How Is Local Journalism Doing?

Heather E. Murray is the Associate Director of the First Amendment Clinic and the Managing Attorney of the Clinic’s Local Journalism Project. She previously was a litigation associate at two international law firms and received a 2018 Law360 Distinguished Legal Writing Award from the Burton Foundation. Prior to her legal career, Heather worked as a journalist at local newspapers in New York.

Heather is a graduate of Cornell Law School and of Duke University. She credits her law school experience in the Labor Law Clinic and the e-Government Clinic, one of President Obama’s flagship open government initiatives, with inspiring and informing her clinical work.

Heather is a member of the advisory committee of ProJourn, a pro bono initiative for journalists that is housed at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. She also serves as chair of the board of directors of Queens-based child welfare agency Forestdale, Inc.

Michael Linhorst is the Cornell First Amendment Clinic’s Local Journalism Attorney. Based in New York City, he helps news outlets in the New York metro area with their legal needs, including everything from litigation under the Freedom of Information Law to defending against subpoenas to drafting employment agreements.
Michael’s background is in journalism and First Amendment litigation. He has worked as an associate at two large law firms and as a fellow at Yale Law School’s Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic. Michael also clerked for the Honorable D. Brock Hornby in U.S. District Court in Maine.

Before law school, Michael was a newspaper reporter in New Jersey, covering the legislature and state politics for The Bergen Record. He got his start in journalism as managing editor of The Cornell Daily Sun.

Mazin Sidahmed is a journalist, media entrepreneur, and leading voice on local news, immigrant communities, and journalism’s role in democracy. He is the co-founder and Executive Director of Documented, a multilingual nonprofit newsroom whose community-driven journalism model has made it a nationally recognized standard-bearer for how newsrooms can serve — and be accountable to — immigrant communities. Through its Building Bridges program, Documented trains newsrooms across the U.S. to adopt that model.

Mazin co-chairs the News Futures Gardening Club and co-founded the Immigrant News Coalition, a national collaboration of newsrooms serving immigrant communities across the U.S. His work has been recognized with the Edward R. Murrow, Deadline Club, Online Journalism, and LION awards. Mazin is the 2024 recipient of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Local Champion Award. Before founding Documented, he was a reporter at The Guardian and The Daily Star in Lebanon.

Gersh Kuntzman joined Streetsblog as editor-in-chief in July 2018 after stints at both New York City tabloids (Post, 1993 to 2000 and 2004 to 2007; Daily News, 2012 to 2017) and a long tenure as editor of The Brooklyn Paper (2007 to 2012). He is a veteran journalist and longtime bike commuter from his home in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. Gersh is also the writer and producer of “Murder at the Food Coop,” which was a hit at the NYC Fringe Festival in 2016, and “SUV: The Musical” in 2007.