Karen Rundlet, always focused on communities, is the perfect fit to lead INN
We will miss our longtime colleague but wish her the best at the Institute for Nonprofit News
Wednesday was both a sad and a proud day for Knight Foundation, as it became public that Karen Rundlet—our longtime senior director of journalism—will be leaving us at the end of the year to become the new CEO at the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN). While we will indeed miss Karen, we’re excited for this new chapter in her career. And it is one she so well deserves.
Since arriving at Knight as a program officer in 2015, Karen has been a leader and innovator on the Journalism team. She’s been a strong advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) internally and externally. In a recent article for Essence, Karen wrote: “When Knight evaluates applicants, we inquire about diversity. We ask about the diversity of boards, staff, and leadership. That allows us to make a determination of how well they can meet the needs of the audiences and communities they seek to serve. More diverse staffs produce a wider range of stories and perspectives—an imperative for the longevity of any media platform.”
The grants Karen has made reflect that viewpoint. She was instrumental in Knight’s major investments in Howard University, where we added a new Knight Chair (Nikole Hannah-Jones) and collaborated with other funders to provide $20 million in support for the iconic HBCU to help launch the Center for Journalism & Democracy. She also has been a driving force in our continued commitment to NewsMatch, now in its eighth year supporting fundraising for nonprofit newsrooms. And she helped shepherd early investments in Sahan Journal, a powerful digital nonprofit newsroom for immigrants and communities of color in Minnesota, as well as City Bureau and Documenters, innovators at training citizens to cover public meetings.
The Journalism team at Knight often refers to Karen as the soul of the program. There’s never a shortage of activity at Knight, and in that chaos, it can be easy for team members to get lost in financial spreadsheets, studying code for tech grants or looking for ways to scale a vibrant local media ecosystem. When that happens, we can always count on Karen to remind us what our work is all about: Funding journalism in the interest of serving communities. Frequently-heard Rundlet-isms include: “You know what, guys, your most amazing idea will still fail if it’s not serving communities.” “OK, this is an interesting plan, but who are they serving?”
Karen’s constant focus on communities is now embedded in all of us. She’s never lost sight of the mission of the Knight brothers, even when—and maybe especially when—the going was rough. For much of 2021, Knight’s Journalism team consisted of just Karen and Jon Belgrad, and they powered through, keeping NewsMatch humming and closing our ambitious grant with Howard University.
While it is always sad to lose a trusted and admired colleague, there’s also nothing more satisfying than seeing that colleague ascend to such an important position in the local news space—and at such a crucial time.
Thank you, Karen, for your incredible work for Knight, and we look forward to working with you at INN in the years to come! (And for those who might be inspired to follow in Karen’s footsteps, we’ll be hiring soon, so if you’re interested in working in Knight’s journalism program, drop us a note at recruiter@kf.org).
Other news around the horn…
Elections
🗳 API, AP collaborate to strengthen election coverage. With the growing amount of misinformation about elections in the U.S., it will be crucial for journalists to sort fact from conspiracy theory during the upcoming 2024 elections. That’s why it’s so important that the American Press Institute (API) and Associated Press (AP) are teaming up to provide resources for journalists covering local elections, including a special weekly newsletter with tips and lessons from election coverage this year and what to look out for next year. How will they know what newsrooms need? They created a survey to find out. “We are pleased to work with the American Press Institute to share our expertise with local newsrooms as they prepare to cover one of the biggest stories in American politics,” said AP Washington bureau chief Anna Johnson.
🛡️IWMF offers safety trainings for newsrooms across America. The U.S. has such a growing problem with journalist safety that we need the help of an international foundation to make sure we can cover our next election without reporters being harmed. The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) is launching “Newsroom Safety Across America” with trainings for smaller newsrooms in battleground states ahead of the 2024 elections, focusing on risk assessment, personal security, legal protection, mental health care, and more. Any interested newsrooms and support organizations can fill out this form for IWMF. “The initiative will help newsrooms better prepare for, respond to, and recover from threats so that no journalist has to bear the weight of an attack alone,” said Elisa Lees Muñoz, executive director of the IWMF.
Research
📍Good news/horrid news for the state of local news. When Northwestern’s Local News Initiative took its annual look at the “State of Local News 2023,” it was the classic good news/bad news story, except the bad news went on and on and . . . you get the picture. Rather than bore you with hair-on-fire statistics—such as half of U.S. counties have no, or very limited, local news sources, or that we’ve lost almost half our newspapers and two-thirds of our newspaper journalists (43,000) since 2005—let’s turn to the good news. A bunch of philanthropists (including Knight) have committed more than $500 million to address this problem, while public policymakers at the national, state and local levels are also considering programs to help. There are even “a growing number of news outlets forging promising business models.” Hooray. Even though many alternative local news outlets (online-only, ethnic and public media) are still small and centered on urban areas, many are also “bright spots”—hence the map above—that have found success by “listening to their communities, building and maintaining local relationships, and providing excellent local customer service.” Imagine that.
🌴 Project Oasis finds digital news outlets thriving in Europe. As a counterpoint to the reality check from Northwestern, Project Oasis released a study of 540 digital media organizations in Europe and found plenty of sunshine. More than 85 percent of publishers said they focus on society and human rights issues, with more than half doing investigative work, and many forming alliances with other news outlets across borders. While most have only started publishing in the past decade, they’ve found that two to six revenue streams help them become sustainable. More than half are nonprofit, but the for-profits tend to invest more in journalism than boost profits. “No oligarchs, no paywall. Just your donations and our work,” is the slogan of the Czech digital native outlet Deník Referendum, started in 2009. Of course, they still have business challenges, and despite many publishers being journalists with limited business experience, most expect to grow in the coming years. Prost!
♪ More Americans getting news from TikTok. It’s true that fewer folks on Twitter/X, Facebook and even Reddit are going regularly for news, but the opposite is true on TikTok, where 43 percent of users regularly seek news there. That’s the finding from Pew Research Center’s latest fact sheets on social media and news. It’s true that Facebook still leads with 30 percent of Americans going there regularly for news (especially about new pets and vacations), while YouTube (26 percent) and Instagram (16 percent) are second and third, but TikTok is now fourth (14 percent), with a third of adults aged 18 to 29 getting news regularly there. Another interesting area of growth is on Nextdoor, where 28 percent of users regularly get news (about the latest porch pirates’ forays).
Investments
✨Democracy Fund invests $4 million in 11 newsrooms in communities of color. For many publishers, the Holy Grail is getting multi-year, general operating support grants. The Democracy Fund is lighting the way with $4 million in investments in 11 newsrooms centered on communities of color. They were chosen for “community-first and community-centered reporting, collaborative spirit within the field, and leadership in the journalism transformation space.” The newsrooms include City Bureau, Conecta Arizona, Outlier Media, Resolve Philly and Scalawag. The Democracy Fund notes that while the grants align with the values of Press Forward, these are not Press Forward grants, per se. “As we support their missions, we will continue seeking opportunities to advance and invest in our vision of an inclusive, multi-racial democracy that is open, just, resilient, and trustworthy,” they conclude.
Jobs
Executive Director, City Bureau. Learn more here.
Program Coordinator, Oklahoma Media Center. Learn more here.
Director, Local News, MacArthur Foundation. Learn more here.
Program Officer, Local News, MacArthur Foundation. Learn more here.
Trainings
Lenfest News Philanthropy Network: Year-End Fundraising Chat
Online and free
Thursday December 7 at 1 pm ET
Fellowships
Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship
10 days of in-person training in Washington, DC
Apply by December 4
$5,000 grants for women and nonbinary journalists covering subculture
Apply by December 17
Upcoming Events 📅
Las Vegas
January 9–12, 2024
Miami
February 21–22
Baltimore
March 7–10
Austin
March 8–16
International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ)
Austin
April 12–13
Collaborative Journalism Summit
Detroit
May 9–10
Quote of the Week
“There’s this incredible desire for someone to tell the truth about what’s happening in their communities—not just floating in to report about a crime that happened.”
– Capital B CEO and co-founder Lauren Williams, speaking at the recent Reimagining Philadelphia Journalism Summit.
News @ Knight Credits
Written by Jim Brady, with Mark Glaser
Edited by Jim Brady, Jessica Clark and Kara Pickman