On the evening of Nov. 19, about 20 people gathered at the District 7 Café in Roxbury to attend the first fundraiser for former Bay State Banner senior editor Yawu Miller’s latest venture, The Flipside.

The Flipside is a nonprofit digital news publication aiming to cover issues important to communities of color in the Greater Boston area. Subscriptions are free with a simple email signup. Donations are much encouraged.

Miller launched the publication in March of this year with his business partner Claudio Martinez; both participated in the American Journalism Project’s inaugural 18-month Local News Incubator. Participation in the Incubator also included a $400,000 grant to jumpstart The Flipside. Miller said that the Incubator helped the duo research the media landscape and acquire the training necessary to run a nonprofit news outlet.

Since its inception, The Flipside has produced over 60 articles. Miller, along with Boston University journalism student Nicole Abrams, cover a wide array of topics including: politics, education, housing, inequality, criminal justice and international news.

“My preference is to write about more things that spark my own interest, not to cover crime. I’m more oriented toward policy issues and questions about public policy,” said Miller. “I want to ask the why behind things that are happening more than just reporting on what’s happening.”

Recently, Miller reported on the state Democratic Party convention and the local writing nonprofit 826 Boston’s decision to maintain their DEI mission and reject federal funding. The latter article was also published in the Banner, whereas some Flipside stories are published in other local papers like the Dorchester Reporter. Contributing to local papers in this way is mutually beneficial; it gets The Flipside’s content in front of additional readers while supplementing local news outlets’ coverage of happenings around town.

During his speech at last week’s fundraiser, Miller mentioned the collaborative nature of Boston’s media landscape. Local newspaper publishers like André Stark of the Banner and former senator Linda Dorcena Forry of the Dorchester Reporter were in attendance.

“We can’t all cover everything that’s happening,” Miller said at the fundraiser, “but together we can cover all the gaps.”

News gaps are a nationwide issue. According to Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism’s News Desert Report, high levels of newspaper closures and federal funding cuts to public radio are estimated to impact 50 million Americans, making local news limited or inaccessible. In the past four years web traffic to 100 of the nation’s largest newspapers dropped by 45 percent. The upside is that more than 300 local news startups launched in the past five years, in almost every state.

“Over the past two decades we’ve seen a dramatic reshaping in local news,” said Medill State of Local News Project director Zach Metzger. “Unlike in previous years, however, the majority of papers shutting down now are smaller, family-owned enterprises. These are often the most trusted active local news sources, and their loss creates new challenges for local news access in many communities.”

In addition to the lack of federal funding, newsrooms have been gutted by hedge funds like Alden Global Capital. Alden has owned the Boston Herald since 2018 since the paper filed for bankruptcy in 2017. Under its ownership, the Herald has seen layoffs and increases in staff cuts.

Research shows a drop in local news results in a drop in civic participation. A dearth in investigative journalism and community reporting will make holding institutions like governments and school systems accountable to its citizens more difficult.

In a report about the gutting of newspapers by hedge funds, Atlantic writer McKay Coppins discusses research revealing that towns without hyperlocal news may experience hikes in city budgets due to corruption, which can increasingly occur without local watchdog news monitoring city halls and state houses across the country.

Although more philanthropies are funding local news, as Miller said in his fundraiser speech, paid support from readers is still critical.

“You may have read in recent years about the investments that major philanthropies are making in local news across the country. But you probably haven’t heard about how little that money makes it to the people who write the news,” he said.

“A lot of it is going to journalism schools and some of it is going to projects that help journalism, but very little of it is actually making it to nonprofit news organizations that are putting out the news,” Miller said. “While we’re fortunate in our first year, we will increasingly rely on our readers to help us grow and thrive.”

The majority of the site’s revenue stems from grants provided by The American Journalism Project, The Boston Foundation, Access Strategies Fund and reader donations. As a nonprofit news outlet, Flipside does not accept money from advertisers.

Kristen Halbert, a nonprofit executive and volunteer who helped organize the fundraiser, said in a speech at the event: “We are the home of Spotlight and Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage, but we’re also the home of significant amounts of inequity that do not just happen with our incomes and housing, but also with who is covering what, and to what degree the truth is being covered.”

Independent journalist and founder of Bostopia News Evan George, who attended the fundraiser, noted the importance of nonprofit journalism that meets the moment.

“I’ve been a big fan of Yawu’s for years,” he said. “He’s a reporter whose integrity you can trust. I’m very excited to support the Flipside and get away from corporate media that spins or frames articles in a certain way. He’s someone who transcends that, so I’m happy to support him and the work that he’s doing.”

For now, Miller is pulling double duty, fundraising and writing the news. By March, he would like to have more foundational support to hire staff and compensate journalists for their labor. In five years, he’d like to see stable revenue and readership growth.

“We’re producing news that is of interest to communities of color. We’re also following our interest, which I think is when I think journalism is at its best,” said Miller.

“We get to ask lots of questions. We sometimes get answers to those questions. Sometimes we don’t.

But when we follow our interests and write about things that interest us, that’s when we do our best work.”

To read The Flipside, visit flipsidenews.net.