Press Forward launches, includes transformative Knight investment in local news
New funding collaborative will invest more than $500 million over five years, including $150 million from Knight
For most of 2023, many in journalism have known about a funding collaborative being assembled to accelerate the promising trends we’ve seen in local news in recent years.
This morning, that collaborative – called Press Forward – was officially announced, with more than 20 donors joining to support local news with more than $500 million in investments over the next five years. Knight will contribute $150 million in new funds as part of this transformative effort.
As I alluded to earlier, Press Forward was far from a secret. I was on a panel that openly discussed the initiative at Knight Media Forum back in February, and many of us involved in the project have continued to discuss it publicly. That said, I realize there’s been an air of mystery around Press Forward, and that’s primarily because – outside of its core mission and goals – some details of Press Forward are still being worked out.
For the most part, I don’t want to use this space to repeat information you can find in the Press Forward or Knight press releases or on pressforward.news. But I do want to list Press Forward’s four priority funding areas: 1) supporting local newsrooms that have the trust of communities; 2) growing the infrastructure of local news by supporting efforts to help publishers with scalable tech and shared services; 3) supporting diverse newsrooms in underserved communities and news deserts; and 4) exploring public policy options to expand access to local news.
For the rest of this newsletter, however, I’d like to provide guidance to those trying to figure out how to best engage with Knight and Press Forward. So here are a few key points:
There’s no need to make a mad dash for the cash.
The question I have been asked the most about Press Forward is: “Do I need to be ready with a proposal when this is announced?” The answer is an unequivocal “no.” There’s absolutely no need to rush. This is not Black Friday. Press Forward is a five-year project, and its funds are budgeted accordingly. There’s no desire on Knight’s part to spend the bulk of Press Forward funds today, and even if there was, we could not do it. The right time to approach Press Forward is when you have a well-thought-out idea that is ready for prime time. Rushing to get something in front of funders is never a good idea, and that principle absolutely stands with Press Forward.
It will still take some time to sort things out.
As I mentioned earlier, some of us have been doing public events to talk about Press Forward and to solicit feedback from industry stakeholders and leaders. We were transparent in those discussions that we were still working out some details around Press Forward. And we still are. For example, we’re still working through process planning, such as how to manage Press Forward’s grant proposal pipeline. But you never know whether a pipe works until you run some water through it, so I would expect there to be some tweaks even after Press Forward starts operating at full capacity.
We’re not all done with fundraising.
While grantmaking will soon move to center stage, fundraising efforts for Press Forward will continue unabated. There’s been a tremendous effort – led by MacArthur Foundation CEO John Palfrey – to recruit both existing and new journalism funders into Press Forward, and we’re still looking to expand that tent as much as possible. So we’re open to suggestions or connections you may have regarding funders to whom we should be talking.
Knight still has funds available to those who don’t fit into Press Forward’s priorities.
I am aware that some think all of Knight’s journalism funds for the next five years will now be committed to Press Forward. That is not true. While Knight has committed $150 million in new funding to Press Forward – doubling our existing budget – we still have significant funds available for projects that don’t fit into Press Forward’s priorities. In fact, just today we announced nearly $15 million in new grants out of our existing budget.
I hope this guidance is helpful, but I am sure many of you have questions not addressed here. So we’ve set up a feedback form to gather your Press Forward questions, and we’ll add a section to this newsletter for the foreseeable future to address your questions. Here’s that form.
Other news around the horn…
Investments
✨ Knight-Lenfest invests in learning communities. Typically, the pipeline of grants for local news runs through news publishers, associations and collaborations. But there’s another key component for publishers trying to reach sustainability: communities of practice. That’s why the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund is investing $1 million in four learning communities: the News Philanthropy Network, the Audience Development Community, the Statewide News Collective and Engaged Cities. The funding will allow Lenfest to hire a new community manager, design and implement research projects, create a structured mentorship program, and create a grant program for publishers to implement solutions. “These are dynamic, collaborative working groups that share both successes and failures,” said Karen Rundlet, senior director of journalism at Knight. “This is another investment in the people who power journalism, the problem solvers, the innovators, and the doers.”
Impact
📈 AJP outlines impact of investments, programs. How much impact can $42 million buy for local news? The American Journalism Project (AJP) has the details on how its growing team invested in 41 nonprofit news organizations across the country, helping drive growth and revenue generation. As an example, AJP says its first cohort has returned 4.9 times its initial investment in annual revenues. And if you think AJP is OK with grantees resting on their laurels, you would be wrong. AJP now has a head of growth investments, two VPs of growth investments, a director of growth investments and a manager of growth investments (not content with that, they are hiring another VP of growth investments). Along with an obsession with scaling up, AJP also has helped to harness local philanthropy, created a “startups studio,” and launched its first local news incubator.
⚖️ ProJourn support leads to report on police violence in Vallejo. For the last four years, Open Vallejo has been trying to use the California open records law to get information on police use of force to no avail. With the support of ProJourn—a collaboration between Knight Foundation, Microsoft, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Microsoft, and law firm Davis Wright Tremaine—Open Vallejo sued the city for access to the records and is now reporting that four unarmed Black men have died from overuse of tasers by police. In one case, a police officer used a taser continuously for 2 minutes and 54 seconds on Andrew Lamar Washington, and when he died later that day the cause of death was reported as “cardiac arrest” and not related to the taser. “None of the case files released by the city this month contained evidence that the officers involved in the fatalities were disciplined, or that internal investigations were opened,” the story by Laurence Du Sault concludes.
Launches
🚀 New center will tackle AI, cybersecurity, free press. With the rise of generative AI, the challenges to the news industry, and the inability for governments to keep up, a group of prominent news veterans and funders are stepping up to launch the Center for News, Technology & Innovation (CNTI). According to a report in Axios, CNTI will conduct some of its own research but will also synthesize and commission outside research to help spark conversations through events. The group is led by Amy Mitchell, former director of journalism research at Pew Research Center, with funding from Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Knight Foundation, Lenfest Institute and private companies, including Google. Priority areas for research include algorithmic accountability; economic support for news; cybersecurity, news engagement and innovation; and online harms and disinformation. "We've got to have ongoing engagement…based on real research and not based on polemics or based on non-nuanced views," said Craig Forman, CNTI’s chairman of the board and former CEO of McClatchy.
🦀 How NOLA expanded to cover Shreveport. In an era of metro daily shrinkage, it’s heartening to see the folks at NOLA.com and The Advocate in New Orleans reversing the trend in launching a new digital publication, the Shreveport-Bossier Advocate, with a 10-person newsroom. How did they pull it off? According to a story by the Local Media Association, it was a combination of community listening, philanthropic support and a commitment from local advertisers. “We heard many of the same stories about how people got their news,” said Judi Terzotis, publisher of Georges Media Group, owner of NOLA.com and The Advocate. “A common theme was, ‘There’s this guy on Facebook that sometimes goes to meetings.’” To hire the editorial staff, they relied on grant funding, advertising and digital subscriptions, with the Community Foundation of North Louisiana setting up a local journalism fund.
Research
💰Philanthropic dollars growing for local news. It’s not a panacea, it’s not a savior, it’s not “the answer,” but philanthropic investment is growing and making a difference for local news, according to surveys from NORC at the University of Chicago, Media Impact Funders and Lenfest Institute. Fifty-two percent of funders say they increased investments in the past five years, with 81 percent saying “civic engagement with trusted news and information” as the most important factor for funding. Plus, 68 percent of funders say ensuring racial equity and inclusion is extremely or very important, with 63 percent of funders who support journalism focused on communities of color increasing funding in the past five years. Both nonprofit and for-profit newsrooms saw increases in philanthropic giving, with 51 percent of for-profit newsrooms getting increased funding from national foundations, and 56 percent of nonprofit newsrooms getting more revenues from major donors.
Jobs
OTT Streaming Content Producers in three local newsrooms for the Northeastern University Reinventing Local TV News Project. Learn more here.
CEO, Institute for Nonprofit News. Learn more here.
CEO, Indiana Local News Initiative. Learn more and apply 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.
Associate Director, North Carolina Local News Lab Fund. Learn more here.
Upcoming Events 📅
NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists
Philadelphia
September 7–10
Everywhere
September 15
Sept. 18-20
St. Paul, Minn.
Radio Television Digital News Association
Minneapolis
September 20–22
New York
September 21–22
Albuquerque
September 29–30
Southeast News Sustainability Meetup
Durham, NC
October 3–4
Military Veterans in Journalism
New York
October 5–7
Trust Conference from Thomson Reuters Foundation
London
Oct. 19-20
Tweet of the Week
News @ Knight Credits
Written by Jim Brady, with Mark Glaser
Edited by Jim Brady, Jessica Clark and Kara Pickman
A Knight + Dot Connector Joint