In-depth Journalism is What We Like to Do
A gift to the Community News Fund isn't a bet on good intentions — it's backing a newsroom with an independently recognized track record of holding power accountable in the Golden Triangle.
In-depth Journalism is What We Like to Do
A gift to the Community News Fund isn't a bet on good intentions — it's backing a newsroom with an independently recognized track record of holding power accountable in the Golden Triangle.
A Letter From The Publisher
Public bodies have more than one way to roadblock journalists. Sometimes it's financial: As of July, public bodies in the Golden Triangle have charged The Dispatch nearly $900 in 2026. We've paid it. In 2024, when investigating a plan to move Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science off the campus of Mississippi University for Women, a public body charged us nearly $1,000 to retrieve some emails. We paid it.
Sometimes the roadblocks are more heavy-handed.
When a councilman was getting a sweetheart deal at the city-owned convention center for personal events, we investigated — and our editor was arrested and walked through our newsroom in handcuffs. We hired a lawyer and fought the arrest for three years, ultimately with the city dropping charges.
Sometimes the roadblocks are procedural.
When Columbus city council was circumventing open meetings laws to keep secrets, we challenged them all the way to the Mississippi Supreme Court and won.
Our subscribers and advertisers are incredible supporters of our mission, but as the news business evolves, we are looking at new ways to fund our newsroom.
We're still the same paper we've always been: we verify before we publish, we name our sources when we can, and we correct ourselves in public when we're wrong. What's new is our partnership with Mississippi Press Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit and their Community News Fund. Your tax-deductible donations go to them, and we apply for funding from them for accountability journalism.
We will mark stories that are made possible by the CNF, and those stories will be outside our paywall, free for the public to access.
A gift to the Community News Fund is how we afford to keep asking these questions and busting through the roadblocks. Please consider a donation today.
Peter Imes
Publisher, The Commercial Dispatch
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