Collaboration among independent news organizations enriches the content we offer to our audiences as long as there is a will to act towards a common objective and it is based on trust and transparency.
By La Verdad Juárez
La Verdad Juárez announces the conclusion of their participation with Puente News Collaborative, a cross-border binational and bilingual journalistic alliance funded in 2021 at the El Paso, Texas, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua border.
For over three years, this partnership brought us closer to six El Paso newsrooms: ABC 7, El Paso Inc., El Paso Matters, El Paso Times, Univisión 26, and KTEP, as well as UTEP’s multimedia journalism program.
The pilot program and unprecedented initiative to cover both sides of the United States—Mexico border was made possible thanks to Microsoft’s financial support, which was part of its efforts to protect local journalism and newsrooms.
The financial support flowed through the El Paso Community Foundation (EPCF), which served as the receiving point and administrator of Microsoft donations for the newsrooms.
However, since February of this year, EPCF has used the initiative’s name to promote a different journalistic project on the border with an alternative editorial structure to that created by the initiative’s founding partners.
La Verdad Juárez, a founding partner of the collaboration, was not informed in advance that Puente News Collaborative would be used as a new EPCF program with different objectives and that it would seek journalistic funding based on the merit and achievements that are a product of the cross-border and binational collaboration.
La Verdad is a media outlet that privileges its journalistic independence and editorial freedom above any other interest, which is why it was decided to make public the decision to end the collaboration with Puente News Collaborative.
We thank Microsoft for propelling Puente News Collaborative, the first cross-border journalism platform on the U.S.-Mexico border, and for supporting local and independent news organizations, who, in the midst of a growing industry crisis, continue striving to preserve and protect journalism.
We also thank the newsroom partners of El Paso Matters, ABC 7, El Paso Inc., El Paso Times, Univision 26, and KTEP, as well as UTEP’s multimedia journalism program for their support. We reiterate that they have an ally in La Verdad Juárez.
Together, we produced news and stories about the U.S.-Mexico border in English and Spanish, making border issues resonate both regionally and nationally in our countries.
Independent journalistic collaboration enriches the content we offer to our audiences as long as there is a will to act towards a common objective and it is based on trust and transparency.
Check out the content produced with Puente News Collaborative by El Paso and Ciudad Juárez newsrooms here.
