For years, Les High—publisher of The News Reporter in Whiteville, North Carolina—has been concerned about the state of local journalism in his part of the state. "You look at high-poverty, rural areas like ours,” on the state’s Southeast border, "and newspapers just don’t have the capacity to do the type of investigative and in-depth reporting that we need to do and people deserve,” High said. To address the gap in enterprise coverage and support the local newspapers that remain in his four-county region, High founded the Border Belt Reporting Center, an investigative nonprofit. The center aims to finance hyper-local investigations and in-depth reporting, and provide it to local outlets for free. Stories will also run on the nonprofit’s website. “We’ve drawn a very clear line,” High says. “We’re not competitors; we’re partners.”
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