The path to a Press Forward local chapter in Wichita
How Wichita Foundation turned around a city of ghost newspapers with major investments in news
When the massive funding coalition Press Forward recently announced its first set of local chapters, you may have been surprised to see Wichita, Kan., on that list. I wasn’t. That’s because leaders at Wichita Foundation have been investing millions in local news in the past five years, and have even helped kick-start three news startups with Tiny News Collective. So to understand just how Wichita went from a struggling journalism town to a stalwart part of Press Forward, I checked in with Courtney Bengtson, chief strategy officer at Wichita Foundation. (Note: Wichita is a Knight city.)
How did you and leadership at Wichita Foundation become interested in funding journalism?
Courtney Bengtson: In 2015, our organization embarked on a predictive analytics project focused on the needs to address specific challenges that were hindering our city’s ability to have an upward economic trajectory. The results of that work—known as Focus Forward—highlighted that for Wichitans to thrive, they need to be able to share information and take collective action that spurs sustained growth in our community. We knew that Wichita was a city of ghost papers (with few local reporters) and felt that we were the best-suited philanthropic organization to have a systemic, positive impact on the ecosystem. Since 2018, the Wichita Foundation has invested $2 million in local news and information initiatives, supported 15 information outlets and unlocked $3.5 million in national funding to strengthen Wichita’s local news ecosystem.
What were the challenges to funding journalism that you didn't anticipate?
Bengtson: Funding local news as a community foundation comes with a unique set of challenges that revolve around sustainability, accountability, trust and adaptability in a rapidly changing media landscape. We’re learning that through collaboration, experimentation and a proactive approach that we’re able to create a more informed and engaged community. There was also a high level of education needed at the staff, board and community level about local philanthropies like the Wichita Foundation getting involved in local news; there’s a distinct difference between supporting it and driving editorial decisions. We spent significant time teaching that difference to constituents, and still work regularly to make the case for the need to invest in journalism initiatives rather than “XYZ” cause that the community deems more important.
What concerns donors about funding journalism?
Bengtson: It continues to be a cultural shift to recognize local news as a public good or a civic service. It’s vital to fill gaps in community coverage, and it will be part of our foundation’s continuing education for donors on key issues facing our society today.
What do news organizations misunderstand about how community foundations operate?
Bengtson: There are some news organizations that have significant resistance to working with a community foundation for the fear that we are looking to drive editorial coverage and/or think that we believe our foundation should be exempt from negative coverage. It is quite the opposite. We expect to be held equally as accountable as any other institution. We also recognize news organizations are hoping we will commit general operating investments to increase their capacity and sustainability. But, as recent research indicates, “new dollars alone do not accelerate a news business on the path to sustainability.” Circling back to my earlier comments on education, it’s important for community foundations to build trusted relationships with news organizations first, followed by the ability to step back and let the organization experiment and share findings of what works and what needs tweaking.
Why did the Wichita Foundation want to become one of the early Press Forward locals?
Bengtson: Based on our work to revive community-centric news, it made perfect sense to collaborate with others through Press Forward. The magnitude of this collective effort will amplify the local news landscape and actively shape an informed future for all.
Being a Press Forward local implies our continued commitment to advancing and promoting the importance of local news ecosystems across the country and in our own communities. We’ll continue to engage in local projects at both the financial and human capacity levels, and we have increased our commitment both for funds and the length of time we’ll engage in this work as a direct result of Press Forward.
As for receiving dollars from the national funds, it’s possible, but we know it is not guaranteed. Community foundations have the unique ability to pool funds together from a variety of sources, so we will leverage the credibility of the national cohort of Press Forward partners to drive additional local investment in Wichita.
I received a critique from a local foundation where leadership shared that news organizations were way too aggressive with funding pitches. She said local foundations supporting news organizations long-term was unsustainable. What’s your take?
Bengtson: To be frank, we must acknowledge there are challenges faced by both news organizations and foundations. On one hand, news organizations play a vital role in informing and engaging communities, and securing funding is essential for their sustainability. On the other hand, foundations—especially community foundations—have finite resources and need to allocate funds strategically to address various community needs. I think it’s really about a balanced approach; open communication and trusted, meaningful relationships between news organizations and foundations is key. Open dialogue, collaboration and a strategic approach to sustainability can contribute to a healthier ecosystem for local news organizations without overburdening foundations.
A fond farewell, and lessons learned
This is my final newsletter contribution, as I wrap up my work at Knight. After reviewing hundreds of proposals these last eight years, I leave you with a few thoughts:
GOOD IDEAS DRAW A CROWD: Multiple smart people have the same good idea at the same time. Author Macolm Gladwell talks about this in his book The Tipping Point. Finding those people and collaborating with them often accelerates the work. Find your partner, find your tribe, move faster and build smarter.
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE & ORIGINAL IDEAS: When you work with people from similar educational, socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, you often come up with the same ideas. That finding is central to the business case for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), as cited by McKinsey and Company and Harvard Business School. For more original ideas, put DEI at the beginning of the business journey, instead of trying to retrofit later.
USER EXPERIENCE MATTERS: At the end of the day, our relevance depends on whether community/audience/readers/listeners/viewers have a valuable experience with journalism. If they don’t, they’ll devote their attention to other sources for information or, sadly, misinformation. The customer experience is critical. We have to make it better.
NEWSMATCH SEASON: I’d be a fool not to remind you that it’s #NewsMatch season until December 31. As the new CEO of the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), I’m repping more than 400 nonprofit newsrooms now and the communities they inform. A donation to the general NewsMatch fund or to your favorite INN member will be matched through New Year’s Eve. I’ve made mine. Those dollars provide unrestricted general operating support. End the year strong and donate here to support news outlets that produce independent nonpartisan reporting. #AlwaysBeRaising 😀
The outpouring of support about my next role at INN—the emails, the social media love, even a couple of treats that arrived at the office—it’s all been deeply moving. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It’s been an honor to work with so many brilliant grantees. You make me and everyone at Knight smarter.
Special thanks to the J-team fam: To Jim Brady for the sponsorship that led to my promotion as Senior Director. A wonder of the work at Knight is the VP’s inbox, calendar and travel schedule. Jim makes time for the ideas and more importantly, the people. To Jennifer Preston for hiring me and for your unwavering and energetic support personally and professionally. To all my teammates past and present—Shazna, Paul, LaSharah, Nick, Jon, Duc, Marc, Liliana, Natalia—thank you for your intelligence, expertise, creativity, good humor and friendship. See you at the next conference. 😀
Other news around the horn…
Startups
🌱 Nonprofit startups launch in Indy, Akron. December 5 was a pretty big day for nonprofit news in America. The American Journalism Project helped launch two news organizations that day, Mirror Indy in Indiana and Signal Akron in Ohio. Both newsrooms have put their focus on the diverse communities they cover, including listening sessions and feedback loops. Mirror Indy—so named because the rear-view mirror was invented there—talked with more than 1,000 residents before launch and has a Documenters program with more than 70 citizens trained to cover public meetings. Signal Akron, meanwhile, is the second Signal Ohio newsroom, coming after Signal Cleveland. It also has a Documenters program and millions in the bank from national and local funders, including Knight Foundation. “Signal Akron will expand the volume, depth and reach of news in the market while centering the experiences and amplifying the voices of the residents who live here,” said Signal Ohio board member Debra Adams Simmons. (Note: Akron is a Knight city and the birthplace of the late James Knight.)
🌳 How five digital news startups took root. It’s easy to feel hopeless when considering thousands of newspapers in the U.S. have gone out of business since 2005. But there is a flip side to those losses, as hundreds of local news startups have launched in the past few years, and some are becoming sustainable. Nieman Reports decided to look deeper into five recent startups to glean some lessons: Cardinal News leaned on experienced journalism leaders in Virginia. The Kansas City Defender has taken an “unapologetic and community-led” counterpoint to mainstream media. Spotlight PA has focused strongly on government accountability reporting. The Charlotte Ledger has launched a series of email newsletters. And Mississippi Free Press has used “solutions circles” of citizens to inform its reporting. “If people [support] us and our approach to journalism that doesn’t literally talk down to them from a stage, then we can do more of what they want us to do,” said Free Press CEO and editor Donna Ladd.
Sustainability
🤭 Direct funding not the panacea for newsrooms. Many, many newsrooms over the years told LION Publishers (and anyone who would listen) that direct funding, a.k.a. “show me the money” would be the key to their success. So, in 2021, the association gave 12 publishers $65,000 to $89,000 over two years to hire a business-side person who could bring in enough revenues to cover that cost. Did it work? Not exactly. Only six of the 12 brought in enough revenue to cover that new person’s salary. LION’s Lisa Heyamoto details the lessons from the program, and how LION can better support newsrooms. First, publishers need to have “operational readiness” before taking on the new person. They also need a clear strategy, consistent approach and leader involvement. And finally, they need to bring in the right person and give them the support to succeed. “Managing this position was much more difficult and time-consuming than anticipated,” one publisher said.
👏🏽 Another nonprofit conversion, this time in Long Beach. The Long Beach Post’s ownership history is a long and winding one similar to many online news startups. It began as a project of a couple of politicos in 2007, was subsequently bought by a local impact investing group in 2018, and just became a nonprofit organization. So now both the Post and the Long Beach Business Journal will operate under the new nonprofit Long Beach Journalism Initiative. The owners knew their work was in public service of the community, so why not take the next step? “This is a huge change: It means local news is now in the hands of its readers,” wrote CEO Melissa Evans. And that also means readers and community leaders must support the nonprofit through donations, memberships and sponsorships. “This move will strengthen the journalism we produce every day, but it also means our financial support must come from you, our readers, our business partners, our foundations—all of our constituents,” she wrote.
Policy
🚫 Tax policy goes wrong in Washington state. The Washington State Legislature has been a leader in supporting local news, with a tax break for newspapers back in 2009, and funding for a local news fellowship earlier this year. But its track record took a downturn when it revised its tax policy recently to eliminate the business and occupation (B&O) tax for newspapers but not for many strong, established online-only news outlets such as West Seattle Blog and Investigate West. What gives? As much as lawmakers appreciate online news outlets, they didn’t want to open a Pandora’s box in trying to figure out which were trustworthy. “It was kind of a place we didn’t want to go,” Sen. Mark Mullet (D-Issaquah) told GeekWire, another publication that lost out on the tax break. However, the law did allow an odd exception for online publications that had a print product in 2009, including the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which now has zero local reporters. Could the state reconsider its restriction? “It’s always a possibility for discussion,” Mullet said. “I would never rule it out.” Let’s hope this discussion is re-opened soon.
🇨🇦 Canadian government reaches agreement with Google. In more positive policy news, the tussle between tech giants and the Canadian government over its Online News Act has been pacified—at least with Google. An agreement will allow publishers to receive money from a pool of $100 million per year, down from the $172 million the government first estimated. The new regulation will allow Google to negotiate with a single point of contact and limit its arbitration risk. "After months of holding strong, of demonstrating our commitment to local journalism, to strong independent journalists getting paid for their work. . .Google has agreed to properly support journalists, including local journalism," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. Meta has not come to the bargaining table and is still blocking all news on Facebook in Canada.
Culture
A survey from Jennifer Mizgata, a Reynolds Journalism Institute fellow, is collecting information about the work culture in the news industry to inform resources for newsrooms she will be creating as part of her fellowship.
Take the survey here.
Jobs
Deputy Managing Editor, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Learn more here.
Program Officer, Local News, MacArthur Foundation. Learn more here.
Trainings
Beginner's guide: Custom GPTs for local news publishers
Center for Cooperative Media
December 13 at 1 pm ET
Lenfest Institute
Free and online
February and March 2024; apply by December 22
Fellowships
California Local News Fellowships
For newsrooms who want to host fellows
Apply by December 13
$5,000 grants for women and nonbinary journalists covering subculture
Apply by December 17
Upcoming Events 📅
Las Vegas
January 9–12
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
“From a leadership perspective, this makes it really easy for others to enter [AI] without a huge set of expectations around what’s going to happen. And it helps that we’re not firing anyone or laying anyone off around the use of AI.”
—Richland Source CEO Jay Allred on alleviating fears around AI replacing journalists. He also runs Lede AI and has been using AI in local news for a decade.
News @ Knight Credits
Written by Karen Rundlet, with Mark Glaser
Edited by Jim Brady, Jessica Clark and Kara Pickman