CONTACT:
Patricia Gallagher Newberry, SPJ National President, 513-702-4065, pattinewberryspj@gmail.com
Jennifer Royer, SPJ Director of Communications and Marketing, 317-361-4134, jroyer@spj.org

INDIANAPOLIS – Last month, the Society of Professional Journalists raised $40,225 for its Journalists’ Emergency Fund and awarded cash grants to 141 struggling journalists with those funds. This month, SPJ is helping those journalists get out of debt.

SPJ is partnering with Consolidated Credit, one of the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit credit counseling agencies, to start the Journalist Finance Project.

It will offer journalists free credit counseling and, if they qualify, a deeply discounted Debt Management Program. Those programs cost up to $79 a month (while saving hundreds per month) but will be capped at $25 and could be less.

Journalism is changing, and SPJ is changing with it, says SPJ National President Patricia Gallagher Newberry.

“It’s hard to fight for a free press when journalists are fighting for their jobs,” Newberry says. “They can’t cover our communities if they can't cover their bills. Whether they’ve suffered a pay cut, a furlough or even a layoff, SPJ wants to help.”

Just as with the Journalists’ Emergency Fund – which was a rebranding of SPJ’s annual Day of Giving into a “Day of Giving Back” – you don’t need to be an SPJ member to take advantage of the Journalist Finance Project.

SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to informing citizens; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and fights to protect First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. Support excellent journalism and fight for your right to know. Become a member, give to the Legal Defense Fund or give to the SPJ Foundation.

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