Press Forward Locals take center stage in quest for next $500 million
Our goal is to launch hundreds of local chapters and bring more local dollars to local journalism
One of the more dramatic moments from the recent Knight Media Forum was when Knight CEO and President Maribel Pérez Wadsworth and MacArthur Foundation President John Palfrey announced the new round of Press Forward chapters in 11 locations around the country. As you can see above, they had a map of the U.S. that literally lit up with the new local chapters (in yellow), prompting rousing applause from the room.
So why the focus on local chapters when Press Forward already has more than $500 million in commitments? Because that amount alone cannot solve the local news crisis in America. We need local funders, donors, advertisers, supporters—nearly everyone in communities—to step up to help if we’re going to sustain news ecosystems. And as a co-chair of the Press Forward working group on local chapters, I’ve seen firsthand how coalitions of funders can help catalyze money in communities.
“Our first focus for Press Forward was on local chapters because we realize that national funders can’t do it all themselves,” Press Forward Director Dale Anglin told me recently. “We hope to capitalize on the momentum from KMF to help launch many more local chapters in the months ahead.”
So far, we have 17 Press Forward local chapters, but our goal is to have hundreds launched over the next five years. How will we get there? The first request for proposals (RFP) from Press Forward is for the new Catalyst Funds for local chapters, which will give each chapter up to $250,000 over two years. This funding will help chapters get organized, assess local news and information needs, and start fundraising in communities. We expect local foundations not just to establish these chapters, but actually lead the effort to bring in even more funding.
Difficult problems require audacious solutions. And our audacious solution to the local news crisis is to raise an additional $500 million from communities. We need to flip the ratio so that local dollars eclipse the dollars from national funders in Press Forward. And this can’t just come from philanthropy. We will need local news outlets to get more support from reader revenues, local advertisers, public policy initiatives and their own fundraising campaigns to diversify their revenue streams and become truly sustainable.
To meet the challenge, these outlets must strive to make sure the entire news ecosystem is served. As my co-chair Teresa Gorman at Democracy Fund recently wrote in The Local Fix newsletter: “We must look at ‘sustainability’ as more than a solid financial business model. It also means the resilience, safety of, and respect for the people, networks and communities doing this great work. And there are many examples of BIPOC media who have demonstrated that sustainability for decades as Alicia Bell said on stage [at KMF].”
The kind of journalism we support matters. My colleague Jim Brady and I have said that we will travel anywhere in the country to explain what is involved and help bring more funders on board to support local news. I’ve been speaking at gatherings all over to spread the gospel and will continue beating the drum to get more dollars flowing in to support the vital work of local news in strengthening our democracy.
If you’re ready to start a Press Forward local chapter, you can find more information on the website, including a guide for local funders and how to form a local chapter.
Other news around the horn…
Research
📈 Knight investments lead to increased sustainability. In 2019, Knight Foundation announced it would double its investment in local news to $300 million over five years. So how has that worked out? Impact Architects released its second report on sustainability for newsrooms that went through Knight-funded programs such as American Journalism Project (AJP), Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), LION Publishers, Knight x LMA BloomLab and more. Median revenue for newsrooms in all those programs rose 20.4 percent from 2021 to 2022, even while median digital average monthly users declined 2.4 percent. “Targeted interventions with clear goals…yield the most direct short-term and long-term impact with respect to sustainability,” the report concluded.
Investments
🗞️ Student newspaper in Iowa buys two local papers. We like to consider students as the future of the journalism industry, but some apparently are ready to rule the present. The Daily Iowan, a student newspaper at the University of Iowa, took the very grown-up role of buying out two community newspapers in its vicinity, the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun and Solon Economist. Of course, it’s not all students in charge, as the University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication will jointly operate the two papers, while offering student journalists the chance to get reporting experience. The current staff of the two acquired newspapers will continue in their roles, with weekly print publication continuing. “Investing in local journalism and working with nearby communities offers students a chance to produce meaningful work and gain professional experience while working alongside veteran journalists at the newspapers,” said Melissa Tully, professor and director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Policy
🏛️ Illinois goes big with local news support bill. When considering the various ways that states can support local news, creating a task force is usually the most yawn-inducing. However, if that task force comes back with a bill as strong as the one in Illinois, then task-force away! The Strengthening Community Media Act, introduced by State Sen. Steve Stadelman, who chaired the task force, was called “the most ambitious package of journalism policy that I’ve seen” by Anna Brugmann of Rebuild Local News. The act includes provisions that direct state agencies to spend 50 percent of ad budgets on local news organizations and offer tax breaks for newsrooms that hire or retain journalists as well as for small businesses that advertise in local news outlets. It even has an innovative scholarship program for students with a requirement that they work in local news in the state for at least two years. While not all provisions are expected to pass, Stadelman told Medill Local News Initiative: “If I can get a couple things that will help the bottom line of newsrooms, I will be satisfied.”
Artificial Intelligence
🦾 Microsoft wants to be part of solution with AI in newsrooms. AI might have its pollyannas and doomsdayers, but Microsoft’s massive investment in OpenAI (which runs ChatGPT) makes it a natural partner with newsrooms. And it certainly isn’t sitting still, announcing five new partnerships last month with CUNY (AI Journalism Lab), the Online News Association (AI in Journalism Initiative), GroundTruth Project (an AI track for Report for America), Nota (building AI tools for publishers) and Semafor (Signals). In each case, the goal is to help journalists and students identify the AI tools that will help them do their job better, efficiently produce news and serve audiences. “This work is challenging—and our goal is to find ways to support journalists in this mission, not replace them,” wrote Microsoft’s Noreen Gillespie. “By working with these organizations, we hope to shed light on the promise that the newsroom of the future can hold.”
👎 NewsGuard finds 739 AI-generated news sites. On the downside of AI, NewsGuard reported it had found 739 AI-generated websites posing as news in 15 languages with little to no human oversight. While most of the material on these sites cover topics such as technology, entertainment and travel, some include false claims, including that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s purported psychiatrist had committed suicide. Because many of these sites make money from programmatic advertising, brands need to take steps to exclude these sites from their ad buys. “Unless brands take steps to exclude untrustworthy sites, their ads will continue to appear on these types of sites, creating an economic incentive for their creation at scale,” NewsGuard concludes. And with elections taking place around the world this year, these kinds of sites can also ramp up misinformation on a massive scale.
🤔 People are pessimistic about a future with AI. We hear a lot from experts when it comes to AI and society, but what do average folks think? Elon University recently released an in-depth report, “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence by 2040,” with a national public poll and canvassing of 300 experts. What’s fascinating is the areas where the public poll showed the most concern: privacy and losing jobs (see chart above). Respondents predicted a more positive effect on access to knowledge and day-to-day work tasks. As for societal institutions and systems, people were most worried about politics and elections, as well as the level of civility in society and reducing wealth inequalities. They were more optimistic about an improvement in healthcare systems and environmental protection. In the end, many people just aren’t sure what to expect. “On each of the issues we queried, about a quarter or more of Americans say they are not sure what the impact of AI will be on societal systems, or they expect little or no impact,” the report said.
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Quote of the Week
The [Knight Media Forum] provided us with information needed to ensure the sustainability of the Dallas Examiner. I am committed to starting a Press Forward chapter in Dallas…The pastor of my church is chair of Communities Foundation of Texas and I will start the conversation with him…Philanthropy is one of the revenue streams that we must pursue to sustain the Dallas Examiner.
—Mollie Finch Belt, publisher/CEO of the Dallas Examiner, as part of a series of takeaways from KMF by the Local Media Association
News @ Knight Credits
Written by Duc Luu, with Mark Glaser
Edited by Jim Brady, Jessica Clark and Kara Pickman