Like the rest of the world, the journalism community has endured some big changes in 2023. Mostly that comes from the shrinking of newsrooms, including the layoff of some of the longest-serving and most well-respected reporters and back office staff at the Albuquerque Journal. But unlike some communities, reporters with great stories have another option in Albuquerque: our small but mighty independent outlet, The Paper.
Local reporters using The Paper. to tell their stories won more than a dozen local, state and national journalism awards in 2023 — including the National Presswomen’s Best In-Depth Reporting in the nation (Jon Sims on Missing, Murdered and Indigenous Women) and Best Local News Reporting (Gwynne Unruh, saving Elena Gallegos Open Space from development).
So we thought we’d ask them why having an independent outlet open to local journalists matters. Here’s what they said.
Jonathan Sims, Acoma Pueblo & Albuquerque
Jonathan Sims is documentary storyteller, columnist and assistant professor of film and digital arts at UNM-Valencia Campus. As an independent journalist publishing in The Paper, he won state and national awards for his coverage of Albuquerque’s Indian School legacy and writing on Native issues, including an ongoing series on Missing, Murdered and Indigenous Women and Families.
“Inclusion and media are two words that should go together like milk and cookies this holiday season. For centuries, our Tribal communities had systems to get information to the masses. In my culture, we had a town crier or community meetings.
Today we can get information to the public faster and more accurately than ever before, but alongside this potential lies a huge caveat. Small communities often get left out of this firehose approach to information.
I asked my students, a class of 32 young people if they consume local news. Of 32 students only 4 or 5 rose their hands. I asked where they get their news from. The vast majority said TikTok or “they saw a link in their feed.” This is the new norm across the country. The death of small-town news is a major issue. It is how we stay informed about the community around us.
Native communities are no different. But for many years the news that emerged from tribal communities was often told by outsiders. Local viewpoints and information were often lost in this process. It was never our own voices. Never our own opinions.
The work of Native journalists is important in this age where there is a plethora of content. Not only because we are stepping out of the shadows and into the mainstream of American society. But it is important because our people play major roles in the workings of the world around them. Our ancestors worked to hard for our generation to survive and succeed. Part of that is telling our own stories. Informing our own people and providing the “outside” world with an idea of the struggles we face, but even more the celebration of what it is to be a Native person in today’s world.
When you can tell your story. That is power. And that’s what we do, empower our community to have a voice. – Jon Sims
Tabitha Clay, New Mexico
Tabitha Clay’s independent reporting helped her become one of the most respected policing and justice reporters in the Southwest. Her series on abuses by the Rio Arriba County law enforcement helped to bring pressure for the indictment of Sheriff Tommy Rodella and others.
In 2021, she joined The Paper as a freelance contributor where she continued her dogged reporting as the first reporter to publish video from a fatal SWAT-caused fire that caused the death of a 15-year old in Albuquerque and investigations of abuse against Chavez County sheriff’s deputies.
Not every news outlet allows such hard-hitting looks at the real impact and issues of police, both from the side of the victim, and from the side of the police leaders. In fact, during my time at other news organizations, I was repeatedly told to “lay off” or stop looking at the illegal actions of certain law enforcement officials. Not so at The Paper. The leadership and team at The Paper. allowed me to follow the facts and report the stories as they happened, not as governmental or police leadership wanted them to be perceived.
There is not another newsroom in the state with the vast array of experience and the drive to uncover the real stories that impact New Mexicans every day. – Tabitha Clay