New Haven Independent

That's what this web site is about: A five-day-a-week report on news about the City of New Haven, Connecticut, produced by veteran local journalists, and by you.

New Haven Independent.org is rooted in and devoted to the city. We believe that democracy starts at home, with smart, thorough, in-depth local news reporting and broad citizen debate about local issues. Thanks to the Internet, journalists and news-deprived citizens need no longer be hostages to out-of-state media conglomerates. We can reclaim our communities. Power of the press now belongs not to those who own one, but to those who own a modem.

We own a modem.

As a matter of fact, you don't even need a modem anymore.

New Haven Independent.org is produced in conjunction with the Online Journalism Project, a not-for-profit effort to promote professional-quality "stand-alone" and "hyperlocal" news sites on the Internet. Our main financial sponsors are listed on the right-hand column of the homepage and most inside pages. This site relies on three sources of revenue: grants from foundations to support specific areas of reporting, such as health care, similar to the way that National Public Radio obtains charitable grants to support independent reporting; general ongoing sponsorship grants from institutions; and donations from readers. The reporting on this site is, as the name says, "independent." All financial contributions to the site come with the understanding that contributors will not determine (or have any responsibility for) the articles produced on the site. (Feel free to contact us with further questions about the site's financial support.)

New Haven Independent.org features daily reports on news about New Haven neighborhoods, government, politics, criminal justice, schools, business, arts and culture. It links readers to other websites with information about New Haven. It also links readers to the good work produced by surviving reporters at other New Haven newspapers and TV and radio stations.

And it depends on your contributions. Please send us photos and news tips. Add your comments at the end of articles. (One rule: Be civil.) Let us know what you like--and don't like. Tell others about us (preferably by sending them e-mail messages with the link to the site). And sharpen that red pencil, to inform us of misspellings, typos and other errors. We'll keep track of who catches the most mistakes and give out periodic Independent coffee mugs to the winners. (Sites like ours can't afford proofreaders.)

Finally, you can pitch in your pennies to the cause of independent, not-for-profit local journalism. You can read everything on this site for free. But it does take money to produce. If you feel like making an ongoing tax-deductible contribution to New Haven Independent.org, click here.

The Independent shares some articles with New Haven-based La Voz Hispana, the state's largest-circulation Spanish language newspaper.

Read About The Independent In The News

Made in India, but Published in New Haven -- New York Times, May 31, 2009.

A Nonprofit Panacea For Newspapers? -- National Public Radio, Feb. 6, 2009.

Death and Life in the Pressroom-- Governing Magazine, January 2009.

When the Watchdogs Don't Bark -- New York Times editorial, December 30, 2008.

Web Sites That Dig for News Rise as Watchdogs -- The New York Times, Nov. 18, 2008.

Online Journalists Keep Local Reporting Alive -- The Walter Duranty Report, Nov. 10, 2008.

Blackout: Big-city newspapers aren't telling citizens the things they need to know -- Governing Magazine, December 2006.

Roundtable: The Return of Local News -- Governing Magazine, December 2006.

The New Haven Independent: Community-dedicated, hyperlocal, online reporting -- The Editors Weblog, Nov. 20, 2006.

No Printing Press Required -- Associated Press, Aug. 9, 2006.

Liberation! On Creating the New Haven Independent -- PressThink, August 8, 2006

A Virtual Declaration of Independent -- Business New Haven, June 12, 2006.

Independent Staff

Editor: Paul Bass
Managing Editor: Melissa Bailey
Webmaster/Designer: Kyle Summer/Smartpill Design
Naugatuck Valley Bureau Chief: Eugene Driscoll
Branford Bureau Chief: Marcia Chambers
State Capitol Bureau Chief: Christine Stuart
Staff Writers: Allan Appel, Thomas MacMillan, Jodie Mozdzer, Melinda Tuhus
Office Assistant: Katherine Viera
Contributing Reporters: Leonard Honeyman, Tom Ficklin, Abram Katz, Hernando Diosa, Norma Rodriguez-Reyes
Intern: Riquee Blackman Jarmon
Print partner: La Voz Hispana