Roa and Howard sketched the idea for TBJP in a search to raise $750,000 through tax-deductible donations. The purpose behind the initiative is to ensure independent journalists full-time jobs at Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, they only have to work one job, and they can live in the communities that they cover,\u201d Roa told The Crow\u2019s Nest.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
They plan to expand their staff with four full-time editorial hires\u2013 a news reporter, an A&E editor, a food & drink editor and a staff photographer. The proceeds will also go towards their investigative freelance work, public records requests and legal reviews.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that the community should have more non-pay walls, high quality journalism and information,\u201d Roa said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
TBJP has partnered with news outlets such as Cigar City Sounds<\/a>, San Pedro Gazette<\/a>, Tampa Monitor<\/a>, The Gabber<\/a>, The Sapphic Sun<\/a>, Tampa Bay Arts Passport<\/a> and WMNF<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n These partners can take news pieces from each other\u2019s outlets and republish it on their own site to increase circulation and accessibility.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I do a story, and it might get three or four comments on [Tampa Bay] Arts Passport, Ray will sometimes take that story, and it will get 200 comments on Creative Loafing,\u201d Avery Anderson, the founder of Tampa Bay Arts Passport, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI like the idea of local news, and I like the idea of independent news\u2026\u201d Sean Kinane, the news director at WMNF, said. \u201c\u2026News that people can access regardless of whether they have the resources.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Kinane explained he noticed an increase in local content on WMNF.\u00a0<\/p>\n Anderson said the collaboration between partnerships brings a sense of community and \u201cdestigmatizes\u201d the journalism industry as being competitive.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think the more we can stand together and support one another, the better we all are,\u201d Anderson said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Donations for TBJP are through the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation<\/a> and can be submitted at https:\/\/altnewsfoundation.org\/cl-tampa\/<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t Post Views: 43
\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n![\"More](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/880e1bc59c119981c2b4138ff0096076.png\")
<\/a>
Written by: Reagan Haskell<\/a> on March 3, 2026.
Last revised by: Julia Ferrara<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave Decker (L) with Meb Keflezighi (R) at Fred Ball Park in Tampa, Florida.\u00a0 Courtesy of Ray Roa,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-176791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}