Amanda Richardson

Notable work and positions

Corporation for New Jersey Local Media - Co-founder and Executive Director
New Jersey Hills Media Group - Publisher

Biography

Amanda Richardson is the co-founder and executive director of the Corporation for New Jersey Local Media (CNJLM), a nonprofit organization she established in 2020 with Nicholas Platt, a former political rival, after the two ran against each other for a Harding Township, New Jersey, committee seat in a race noted for its civility. Richardson, an attorney and the Harding Township Democratic Committee chair, brought prior experience forming nonprofits to the effort. In January 2021, CNJLM announced an agreement with the family-owned New Jersey Hills Media Group to convert its fourteen weekly newspapers, serving 50 communities across Morris, Somerset, Essex and Hunterdon counties, to nonprofit ownership, modeled in part on the Lenfest Institute's ownership of the Philadelphia Inquirer; the conversion was supported by a community fundraising drive. In April 2022, CNJLM completed the transition, taking ownership of the New Jersey Hills Media Group, which became the largest weekly newspaper group in the United States under nonprofit ownership, with Richardson serving as publisher. She has described CNJLM's mission as strengthening communities by preserving and expanding local journalism through a nonprofit, foundation- and donation-supported model rather than a purely subscription- and advertising-based one.

Career highlights

• Founding of the Corporation for New Jersey Local Media 2020 · Co-founded the nonprofit with former political opponent Nicholas Platt.
• New Jersey Hills Media Group conversion 2021-2022 · Led the transition of the 14-newspaper New Jersey Hills Media Group to nonprofit ownership, the largest such conversion of a weekly newspaper group in the United States.