Pulitzer Center support for regional reporting in Africa

The Pulitzer Center’s primary mission since its founding in 2006 has been to raise awareness of underreported global issues, with a focus on reaching U.S. news audiences through American media outlets and leveraging that in-depth reporting to teach students in K-12 schools and universities. As a nonprofit run by accomplished journalists, we award grants based on the journalistic merit of story proposals and without the ethical landmines faced by foundations that support media with the aim of achieving certain policy goals. Our model allows reporters with the best projects to conduct independent journalism and follow the facts, without bias or premeditated outcomes. Our model enables funders to raise awareness of critical global issues without having to be on the ground themselves, and to have lasting impact without risking controversy or criticism from restrictive governments who are suspicious of funders’ agendas. Critically, our model protects local journalists who might otherwise be branded as foreign agents of a partisan foundation, and allows us to reach wider audiences in the long term by building capacity in local journalism. Read More

Journalism needs financial support now more than ever, and philanthropy is stepping up to revive quality journalism and reconfigure the news media ecosystem around the world. Recently, Media Impact Funders invited scholars, grantmakers and other practitioners to a webinar organized around two recent reports that shed light on the field of philanthropic support for journalism. Funding the News: Foundations and Nonprofit Media categorizes tens of thousands of journalism and media-related grants totaling $1.8 billion between 2010 and 2015 made all over the world. Interviews with nonprofit journalists, experts, and funders inform an analysis of trends in philanthropic support for journalism. This working paper was a collaboration between Northeastern University’s School of Journalism and Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. The second report, Funding Journalism, Finding Innovation: Success Stories and Ideas for Creative, Sustainable Partnerships  surfaces pioneering funding practices in journalism through case studies of four different funder-publisher collaboratives. The study was a joint project of the Shorenstein Center and Media Impact Funders. Watch the webinar here and use the time stamps below to follow along in the recording: The webinar featured: Nicco Mele (3:50), director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics… Read More

By Nathalie Applewhite | managing director, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Last month, Ellen Laipson, president emeritus of the Stimson Center and an expert in global policymaking, wrote an essay about a special issue of the New York Times Magazine called “Fractured Lands,” a manifestation of 18 months of reporting into why and how the Arab world collapsed. Read More