About the Civic Information Needs Census (CINC)
Measuring how well communities get the local information they need.
Our Mission
Measuring what matters for civic life
Our mission is to help as many communities as possible have access to quality local civic information by giving them and the institutions that serve them consistent, persistent, and actionable quantitative measures of local information needs.
Why This Is Important
What gets measured gets managed
Civic information providers are emerging to address the collapse of local American newspapers. Hundreds of local news startups have been created; foundations give $500M a year to journalism. Yet the field has no consistent, quantitative way to measure which communities have the greatest needs, where these needs are being met well, and whether efforts are making a difference over time. Consistent, persistent, and actionable data can help direct resources where they're needed most and make it easier to learn from what is working.
How We Achieve Our Mission
By and for local communities
CINC is a survey-based measurement initiative sponsored by the Civic News Company that is designed to understand how well communities are getting the local information they need to thrive.
We believe that these surveys should be done by local communities, for local communities. Our role is catalytic: we focus on providing free shared infrastructure that makes running these surveys easier and lower cost for local communities.
What We Provide
Free shared infrastructure for local surveys
- A standardized, regularly-updated survey instrument with validated questions designed with input from local communities, research experts, and field leaders.
- Direct benchmarking of local survey data against other community CINCs and nationally through our growing free, publicly available dataset of CINC data.
- Consulting to support implementation for the above, including visualization and reporting templates for common analyses of the data.
Our Approach
Survey methodology
Consistent
Using the same methodology across surveys allows meaningful comparison between different populations and communities.
Persistent
Repeating surveys over time enables tracking of trends and measurement of whether interventions are making a difference.
Actionable
Data is designed to directly inform decisions about where and how to invest in meeting civic information needs.
CINC builds on foundational work including the 2012 Critical Information Needs of the American Public report to the FCC and substantial previous information needs surveys (see Related (Non-CINC) Work for some examples). CINC is meant to provide one part of Information Ecosystem Assessments, complementing qualitative methods to understand needs.
Work With Us
Bringing CINC to your community
If you are a local community with a preferred survey vendor, we are happy to consult with you for free on implementation of a CINC. If you do not have a survey vendor selected, we can provide competitive pricing through our survey partner Embold Research. Long-term, we believe that local studies should also be funded locally, but for 2026 we are also able to provide some catalytic funding for local communities.
If you are interested in running a CINC for your local community, please see how to Partner With Us.
We are also interested in hearing from other members of the ecosystem (including researchers, funders, survey firms) who are interested in collaborating toward a shared goal of consistent, persistent, and actionable measurement of local information needs. If this is you, please Get in Touch below!
The Organizations
Who's behind CINC
Civic News Company
Sponsor OrganizationCivic News Company is the parent organization of Chalkbeat, Votebeat, and Healthbeat — nonprofit news organizations covering education, elections, and health in communities across America. Its mission is to help people understand how America works so they can make it work better.
Visit Civic News CompanyEmbold Research
Survey PartnerEmbold Research is a non-partisan, non-political data science and research company specializing in high-quality survey research and data analysis.
Visit Embold ResearchProject History
How we got here
CINC Local Partner Program (with catalytic funding opportunities for 2026) announced, along with several upcoming local CINC partnerships.
Second National CINC data published.
New York City CINC data published. Information needs practitioners in New York City convened to provide input into the survey (prior to fielding) and to discuss results (after fielding).
Chicago CINC data published. Information needs practitioners in Chicago convened to provide input into the survey (prior to fielding) and to discuss results (after fielding).
The concept for a "Civic Information Census" that provides consistent, persistent, and actionable survey measures of information needs is presented at a Local News Impact Consortium workshop.
The Roadmap for Local News is published. Its first recommendation is to "Coordinate work around the goal of expanding 'civic information'", with a call to action "to shift our measurement, philanthropic investments, and public policy focus accordingly", including "asking, on an annual basis, the extent to which communities' information needs are met in each community, state, and region, across key demographic groups, within key government bodies, and regarding the top issue areas that affect communities."
Collaborators
People and organizations who have helped shape the work
We are grateful to all of the people and organizations who have directly contributed to this project. We welcome additional collaborators — if you are interested in working with us please fill out the form below.
Impact Architects
For survey design and strategic feedback.
Commoner Co.
For organizing local convenings with information needs practitioners in Chicago and strategic feedback.
The Local News Impact Consortium
For survey design and convening a conference that helped shape the direction of this work.
Branchhead Consulting
For survey design and partnering with us on an upcoming survey.
The American Journalism Project
For partnering with us on an upcoming survey.
Chicago Public Media
For partnering with us on an upcoming Chicago survey.
Cityside Journalism Initiative
For partnering with us on an upcoming Marin County survey.
Deep South Today
For partnering with us on an upcoming survey in their network of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
San José Spotlight
For partnering with us on an upcoming Santa Clara County survey.
David Rousseau
For strategic feedback.
Local organizations in Chicago and New York City
For feedback on survey questions and strategic feedback.
Chandran and Mallika Sankaran
For providing funding for an upcoming Santa Clara and San Mateo County survey.
The Caswell Jin Foundation
For providing anchor funding for this initiative.
Have Questions?
Get in touch and we'll be happy to help.