Our Core Beliefs
Our core belief is that humanity, though complex, is built to overcome the barriers placed before it.
Since the social media boom, the decline of the free press at both national and local levels is beyond obvious. Ask any local mayor or sitting councilmember.
Why?
There is little financial incentive to cover the day-to-day details of local government, even though these are often the very decisions that affect how taxpayer money is spent.
There is also no reason local journalists cannot attend public meetings, particularly when many of those meetings are easily accessible on YouTube. Yet too often, they remain uncovered.
OpGov.News was created around a simple idea: engage the people who attend these meetings, speak up, and actively participate in their communities
Community Based
Our journalists are based in the communities they cover, allowing them to be present, accessible, and responsive to local concerns. Many of them regularly attend public meetings taking place within their communities.
Most of our stories are developed through direct engagement with local residents and by seeking multiple perspectives. All journalists also attend our weekly editorial meetings, where community members can raise concerns, identify issues, and suggest matters that require further attention.
In addition to fact-checking, OpGov.News reporters investigate residents’ concerns and public outcry, bringing greater attention to matters that are often overlooked.
Unbiased by Structure
Open governance is exactly that: members of the public taking to the podium and working with elected officials to improve the cities in which they live. The problem is that these residents often receive little or no media coverage.
Even members of the press, whose role is to question power, may struggle to cover these issues, particularly when their financial survival depends on support from large corporations. That is why we have chosen a different model.
OpGov.News is not a mouthpiece for any single entity, organization, or political party. We have established a firm annual contribution limit of $2,500 per entity.
Independent of Parties
At the heart of OpGov.News is a belief in independent thinking.
Most of our coverage focuses on local, nonpartisan issues, reflecting the nature of many local elections and community discussions.
Open by Design
If we ask others to be open, we must be open first.
Because all of our content is manually submitted, reviewed, researched, and published, our editors write on topics of local interest citing sources wherever possible.
They regularly engage with local leadership and the press, and they are encouraged to be bold and to question authority.
Our editors are local and accessible, with their contact information public.
Checks and Balances by Design
Our sustaining members drive this grassroots initiative, where they attend the weekly editorial meetings and shape coverage within the community.
This structure creates an additional system of checks and balances by ensuring that reporters remain accountable to the community members they serve.
We strongly encourage residents to become sustaining members. Their support helps ensure that OpGov.News remains independent and is not reliant on advertisers.
In addition, sustaining members may publish one opinion piece per month in our print edition. This opportunity is limited to the first 35 sustaining members in each city.
Feedback Based:
We welcome and value community feedback.
Feel free to contact me at chirag@lead4earth.org
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