Nonprofit newsrooms WLRN, Miami Fourth Estate to share news content

Two nonprofit newsrooms announced this week a partnership to better serve residents with timely, accurate, and essential news coverage in the Miami market.

Miami Fourth Estate, a nonprofit online news organization that launched in 2020, and WLRN, South Florida’s leading public broadcaster, said they will cross-publish news, photos, and audio content, and explore possible joint events which may include fundraising for each organization.

“We see this partnership as strengthening our mission of hyper-local news,” said Tony Winton, the president of Miami Fourth Estate and the editor-in-chief of the Key Biscayne Independent.

“With staffing cuts every day in commercial media, we are totally aligned with WLRN’s public service mission. We look forward to serving 34 towns in Miami-Dade County with the news residents want,” he said. “Nonprofit media, supported by readers and listeners, is the future of local journalism,” he added.

“We’re pleased to share content and resources, because we know local news matters,” said Sergio Bustos, WLRN’s vice president of news. “We know South Florida is hungry for compelling local stories reported by journalists with a stake in their cities.”

Bustos said there are many areas of overlap, including environmental and government accountability reporting.

The agreement means audiences who follow each organization will see more locally-produced content — expanding the impact and reach of each news organization’s reporting staff.

WLRN has already published two stories from the Key Biscayne Independent: Playing with Messi: A South Florida teen’s soccer dream comes true and Miami’s top cop shot himself. Mental health remains an issue for first responders. They highlight the hyperlocal reporting and insight that an experienced, community-focused newsroom can bring to WLRN’s readers.

Bustos and Winton are both news industry veterans who were colleagues at The Associated Press.

More recently, Bustos was an editor at the Miami Herald, Politico, and USA Today. Winton, based in Miami since 1990, worked in New York City before joining AP in Washington. He was also president of the News Media Guild, a labor union chosen by news workers at both English and Spanish-language news agencies.