2024 New Mexico Local News Symposium

There is a crisis in local news in New Mexico and throughout the country, with more "news deserts" and towns with ghost newspapers with no employees living in the community. But there are also bright spots, with a growing number of nonprofit news outlets, more collaboration among newsrooms and growing philanthropic and government support. The New Mexico Local News Symposium will bring together news publishers, journalists, funders, policy-makers and more interested parties to discuss ways we can strengthen the news ecosystem and support democracy. We will also discuss the recent national, state and local elections.

Come prepared to listen, think, contribute, interact and connect with other attendees as we consider ways to support local news outlets throughout the state. This event will be a kick-off and fundraiser for the new chapter, a coalition of local funders that aims to strengthen local news in the state. Press Forward New Mexico is co-led by the Thornburg Foundation and New Mexico Local News Fund.

Agenda

2 pm: Welcome from Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber & Rashad Mahmood, New Mexico Local News Fund

2:10 pm: Keynote Conversation between Brian Stelter, CNN chief media analyst and Jessica Garate, KRQE News 13 anchor

3 pm: Panel discussion: "What's the State of Local News in New Mexico?"

Moderator: Rashad Mahmood, New Mexico Local News

Panelists: Jarel LaPan Hill, Thornburg Foundation; Mikayla Ortega, Questa Del Rio News

4 to 6 pm: Reception with appetizers and drinks.

To learn more about the event, or to sponsor the event, please contact Mark Glaser at the New Mexico Local News Fund at [email protected].

Brain Stelter is the chief media analyst for CNN Worldwide and the lead author of the Reliable Sources newsletter. He is also the host of Vanity Fair’s weekly podcast Inside the Hive. He is the author of three books, most recently “Network of Lies,” which examined Dominion’s blockbuster defamation case against Fox News. Stelter began his career in 2004 by creating the TVNewser blog while he was a freshman at Towson University. In 2007, he joined The New York Times as a media reporter and helmed the Media Decoder blog. In 2013, he published The New York Times best-seller “Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV,” about the competitive world of morning news shows. He is a producer on the Apple TV+ series “The Morning Show,” which is inspired by the book.

From 2013 until 2022, Stelter was the anchor of CNN’s Sunday morning media analysis program “Reliable Sources” and a correspondent on the network. Stelter is a recipient of the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism and a two-time recipient of the Bart Richards Award for Media Criticism.

Jessica Garate, KRQE News 13 Anchor, has been covering New Mexico news for over 19 years. Jessica grew up in west Texas and Wyoming and is a graduate of the University of Wyoming, where she earned a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Last year she won her second Emmy Award for covering the kidnapping and M**der of a Farmington woman. Her first Emmy was awarded for her coverage of the death of University of Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard. Jessica was named a 2021 Woman of Influence by Albuquerque Business First, and she has won numerous awards from the Texas Associated Press, Wyoming Association of Broadcasters, and the New Mexico Broadcasting Association.

Rashad Mahmood works to support local journalism in New Mexico as the Executive Director of the New Mexico Local News Fund. His focus is on local news equity, ensuring that people and communities all over the state have access to the news and information they need. Before coming to New Mexico a decade ago, he worked in international development in Washington DC, Egypt and Iraq. He has worked in print, online and radio journalism. In New Mexico he worked for the youth media organization Generation Justice and KUNM public radio.

Jarel LaPan Hill is the Good Government Reform Policy Officer at the Thornburg Foundation. She most recently worked for the City of Santa Fe, including two years as City Manager. In that role, she oversaw the entirety of city operations with a focus on transforming the organization into a better-managed and efficient operation. Jarel served in the Obama Administration for two terms as Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. At HHS she developed a keen understanding of the nature of internal organizational management especially as it relates to developing programs and initiatives. Jarel has a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and, most recently, completed the Master in Public Leadership program from the University of Texas at Austin. Jarel grew up in Santa Fe and is happy to be back home raising her family.

Host or Publisher New Mexico Local News Fund