NY Nonprofit Buys Investigative Public Policy Pub City Limits

The nonprofit Community Service Society of New York is launching a journalism experiment, by buying investigative public policy publication City Limits for $200,000.

CSS plans to retain the title’s current staff and name, and will invest $1 million into it, in the hopes of spinning it off into an independent publication within six months, Crain’s reports.

CSS’s vice president of government relations and public affairs, Walter Fields, will be taking over the role of publisher, and he plans to immediately revamp the magazine’s Web site and increase the print pub’s frequency to eight times a year up from four. The magazine will also be available on newsstands.

Recently, a slew of nonprofit investigative news outlets have taken root, from The Huffington Post‘s new venture to The Texas Tribune. Following this nonprofit model, and backed by a powerful nonprofit group, City Limits has the chance to add to the discourse in New York City in a positive way. But CSS president David Jones promises the pub will act independently, albeit with a clear mission:

“Clearly the news environment in New York City has changed dramatically. The discussion on many of the things we work on — poverty, the working poor and moderate income people — doesn’t get much space in mainstream media.”

NYC nonprofit takes on journalism assignment –Crain’s New York Business

Related: HuffPo Launching Nonprofit Investigative Journalism Venture

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