Santa Barbara News-Press seeks community feedback, part of $25,000 grant for Spanish-speaking listening sessions

As the Santa Barbara News-Press continues to seek community input about local news consumption, the news organization has been awarded a $25,000 community-listening grant.

The grant is provided by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, which provides advice and training for local news outlets, and the Google News Initiative, which gives financial backing to news providers. The News-Press joined 12 other news providers around the country receiving grants to launch projects to better listen to the needs of the communities they serve.

Among the News-Press’ community outreach efforts is a study that aims to understand whether residents have access to the news and information needed to navigate life in Santa Barbara County. The survey, which takes about five minutes to complete, can be taken in English here and in Spanish here. Residents across Santa Barbara County are encouraged to participate.

Tristan Loper, Lenfest’s head of national programs, said the grant “acknowledges that audience development now requires proactive, often offline engagement — showing up in person, investing in relationships, and building trust one conversation at a time.”

The News-Press’ grant is being used to host listening sessions and distribute Spanish-language surveys across Santa Barbara County. 

The focus is on majority Latino areas that may not have received the news coverage and attention afforded other parts of the county. Seeking out areas underserved by trusted news is a mission of NEWSWELL, which acquired the News-Press’ assets earlier this year. NEWSWELL is an arm of Arizona State University Media Enterprise, a nonprofit that aims to reimagine the future of news.

The results of the new listening sessions in Latino communities will be used to help formulate the News-Press’ editorial strategy, language accessibility and other key content decisions. They follow a previous round of more generalized listening sessions undertaken in late April and early May.

Those sessions gathered thoughts from Santa Barbara community leaders and residents about the news needs that can be fulfilled by the News-Press, the nearly century-old news operation relaunched two years after ceasing operations after a bankruptcy filing.

Participants in that first round of sessions indicated they want in-depth, explanatory and investigative news. They saw a clear path for the News-Press to provide coverage that can’t be found elsewhere in Santa Barbara County.

Among those joining in the earlier sessions was Patricia Solorio, associate director at the Fund for Santa Barbara. Solorio attended a listening session in Santa Maria, where she is a lifelong resident. She emphasized the need to listen to the Spanish-speaking community in gathering news as well as providing accurate and factual information to all Santa Barbara County residents.

In Santa Maria, it couldn’t be more important: Nearly 80% of the city’s population is Latino, and two-thirds speak a language other than English at home, according to U.S. Census data.

NEWSWELL conducted new listening sessions in North County communities in July. An online meeting via Zoom is scheduled for Sept. 3. Register for the event here.

Information gleaned from the listening sessions and the community survey will be released on Oct. 6, and NEWSWELL will schedule new community meetings to share those details.