Impact implications: Taking another look at the API nonprofit news ethics report

In a recent episode of Current's podcast "The Pub," host Adam Ragusea called the implications of the American Press Institute's recent report on the ethics of foundation-supported journalism "horrifying." Are nearly half of funders investing in journalism only doing so to advance narrow policy goals? On closer read, Ragusea’s hot take on the topic not only ignores a fair bit of nuance in the report itself, but misses another piece of the story entirely. Namely, that more foundations than ever are willing to support journalism that addresses social issues head-on and dig deeply into corporate and political corruption. Read More

The American Press Institute—an educational nonprofit that helps advance news media in the digital age—released a report last month that explores the ethical terrain of nonprofit journalism.  “The ethics of taking grants from foundations and gifts from donors to produce news is still evolving and not without controversy,” the report reads. Read More

Several nonprofit news organizations—including past winners and new entrants—are celebrating this week with the announcement of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists. Read More

Note: This piece was updated on Feb. 1 to reflect comments from David Haas, a board member for Media Impact Funders and a member of the board of managers for the Institute for Journalism in New Media. Last week, in a bold move to save Philadelphia’s three largest, most influential journalistic entities, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and their main website, Philly.com, were donated to a philanthropic organization by their owner, H. F. “Gerry” Lenfest. Read More

By Micah L. Sifrey | originally posted on PhilanTopic. A decade-and-a-half into the digital century, the vast majority of large foundations concerned with strengthening American democracy don’t seem to get tech. According to the new Foundation Funding for U.S. Democracy tool recently launched by Foundation Center, out of a total of 18,446 grants awarded since 2011 by more than 1,300 funders focused on the broad range of issues and efforts related to democracy, just 962 have been focused on technology. Read More

By Jonathan Sotsky | Originally published on the KnightBlog A hallmark of my time supporting research and evaluation at Knight Foundation has been a close working relationship with our communications team. This partnership has been a key ingredient for the development and dissemination of a series of successful reports Knight has published in recent years. So when I recently encountered a Communications Network blog post lamenting the challenged relationship between evaluation people and communications people, I felt compelled to speak out on behalf of the way our teams have partnered at Knight. Read More

Often, conversations around news impact focus on outcomes. But what if the first step for making a difference in a community is simply having viable, diverse outlets? Read More

March 12, 2015 The FCC releases the new rule, protecting the Internet from blocking, throttling and paid prioritization. See excerpts and analysis from the New York Times. February 26, 2015 Victory for the open Internet. The FCC formally voted 3-2 in favor of reclassifying Internet under Title II protections, enshrining net neutrality into law. Read more about this major achievement. Read More

PARK CITY, Utah — When media funders talk about impact, what do they mean, and how do they demonstrate it? At the Sundance Film Festival, Media Impact Funders (MIF) released a new report, Funder Perspectives: Assessing Media Investments. It explores the multiple and sometimes overlapping lenses through which grantmakers view media evaluation, and confirms that there are still many unanswered questions. The report contributes to a growing dialogue about ways to quantify and qualify the impact of public interest media. Such examinations have stimulated debate among both funders and grantees. Read More