Effective January 1, 2018 the Internal Revenue Service approved T. T. Hardy Online Media Corp., doing business as Vero Communiqué, as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit public organization.

Vero Communiqué now becomes one of roughly 85 non-profit on-line news sites in the United States. (Source: Columbia University Journalism Review.)  It is now one of three in the State of Florida.

Donors can now deduct contributions they make to Vero Communiqué under Internal Revenue Section 170.  Contributions will allow Vero Communiqué to add a reporter(s) to expand its regional coverage and publish it on a more regular basis.

Vero Communiqué has a backlog of issues to research and report on and an additional reporter(s) will allow it to attack these issues.

Organizations exempt under Internal Revenue Code Section 501 (c) (3) are classified as public charities or private foundations.  The Internal Revenue Service determined Vero Communiqué is a public charity.

Thomas P. O’Neil said “All politics is local”. Then too, so should journalism.

Free Image of Tip O’Neil

Journalism, however, has increasingly lost its focus on local.  Today, the new form of journalism is to focus at the national level.  According to the Columbia Journalism Review, “this new journalistic culture has been a significant reduction in resources focused on the basic work of covering communities”.

Ken Doctor, a media analyst and author of “Newsonomics: Twelve New Trends That Will Shape the News You Get,” wrote that “Local news disinvestment has become the decade’s dominant theme in the industry”.

During the decade he speaks of, while the number of journalists in Washington has increased, local news rooms have decreased.

Vero Communiqué is reversing the “disinvestment” in our community and restoring local journalism to its rightful place in our news culture.

We aim to be the trusted news source by covering local county local topics that no other media outlets cover, or that others do not cover well, that would be of major interest for our community, given the lack of rational and informed voices in this area.

We are proud that Vero Communiqué has achieved 501 (c) (3) status and has emerged as a leader in regional journalism.

Vero Communiqué is a charter member of the Columbia (University) Journalism Review, a member of the Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the SPJ Florida Pro Chapter.  Vero Communiqué is also a member of LION publishers, with more than 200 members in 43 different states, with both for-profit and nonprofit business models, who cover both general interest news and niche topics. Mr. Hardy is a member of the National Press Club, Washington, D. C. and a member of the Indian River County Taxpayers Association.