Eugene Weekly launched this nonprofit foundation to boost community journalism in the southern Willamette Valley. Twin Rivers Institute for Press Sustainability — TRIPS, for short — accepts tax-deductible donations to help existing small news outlets in and around Eugene cover everything from city council meetings to concerts and art openings.

EW’s editor Camilla Mortensen chairs the founding board of TRIPS. “During the pandemic the same small news organizations that are essential to keeping the public informed about what local governments and schools are doing have had an increasingly difficult time making ends meet,” she said.

Funds raised will go toward EW’s administrative costs, augmenting coverage of news and the arts, for reaching out to and covering underserved populations, including BIPOC and rural communities in the county. 

About a quarter of the money collected by TRIPS is designated for small local news outlets other than EW, with the goal of helping such established publications as The Chronicle, covering Springfield and Creswell; and such startups as the Highway 58 Herald serving Oakridge.