the Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project, since 2001 about one-third of newsroom jobs have disappeared in the U.S. Most cuts have come from specialty beats such as science and the arts and from statehouse and regional/local government coverage. Cable news audiences are declining. Local TV news is holding its own, the Pew Center says, but story lengths continue to shrink and sports, weather, and traffic make up 40 percent of broadcasts. The trend in magazines, even in most digital media, is toward opinion journalism. Is there any shortage of opinion, these days, in any medium?

Who will provide the thoughtful analysis and sneakers-on-the-ground reporting that’s needed, to fully explore the issues facing our communities and to explain complex policy
questions?

In Northern California that would be Up the Road, with help from its community and media partners.

People. Place. Priorities.

Up the Road is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public interest media project focused on the economy, the environment, and social equity issues in Northern California. Its primary focus is in-depth journalism.

But because life in Northern California isn’t all about the tough stuff, Up the Road also offers engaging information to encourage regional travel and adventure, thanks to editor Kim Weir’s background as a professional travel writer. Author of the first and original Northern California Handbook and six other Moon travel guides, Weir has been a member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) since 1991.

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