Overview
The Riverside Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, community news outlet serving Riverside County by providing free digital news coverage.
Dear Reader,
When I first announced this project last November, I had no idea the amount of time I would spend filling out paperwork, making phone calls, applying for support and funding, answering questions and trying to figure out the business side of an industry that is so deeply meaningful to me.
Now that we’re preparing to launch, I wanted to take a minute to answer some questions you might have about The Riverside Record.
1. What is The Riverside Record?
The Riverside Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, community news outlet serving Riverside County by providing free digital news coverage. While we’re ramping up slowly, we aim to eventually provide hyperlocal coverage throughout the county that will include public meetings, new developments, community events and more.
Ultimately, I want RiversideRecord.org to become the place where you go to find out what’s happening in your community.
2. Who is behind The Riverside Record?
I am the founder, CEO and publisher of The Riverside Record. I got my start as a journalist in rural South Texas working for a trio of community news outlets. I then worked at the Chicago Tribune as a designer and eventually landed at CBS Los Angeles as a web producer. You can read more about me here.
Our board is made up of myself, Christina Bellantoni and Gabriel Kahn. I got to know the founding members of our board while serving as a leadership fellow at the USC Annenberg Media Center. Read more about Bellantoni and Kahn here.
Our funders are folks like you who believe in the importance of local news. You can join them here.
3. When will The Riverside Record start publishing stories?
Right now! This is the first story published by The Riverside Record, and additional coverage will be published in the coming days. It’s just me right now, so we can’t cover everything, but we’ll soon be ramping up coverage and would love to hear from you about the stories you want covered!
So if you’ve got an idea, send me an email at Alicia.Ramirez@RiversideRecord.org, DM us on Twitter or say hello when you see me out and about!
4. Where does The Riverside Record get story ideas from?
From you, the folks who live and work in Riverside County. You’ll see in our initial coverage that we get a lot of information from officials — elected and otherwise — that we then double-check to ensure its accuracy. As we continue to grow, more and more of our coverage will be dictated by you, the reader, as you let us know what’s most important to you and your community.
One of my goals with this news outlet is to bring the community into the reporting process, not only as consumers, but as active participants telling the stories of their communities.
5. Why Riverside County?
Everybody deserves to see themselves reflected in the media they consume. It’s hard to dream big when you don’t get to see stories of success from people you can relate to; it’s hard to trace your history when there is little to no record of it; and it’s hard to have pride in your community when you don’t see that positive representation.
And as someone who worked for CBS Los Angeles, it became clear to me that folks living and working in Riverside County — especially in the smaller communities — aren’t getting the news coverage they deserve. So, after doing my due diligence, I decided to launch in Riverside County with the hopes of expanding into San Bernardino County in the future.
6. How can I get involved?
If you’ve got a story you want us to cover or a news tip you’d like to share, you can fill out this form here.
You can also find me out and about in the community. Be sure to follow The Riverside Record on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for upcoming “office hours.” I’ll be at a coffee shop in the community ready to meet with you!
If you want to work for The Riverside Record, keep an eye out. We’ll post all of our job and internship openings on the website and also promote them on our social media channels.
If you’re interested in becoming a freelance writer or photographer, send me an email and be sure to include some samples of your work. I’ll get back to you as soon as we have a budget to hire folks at competitive rates.
If you want to support us and our work, the best way is to donate. For the next month, you can become a founding member by donating as little as $100. In the coming weeks, we’ll launch our membership program that allows you to support us and our work by donating on a recurring basis, and we hope you will. If you’re unable to donate at this time, following and promoting our work on social media is another great way to support us!
I’m so excited to get started on this journey with you, our readers, and I look forward to hearing from all of you about what we’re doing well, what we can do better and how we can best serve you.
Sincerely,
Alicia Ramirez
Publisher, The Riverside Record
Founder and CEO, Inland Empire Publications
