NYCMA's advocacy work is at the core of IPI activities, which look to surface and strengthen community voices and to empower the media that serves them. IPI offers its member and associate publications press conferences and forums to provide in-depth information on issues of importance to New York City's immigrant communities and communities of color, and access to elected officials and advocacy/community leaders. By forming partnerships with social justice organizations, journalism schools and foundations, NYCMA is able to offer trainings in print and multi-media investigative reporting skills, as well as technical help to address the needs to enhance and monetize the publications' Internet presence. Collaborations with other media provide platforms for ethnic and community journalists to share their perspectives and do away with cultural, language and geographic barriers. NYCMA's vertical model, rooted in community, promotes coalition building by gathering reporters across ethnicities and neighborhoods, encourages the development of a broad media sector, which cumulatively reaches 3.5 million readers, or close to 40 percent of the city's population, and encourages the advocacy mission that characterizes this media by demanding accountability and transparency from local, state and federal government.