Newspapers and media organizations are defined by thousands of choices. mostly unseen, from management and ownership.

That’s why it is so vital that La Prensa Iowa Spanish Newspaper, Black Iowa News and The Seven Times (an emerging multi-media business-and-news platform) are owned by leaders within the communities. They inform. They elevate. They make Iowa better.

Please support La Prensa, Black Iowa News and The Seven Times on this Giving Tuesday so the journalists with the organizations can keep bringing us some of the best writing and reporting in the state.

Lorena López, a former television journalist in Nicaragua who emigrated to the United States and founded La Prensa (“The Press”), is a force of nature. Started in 2006 the newspaper has a statewide reach and gives voice to Iowa’s fastest-growing demographics and rural reaches of the state. The publication is based in Denison, one of Iowa’s more diverse cities.  López also started the The Denison Free Press, an English-language paper this past summer as the city’s legacy newspaper suffered from severe staff cuts.

“I love this community and its people, my friends and neighbors, deserve to be the most informed Iowans — and we intend to give them two newspapers to allow them to be just that — super informed,” López said. “The more immigrants know about the historical community, and the more generational families know about those of us who arrived more recently, the more harmony and understanding we will have — and that makes life more enjoyable and businesses more profitable — which is what this great country is all about, right?”

Nik Heftman, an Iowa State University alum, earned an Emmy Award as a producer with CBS Mornings. He’s launched The Seven Times, a media organization which features stories on small Black-owned businesses around the nation, with an intense focus on Iowa. Heftman’s writing is instinctive and loaded with oxygen, and he’s a talented visual artist, making him a versatile journalist. Heftman owns 100 percent of the platform. It’s based in Des Moines and Carroll.

“Over the past year, The Seven Times traveled to three states to spotlight nearly a dozen small, local Black-owned businesses,” Heftman said. “All of the business owners detailed their triumphs and trials. We’re looking to expand our reach even further to highlight local Black entrepreneurs in every corner of the United States. The Seven Times is a mission driven platform with no political or religious ties. We are self-funded. We do not charge any of the Black businesses that we highlight, and we will continue to tell those stories free of charge.”

Dana James, editor and owner of Black Iowa News, is one of the more influential community journalists in the state. Black Iowa News tackles important structural issues, notably in health care. The publication is also an extraordinarily strong community newspaper, and reaches across the state with a circulation of 10,000 and growing. It’s full of news you can use, so to speak, with updates on events and successes of Iowans featured prominently. Black Iowa News is beautifully paginated and a great read. It’s based in Des Moines, but James travels the state for stories and has dozens and dozens of distribution points from river to river.

According to James, Black Iowa News is a news platform designed to showcase the Black community, amplify Black voices and contribute to an informed Black community.”