Rural papers, Nevada Independent to share news

The Nevada Independent, which says it aims to "change the face of journalism in Nevada and establish new paradigms for nonprofit, community-supported news organizations," says it has agreed with several rural newspapers to share content at no charge.

"We want to be a statewide news organization, and we have not forgotten about the 15 counties between the two urban areas. In fact, we will be sending a couple of reporters on a trip through rural Nevada very soon," writes leading Nevada political reporter and commentator Jon Ralston, who founded the site.

The main agreement is with Battle Born Media, "which includes Mesquite Local News, The Ely Times, The Eureka Sentinel, The Lincoln County Record, The Mineral County Independent-News, and The Sparks Tribune," Ralston reports.

"We are proud to have our content published in these fine news organizations and glad that they see value in what we are doing," Ralston writes. "We are also very happy to provide rural readers with direct access to our content, and we hope they will click through to TheIndy to read our other content. We also welcome op-eds from rural readers, and we hope readers there will provide us with story ideas and tips, too."

Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, publisher of The Rural Blog, saluted the partnership. "We believe that most readers of rural newspapers don't read a newspaper daily, or a daily newspaper, period," he said. "We think rural papers should remember that their readers are also citizens of the state and nation, and need better information that they are likely to get from television, and certainly from social media."