WATCH: A preview of the 2019 Knight Media Forum

Each year, the Knight Foundation gathers funders from across the country to talk about why and how they—especially those at community and place-based foundations—can contribute to stronger local news ecosystems. The agenda for this year's Knight Media Forum offers rich examples of collaborations and experiments rooted in place. Read More

Last week, we hosted a webinar highlighting promising solutions to the problem of news deserts. Nearly every day, we’re reminded that local news in the United States is dwindling. Since 2004, about 20 percent of all metro and community newspapers in the United States—approximately 1,800—have gone out of business or merged. Hundreds more have drastically cut back local coverage. All told, about 1,300 U.S. communities have totally lost local news coverage as a result. Newspapers are a keystone species of any local news ecosystem, and funders can play a key role in keeping news alive in the nation’s news deserts. Watch the webinar below and use the time stamps to follow along in the recording: The webinar featured: Fiona Morgan (2:22), MIF’s journalism funders network coordinator, who moderated the discussion. Morgan, who brings her own experience and expertise on the subject, recently co-wrote a paper with Stanford University Professor James Hamilton titled Poor Information: How Economics Affects the Information Lives of Low-Income Individuals. Penelope Muse Abernathy (5:28), Knight Chair of Journalism and Digital Media Economics at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Media and Journalism. Abernathy’s research on the decline and consolidation of newspapers across the country is a critical… Read More

By Lindsay Green-Barber | Founder & CEO, Impact Architects In 2013, the city of Detroit filed for bankruptcy, and local media organizations struggled to stay afloat. In this turmoil, residents did not have access to high-quality journalism to meet their information needs, and the strain on journalism organizations made it difficult for them to make financial investment necessary for long-term investigative and accountability reporting. In response to the situation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation funded the creation of the Detroit Journalism Cooperative (DJC)—a collaborative reporting project that includes Detroit Public Television (DPTV), Detroit Public Radio (WDET), Michigan Radio, New Michigan Media, the Center for Michigan’s Bridge Magazine, and Chalkbeat Detroit—to report on “the city’s future after bankruptcy with stories that have never been told before—on-air, online and in the community.” From 2013 to 2017, the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan (CFSEM)—which, at the time, did not fund journalism—observed the DJC’s reporting in Detroit and recognized the value of innovative journalism in the community. So, in an effort to contribute to the work, in 2017 CFSEM established the Detroit Journalism Engagement Fund, in partnership with the Knight Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The first round… Read More