Mackin, a leading provider of K-12 print and digital fiction and nonfiction titles, as well as educational curriculum materials, is pleased to announce it has partnered with Ad Fontes Media, the media bias intelligence leader, to provide K-12 schools around the world with access to Ad Fontes Media’s in-depth news literacy curricula and data.

Over the last 15 years, the news landscape has changed dramatically and there have been relatively few curriculum materials and resources to help teachers navigate these changes. As a result of the distribution alliance, over 130,000 K-12 schools will now be able to discover Ad Fontes Media’s news literacy offerings during the procurement process. This is the first time Ad Fontes has commercially marketed its content analysis methodology instruction and databases to the educational market.

“Partnering with a leader like Ad Fontes Media was an easy choice because they are a true leader in both news literacy content and media source bias/reliability data,” said Randal Heise, co-owner of Mackin. “Right now, the demand for their solutions is very strong, particularly with English, social studies, and journalism teachers, as well as with librarians who teach information literacy.”

Under the terms of the partnership, Mackin’s customers will now be able to access and buy Ad Fontes Media’s offerings through their existing MackinVIA digital content management platform, including Ad Fontes Media’s:

SUMMA News Literacy Program — A program which teaches students to analyze the news and create their own Media Bias Charts.

The SUMMA News Literacy Program comes with a full-online curriculum for teaching Ad Fontes Media’s content analysis methodology and an interactive software platform for students to perform their analysis and produce their resulting charts.

Interactive Media Bias Chart Educator Pro Version — A database of news bias and reliability scores with automatic filtering tools.

Ad Fontes Media’s solutions encourage critical thinking and student engagement. They also provide a fun way to discuss current events and are easy to learn and use.

Ad Fontes Media founder and CEO Vanessa Otero said, “The fact that Mackin is helping educators get the resources they need to teach students how to evaluate and detect misinformation, fake news, and bias should be recognized. In today’s world, these skills are more important than ever. Ultimately, students need to be able to critically think and evaluate the veracity of all news content themselves.”

Mackin is headquartered in Minnesota and has been serving educators for nearly 40 years. Ad Fontes Media is headquartered in Westminster, Colorado, and launched in 2018.

About Mackin
Mackin is a Minnesota-based, family-owned company which takes great pride in providing the highest-quality, age-appropriate library and classroom materials for PK-12 schools as well as public library Children’s and Young Adult collections. Known for their substantial catalog that boasts more than 18,000 publishers with over 3 million print books, Mackin’s ever-growing digital catalog now includes more than 3 million digital products including eBooks, databases, audiobooks, read-alongs, and video resources – all available through their free, multi-award-winning digital content management system, MackinVIA. For more information, visit http://www.mackin.com or call 800-245-9540.

About Ad Fontes Media
Ad Fontes Media is the media bias intelligence leader and producer of The Media Bias Chart® which rates media sources in terms of political bias and reliability. The organization was founded by patent attorney Vanessa Otero with the goal of combating political polarization. In 2021, Ad Fontes Media launched its flagship Ad ApexTM solutions suite, a family of integrated media bias solutions. Ad ApexTM allows Ad Fontes Media’s app, brand, media, and media technology partners to access its comprehensive news source ratings so they can use them in media planning, in support of their brand purpose and values.