Free Press Indiana - American Journalism Project

Free Press Indiana (formerly known as the Indiana Local News Initiative) is on a mission to ensure all residents of Indiana have the local news and information they want and need. Announced in February 2023, and soon to be launching its first newsroom, Mirror Indy, Free Press Indiana aims to fill information gaps, facilitate investments in journalism outlets around the state, and foster collaboration among Indiana outlets to close coverage gaps, share content and make more local journalism available to all Hoosiers who need it. The initiative receives support from a broad coalition of philanthropies.

The organization came together following a comprehensive statewide research study led by a steering committee of local journalism, community and business leaders, working together with a team of 27 community ambassadors representing a wide range of experiences and backgrounds across the state, and through text messaging and online surveys, interviews and focus groups, researchers heard from over 1,000 Hoosiers across 79 counties who said they needed more unbiased, fact-based information about their communities.

Free Press Indiana’s first local newsroom, Mirror Indy, will publish news and information for all Indianapolis residents for free, including hard-hitting accountability journalism, local arts and culture coverage, and innovative community journalism programs such as Documenters, which trains and pays residents to cover public meetings. Free Press Indiana also fosters collaboration among more than a dozen ecosystem partners, and facilitates investment in other outlets in the state, including Capital B Gary, a local newsroom of AJP grantee, Capital B, the Indianapolis Recorder, Indiana News Service, a bureau of Public News Service, and Franklin College’s TheStatehouseFile.com.

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“With these initial investments, we are adding some 30 local news jobs and hope to add many more. We’ll be working together with partners to amplify existing coverage, close coverage gaps and drastically increase the amount of unbiased original reporting in Indiana. Community and collaboration are the core of this initiative.”

Karen Ferguson Fuson, former publisher of the Indianapolis Star and Indiana Local News Initiative board chair

Leaders

Oseye Boyd

Editor-in-chief of Mirror Indy

Oseye Boyd joins Free Press Indiana following her role as the public engagement editor at the Indianapolis Star, where she spearheaded innovative efforts to center community perspectives in the newsroom. At IndyStar, Boyd launched the Black Community Advisory Council for Black residents and leaders to provide regular feedback on the Star’s coverage. She also created the podcast Voices of the Community, which highlights those working behind-the-scenes to make the city and state a better place. Boyd was formerly the editor in chief of the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper and Indiana Minority Business Magazine, where she led a team of reporters to produce several award-winning packages on issues impacting the city’s Black community. She has also worked as a reporter and editor at the Star Press in Muncie, and teaches journalism at the Eugene S. Pulliam School of Journalism and Creative Media at Butler University.
Bro Krift

CEO of Free Press Indiana

Bro Krift joins Free Press Indiana from his role as executive editor at the Indianapolis Star, which he joined in 2021. At IndyStar, Krift built relationships in the journalism community and across the city. While Krift was at the Star, reporters were recognized for their examination of Indiana’s red flag laws after a mass shooting in Indianapolis, a series that was honored as a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and the staff’s tenacious coverage of changing abortion laws. Prior to joining the Star, Krift led the Montgomery Advertiser, where the staff earned critical acclaim in 2018 for its unflinching examination of and apology for the role the newspaper played in proliferating white supremacy during the South’s lynching era.