From November 29 to December 31, 2022, our Colorado-based ethnic media, Afik Digest Magazine, is calling on members of the public with a charitable spirit to support the extraordinary media outlet which has been the voice of immigrants for 8 years. We would like you to join us in the 2022 #newsCOneeds matching grant challenge offered by Colorado Media Project and Colorado News Collaborative to help us fund our news media projects, as we continue to seek out, listen to, and amplify the voices of people of black heritage.

The media in the US today is frequently known as the Fourth Estate, an appellation that suggests the press shares equal stature with the other branches of government created by the Constitution. The press or “Fourth Estate” has and continues to play a vital role as a guardian of US democracy. That role is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1789, stipulating that Congress not enact any laws abridging freedom of the press.

The US media have traveled a long road since the first newspaper was published in Boston, Massachusetts in 1690. Within 50 years, magazines also began appearing in several major American cities. Today there are more than 32,000 broadcast radio and TV stations in the US, along with hundreds of cable TV and satellite radio stations. On top of that, we currently have 3,587 newspaper and magazine publishing outlets in the US as of 2022 according to research, targeting all kinds of readers, and then the internet. In all, we have more ways to reach more people than we’ve ever had in the history of humankind.

Founded in 1859, Rocky Mountain News was Colorado’s first news media. Today, the state of Colorado boasts over 200 news media outlets. There is no doubting the positive impact the press has had on the State of Colorado. It has given a voice to the voiceless, and served as a vehicle to boost local businesses in the state.

That is why by the end of this year, 33 Colorado-based newsrooms are aiming to collectively raise at least a quarter-million dollars to strengthen and sustain their coverage of local governments, businesses, schools, and communities.

The Colorado Media Project (CMP) in collaboration with Colorado News Collaborative (COLab) is pleased to announce the shortlist of local newsrooms participating in the 2022 #newsCOneeds year-end matching challenge. Between Nov. 29 and Dec. 31, 2022, each newsroom participating in the challenge can earn up to $5,000 from CMP, in a dollar-for-dollar match aimed at influencing individual giving to support the long-term sustainability of their public-service journalism — which informs and engages communities and strengthens civic engagement state-wide.

Now more than ever, our communities in Colorado need creative, inventive, modern, and cross-sector solutions to a number of interrelated “egregious problems” facing our democracy, which range from the decline and fragmentation of local journalism, the deluge of digital disinformation, the polarization of our civic dialogue, and widespread mistrust caused by vast inequity and a lack of common ground.

Afrik Digest Media, your community news media outlet in Aurora, Colorado, is participating in this challenge. Our news media offer immigrants and new Americans with black heritage a homestead away from home, to listen and tell their immigrant stories, and integrate them into the larger Colorado community. Since its inception, Afrik Digest has provided its audiences with a platform to listen to their needs, gather and feed them with verifiable information, and amplify their voices.

In today’s fast-paced world, Afrik Digest Media offers a platform for you to join in the critical tasks of providing information, opening doors of opportunities, ensuring integration, and imparting civic knowledge to the collective black community in Colorado.

Your donation towards this cause will enable this media to reach more immigrants and people of black heritage and provide a much-needed boost for businesses in and around Aurora, Colorado.

As you embark on this journey with us, we would be creating a pathway for future leaders to emerge from the black community and to show people around the world that jointly we can change lives, inspire a generation and most importantly, bring people closer to their government at all levels.

No donation is too small and we want to assure our potential donors that their contributions will help us meet our pending goals of  hiring staff, seeking out relevant news, conducting deep research to verify critical information, and empowering our community.

Thank you in advance for heeding this call. Don’t forget to reach out to us via our social media handles- Facebook at @Afrik Digest Magazine, Twitter at @AfrikDigest, and Instagram @afrikdigestmagazine for info on how you can support us.

#newsCOneeds Matching Challenge: Objectives

• To help Colorado newsrooms build trust and transparency, by

spotlighting the vital public service you provide to our communities

• To help Colorado newsrooms increase financial support from individuals,

through new donations, memberships, and subscriptions

• To build a “membership mindset”, fundraising capacity, and

peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing across Colorado’s media ecosystem

You can donate to the cause here at https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=YWKYE9DRPCJUW