Often the "future of news" debates revolves around the news industry. In NJ, a new effort will leverage community organizing strategies on behalf of quality local journalism -- so communities can join forces with journalists to advocate for better local news, and better access to local information.

News Voices: New Jersey was announced at the recent Engage Local conference in Newark, NJ. In this 18-month project, Free Press (a nonprofit organization that advocates for the right to connect and communicate) will foster closer relationships between NJ communities and their local newsrooms. The goal: to create a constituency to advocate effectively for local journalism. News Voices: New Jersey is supported with funding from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the Democracy Fund.

Mike Rispoli (press freedom campaign director for Free Press) and Fiona Morgan (journalism director for Free Press) are directing the News Voices: New Jersey project. A former journalist for several NJ news outlets, Rispoli has already begun crisscrossing the state, meeting with newsrooms and community groups to develop a deeper understanding of the current state of local journalism.

Free Press has a strong track record for organizing and advocacy, most recently with successful campaigns around net neutrality and broadband access. News Voices: New Jersey will apply organizing model to advocating for journalism itself.

"We want to bring people in not just as news consumers, but as advocates," said Rispoli. "We want to discover: Can we create a constituency to support quality local journalism? Can we get people to mobilize to protect their local newspaper, or call local lawmakers to push for open records law? Can we get people in the state to actually care about open records laws as citizen in a democracy?"

In addition to reaching out to established community leaders and organizations, Free Press also seeks to include new voices -- especially people who may not have cared very much about local news until now.

According to Rispoli, discussions at the recent Engage Local conference highlighted the importance of setting the local news agenda collaboratively with a wide range of community members -- not just the usual suspects.

"At one panel discussion, the people on the stage were well known community leaders, having their debates. But people in audience also had incredibly intelligent and interesting things to say about issues affecting their community," said Rispoli. "How do we elevate those voices, so that ordinary citizens can become someone that a newsroom can rely on? Not just leaders of community organizations, but people like airport workers, or local business owners? Their only agenda is to improve their community, they're usually not terribly interested in advancing any one issue."

Ultimately, it's hoped that this project will also help make local news more relevant to more people in more communities. Having community members directly engaging with newsrooms, and taking some ownership for supporting local news, can help journalists stay on target with the kind of news that communities want and need.

"Right now, when gauging what works, newsrooms look mainly at online analytics, to see which stories people are clicking on," said Josh Stearns, director of the journalism sustainability project of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. "But analytics only measures what you have already done, not what you're not doing."

Usually, journalists have a reflex to avoid advocacy. But so far, NJ journalists and newsrooms have responded well to the News Voices: New Jersey plan. "When we initially started this project, I was concerned how receptive newsrooms would be. No one wants to hear about the things they're doing wrong -- and that's often what happens when newsrooms get community input," said Rispoli. "But it was surprising how receptive journalists were to idea of audience participating more in protecting journalism."

Next in the project, Free Press will organize 4-6 forum events where journalists and residents to discuss challenges facing their communities and local news outlets. These will most likely be held in the NJ cities of New Brunswick, Atlantic City, Newark, and Morristown -- as well as a few smaller communities along the NJ shore. The first two forums will be held in 2015, the rest in 2016.

"The events for us are a way to coalesce a network, they're definitely not the project capstone" said Rispoli. "I've been going around the state meeting with newsrooms and community groups, talking about the process, how they feel about local media, and mainly just listening. "I'm not interested in getting people together just to talk; I very much want these events to serve as starting point to change how communities interact with newsrooms, to form that constituency."

To build upon these events, News Voices: New Jersey will launch some to-be-determined collaborative projects (probably involving coverage of local issues). Journalists and community members can work together to create a tangible product -- and in the process learn the value of working together.

"Media isn't something that just happens to you," said Rispoli. "Collaborative projects will really drive that point home."

Sharing lessons learned is a key objective of News Voices: New Jersey. Free Press will develop tools to help newsrooms and communities collaborate on newsgathering -- Resources and strategies that newsrooms and communities can use together to foster this kind of constituency and make it self sustaining.

They'll also publish at least two research reports -- on challenges facing NJ journalists, and proposing policy recommendations to support open government and quality newsgathering in that state. If the strategies of this initial project prove successful, Free Press hopes to roll out similar initiatiatives around the U.S.