Latino Communities Reporting Lab Launched by Meriden Record-Journal

The RJ Media Group, publisher of the Meriden Record-Journal newspaper, has launched a Latino Communities Reporting Lab in partnership with the Meriden-Wallingford Community Foundation.  The initiative grew out of conversations with community stakeholders and those who participated in a  listening tour conducted in Meriden and surrounding communities within the paper’s circulation area during the last five months.

The listening tour included 82 conversations, four focus groups and 51 survey responses, according to the paper.  The Record-Journal covers communities in Central Connecticut, including Meriden, Wallingford, Southington, Cheshire, Berlin, North Haven, Durham, Middlefield and Plainville.

In a letter distributed by email this week and published when the initiative began in March, Publisher and Executive Vice President Liz White Notarangelo explained that “As a 154-year-old family-owned company, we feel this is essential to continuing our mission in our local community, where Latinos represent 29.1% of Meriden’s total population, including 58.2% of Meriden students. In Wallingford, Latinos make up 8% of the total population, including 19.6% of Wallingford students.” White Notarangelo is the fifth generation of the White family to serve as publisher, a role she has held since January 2020.

The immediate goal of the Latino Communities Reporting Lab, according to White, is to build a team of five bilingual journalists, including three reporters, one photographer/videographer and one editor, who will be representative of the Latino communities. The first of those positions was filled in February, with the hiring of a bilingual reporter.

“Educators, business people, medical professionals, politicians and government officials told us that Latinos face inequities in all areas, from education to health to business. And that information is often inaccessible or is not available in Spanish, making navigating everyday life much more difficult,” White pointed out, in discussing the motivation behind the new initiative. 

Beyond that, she emphasized, “Nonprofits leaders, church leaders and community members encouraged us not to treat the Latino community as a monolith, but rather to share the rich culture, traditions, customs and events from their various home countries. They asked us for journalists who are representative of the Latino community and are bilingual, so more trust can be built.”

The communication to the community also highlighted that “During our listening tour, Maria Campos-Harlow, executive director of the United Way of Meriden and Wallingford, told us that there are so many success stories of local Latinos to be highlighted.”  A longer communication, on the newspaper’s website, also noted the declining circulation of newspapers in Connecticut and nationwide, and the importance of efforts to better connect with local residents.

White also noted that “Miguel Cardona, our new U.S. Secretary of Education, encouraged us to partner with the schools, amplify youth voices and engage with parents to provide information and resources that they need. He recommended we communicate the positive things happening in schools, but not shy away from the difficult challenges, such as the achievement gap.” Cardona, a Meriden resident, is a former State Education Commissioner and Meriden school principal and teacher.

The reporting as part of the new initiative has already begun, and stories appear under the “Latino News” tab on the website’s navigation bar.  Among the statistics that have appeared in initial stories highlighting members of the community and the imperative behind the initiative are these:

·         While the population of Meriden has remained relatively constant over the last three decades, Latino residents now represent close to one-third of the city’s population, compared to about 8% in 1980.

·         According to enrollment data reported by the State Department of Education, in the current school year, 142,552, or close to 28%, of the 513,079 pre-kindergarten to grade 12 students enrolled in Connecticut public schools identify as Hispanic or Latino. By comparison, in the 2007-2008 school year, 96,127 of the state’s then-student population of 574,848 students identified as Hispanic or Latino, a 16.7% share.

The Record-Journal previously published a Spanish language weekly newspaper, Tiempo, which began in the 1990’s and was discontinued in recent years. 

To financially support the initiative, RJ Media Group is seeking to raise $50,000 in 50 days, to fund a second bilingual reporter for the Latino Communities Reporting Lab and to provide expanded local journalism.  The email communication outlining the new initiative was send in both English and Spanish.