MIF to grow network of journalism funders with $200,000 from Knight Foundation

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded Media Impact Funders (MIF)—a member-supported network of funders who support media in the public interest—a $200,000 grant to grow the network of journalism and media funders with events and network-building opportunities. Read More

Last week, we convened our peers for our annual journalism funders gathering to discuss some of the most pressing issues facing journalism—and our nation—today. We hope that our two days of programming and breakout sessions introduced you to new people, new ideas, and a new way forward. We are so grateful to the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation and Independence Public Media Foundation for sponsoring our first online journalism funders conference. (And special thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Henry L. Hillman Foundation, and the Rita Allen Foundation for their support.) Zoom fatigue is real, and we are that much more grateful for the network’s participation our virtual format. We also know that many of you are juggling work and other family responsibilities, whether it’s your kids’ remote learning or caring for a loved one. Because of that, we’ve recorded all of our plenary discussions so that you can watch them at a time that’s more convenient for you. As we grapple with seemingly growing efforts to spread lies online, persistent issues preventing the advancement of newsroom culture, and what we need to do now to ensure a more equitable media ecosystem in the future, we hope you’ll… Read More

Many leaders in media and philanthropy are glumly making their way back North to their homes in the path of another arctic blast of late winter, after several days of basking in the balmy weather and illuminating presentations at the annual Knight Media Forum in Miami this week. But they will continue to feel the warmth of a community of purpose and action, after many panels and presentations highlighted the urgency and importance of building news and information resources at the local level. As The Heinz Endowments President Grant Oliphant said in his thoughtful keynote address, “Community, community, community is where we must and can do this work.” Read More

Feb. 26, 2019. Miami, Fla.—The American Journalism Project, a new initiative to reinvigorate mission-driven local news through the power of venture philanthropy, today announced its official launch with $42 million in lead funding commitments, a Board of Directors, and its first three hires. Read More

As market forces fail local news, our media ecosystem are failing the communities that they have been entrusted to serve. Philanthropy, for its part, has come to the table, providing critical support for nonprofit news in innovative and unprecedented ways. Today, a new initiative announces it plan to reinvigorate local news on a large scale. Read More

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

Washington, D.C. (Feb. 12, 2019): NewsMatch raised $7.6 million from individual donors and a coalition of major funders for nonprofit news organizations in two months at the end of 2018. During the largest-ever grassroots fundraising campaign to support local news, over 240,000 people gave to 154 newsrooms between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31. More than 50,000 new donors supported a nonprofit newsroom for the first time. 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