How Knight will help make local newsrooms sustainable in 2023
Focus on national-local partnerships, rural journalism and university-publisher collaborations
As director of sustainability initiatives, I joke that I have the easiest job on Knight’s Journalism team because the question I’m always asking is some variation of, “Are we sure it’s working?” And I get to ask this question at both the individual newsroom level and the journalism ecosystem level.
For newsrooms, I’m always on the hunt for new revenue and audience innovations, ways to diversify revenue models and ideas for lowering the costs associated with starting, sustaining and growing newsrooms. Across our grant portfolio, I’m thinking of ways that we can leverage Knight’s connections and resources to bring in more funders, build new talent pipelines and develop infrastructure and shared services support for local newsrooms. Here are three ideas I’m focused on in 2023:
Find sustainable collaboration models for national-local newsroom partnerships.
Over the past year, we’ve heard from many national newsrooms—often with a focus on specific topic areas such as climate and the environment, education or public health—that want to forge partnerships with local newsrooms or even build their own operations in certain communities. They see local newsrooms as valuable amplifiers for their work and consider expertise locally to be essential to making stories resonate nationally.
We’re interested in partnership models that create and sustain value right from the start. Knight’s funding can be catalytic and serve to create new infrastructure, hire staff and build new processes, but how should incentives and business models be shaped so that the partnership is sustained even after the initial funding period ends? Assurances that they’ll keep it going aren’t enough; new leadership or changing economic conditions can complicate seemingly ironclad promises. Instead, I’m looking for partnership and collaboration models that create new trends, catalyze funding streams, grow monetizable audiences or lower costs for participating organizations so that these national-local partnership models are ultimately self-sustaining.
Define and support rural journalism.
As someone who was born in Vietnam, grew up in Houston, went to school in Cambridge, lives in Washington D.C., and has a job in Miami, I was the obvious pick to develop our team’s rural strategy (joking). But as I’ve spoken with rural publishers, academics and leaders in the Knight network about the challenges facing rural publications, I can see that there are unique issues rural publishers face as a result of geography and isolation, economics, politics and trust.
But I continue to grapple with two related questions: The first: How can we separate out the challenges that rural newsrooms face from those that rural communities face in general? For example, if a town’s population is shrinking, how sustainable (or even possible) is it to hire journalists to report on that town?
The second question is how can we differentiate the challenges that rural publishers face from those of small and understaffed newsrooms elsewhere? I often hear about resource constraints, hiring challenges and an inability to keep up with the pace of the news. But these are consistent refrains from all newsrooms, regardless of where they’re based. In 2023, I’ll continue to seek out leaders in the space that can help me define rural newsrooms’ unique challenges and support pilots and solutions that address them directly.
Unlock university expertise and resources for local news.
My very first grant was to the University of Vermont and Richard Watts to build out the Center for Community News. Their mission is to connect student journalists at every stage with local news organizations. Richard has set a blistering pace, cataloging these academic-news partnerships and best practices so that local newsrooms get resources and bandwidth, universities get rich opportunities for students, and students get to practice the hands-on work of local reporting.
Moreover, recent convenings of the Knight Chairs and the Carnegie-Knight Deans in Miami made it clear that universities are eager to fill local news gaps and are becoming leaders in their local news ecosystems. Local news publishers can use all the help they can get, and universities–with their bevy of student talent, academic expertise and resources–will be powerful allies.
If you have ideas or reactions or think we’re missing out on something, I’d love to hear from you at luu@kf.org.
Register now for the virtual Knight Media Forum!
Virtual registration is open for the Knight Media Forum (KMF), which will take place in just two weeks on February 21–23. KMF is the premier annual event for leaders in philanthropy, journalism and technology. Together, we’ll learn from noted thinkers and practitioners and foster efforts to strengthen, scale and sustain informed and engaged communities. Here’s the agenda, so you can plan to engage with your favorite topics and speakers. We look forward to meeting some of you in person in Miami, and seeing others online!
A roadmap to somewhere for local news
For the past year, a group of local news publishers, philanthropists and industry organizations has been discussing solutions to address the decline of local news and the drastic drop in the number of community journalists. After talking to more than 60 news leaders and gathering funders and practitioners at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, Calif., in late January, the group published its initial Roadmap for Local News. Written by Elizabeth Green of Chalkbeat, Darryl Holliday of City Bureau, and Mike Rispoli of Free Press with support from many national foundations – including Knight – the roadmap made three key recommendations:
Expand the nation’s civic information ecosystem rather than “save the news business.”
Invest in shared infrastructure for publishers.
Support public policy that will help support local news.
“The overarching takeaway from Sunnylands is extraordinarily positive,” wrote Lenfest Institute CEO Jim Friedlich in Nieman Reports. “While there’s a great deal of work to do, there’s a great and growing movement to do so.”
My colleague Jim Brady was at the Rancho Mirage, Calif., meeting, and came away encouraged about the possibility of significantly increasing the amount of philanthropic dollars going into local journalism. “It was wonderful to bring so many relative newcomers to the table and hear how much they also value strong local journalism and the crucial role it plays in a healthy society,” he said. “I’m excited for the next round of conversations about how to make this increased funding a reality.”
Other news around the horn…
Hires
✨ LaSharah Bunting hired as new CEO of ONA. While it was incredibly sad to see the head of the Online News Association (ONA), Irving Washington, depart last year, it’s just as heartening to see ONA hire LaSharah Bunting as its new CEO and executive director. She has a long history with the ONA community, and has deep experience in journalism and management at Simon & Schuster, Knight Foundation and the New York Times. She will also be the first woman of color to lead ONA. “As journalism continues to evolve, I believe ONA’s mission is more vital than ever,” Bunting said. “I look forward to partnering with our staff, Board of Directors, members and supporters to grow the organization and expand our impact across the industry.” You can buy her a drink at the next ONA conference in Philadelphia on Aug. 23–26.
Launches
🚀 A nonprofit news Landing in Houston. Cleveland, Baltimore and now Houston have their very own mega-million nonprofit startups, aimed squarely at broadening the existing media ecosystem with digital, public-serving news outlets. The brand-new Houston Landing (named after both the city founders’ bayou landing and the moon landing) plans to offer free content without paywalls, but is ready to take your monthly donations. With $20 million in support from local and national foundations (including Knight), the Landing has ambitions to hold the powerful to account while exploring solutions to pressing problems. “We will offer stories and information that help residents make decisions about their daily lives—from accessing public services to participating in democracy—empowering them to engage in their communities and city,” wrote founding Editor-in-Chief Mizanur Rahman.
Funding
🔥 MLK50 gets $2 million grant from the Ford Foundation. In its five-plus years of existence, Memphis nonprofit newsroom MLK50: Justice Through Journalism has made an enormous impact, with award-winning journalism focused on justice for communities of color. Now it has the financial footing to expand its work thanks to a $2 million grant from the Ford Foundation, which will help it build operational and fundraising infrastructure. “Having this degree of financial visibility will strengthen our ability to do liberatory journalism in a state where public policy is not designed to improve the quality of life for workers, low-wealth residents, women, the LGBTQ community, immigrants and others,” MLK50 founder Wendi C. Thomas said.
💰 With grants like that, baby they were born to run. Apologies to The Boss, but the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium has truly been a chrome-wheeled, fuel-injected machine for local news and civic information in Jersey. How so? The pioneering state government-funded entity has given out $2.5 million in grants to 27 projects so far, and has plans for nearly $4 million in funding for 2023. That includes $1 million in grants to new civic and journalism organizations (up to $100,000 each) as well as continued investment in previous grantees, investments in technology and revenue capabilities for small newsrooms, and a new community-led grantmaking effort. Meet the news Boss.
🗣️ Tips for fundraising pitches via the Lenfest Summit. Reason #136 why Zoom isn’t all bad: You could hear from top publishers and experts in philanthropy at the Lenfest News Philanthropy Summit online last week. Our friends at the Local Fix newsletter from Democracy Fund had a nice roundup of eight key tips for fundraising they gleaned from the virtual gathering, including: hire a fundraising/development person as quickly as possible; move away from typical sales language and toward asking people to give to a cause; and engage on a deeper level for more authentic personal connections. “It’s not just about getting the check, but how are we supporting the whole person?” said Shawn Mooring of the Lenfest Institute.
Tech
🦾 AI & Local News Challenge open for applicants. Do you have a fantastic, world-changing idea for artificial intelligence that doesn’t include writing essays or this newsletter? More importantly, will it positively impact local news? Then the AI & Local News Challenge is for you. It’s open to any startup, university or news organization team that wants to use automation, algorithms, machine learning, computer vision, deep learning, recommendation systems, natural language processing and more to better serve local news outlets and audiences. Not only do you get support from the NYC Media Lab, which is running the Challenge, but you also get $7,500 in walking-around money. Apply by Feb. 20!
Training
ProPublica Investigative Editor Training Program
June 2023–June 2024
Deadline to apply: March 13
Informational webinar: Today at 3 pm ET
AFP’s Digital Investigation Techniques
Online, asynchronous, free
Supported by Google News Initiative
Poynter Leadership Academy for Diversity in Media
October 1–6 at Poynter, St. Petersburg, Fla.
Deadline to apply: February 17
Jobs
🔍ProPublica is hiring an editor for the Northwest region. ProPublica is seeking an experienced editor to lead its new investigative unit in the Northwest. The editor will hire and supervise three reporters who will be based in Washington, Oregon, Alaska or Idaho, as well as edit three Local Reporting Network partners based at newsrooms in the region. Learn more here.
🗞️National Trust for Local News is hiring a Chief Portfolio Officer. The CPO would oversee the community news titles and news conservancies created by the Trust. They would also collaborate on the Trust’s strategy with other executives and the board. Learn more here.
📈Pew is hiring a Research Director, News and Information. Pew Research Center is looking for an innovative and accomplished director to lead the News and Information research unit in the Washington, DC, office. The director oversees a research team seeking to understand the changing ways Americans learn about the major trends and events shaping society in the face of a rapidly changing media and information landscape. Learn more here.
Upcoming Events 📅
Miami and online
February 21–23
Nashville
March 2–5
Austin
March 10–12
International Symposium for Online Journalism
Austin
April 14–15
International Journalism Festival
Perugia, Italy
April 19–23
Online
April 26–28
Washington, DC
June 8–9
Tweet of the Week
News @ Knight Credits
Written by Duc Luu, with Mark Glaser
Edited by Jim Brady, Jessica Clark and Kara Pickman
A Knight + Dot Connector Joint
 | A guest post by
|