The Queen City’s Gambit to Demystify Journalism Philanthropy

A report from the first NC News & Philanthropy Forum

Jun 27, 2023

The first NC News & Philanthropy Forum in Charlotte. (Photo by Chris Rudisill.)

In recent years, a chorus has joined Knight Foundation President and CEO Alberto Ibargüen’s call to the broader philanthropic community: “Whatever your first priority, journalism should be your second.”*

Knight Media Forum has long showcased the role of journalism to funders who don’t otherwise eat, sleep and dream civic information. This has helped mobilize local funders, as evidenced by the rise of community news and information funds around the country.

But we should not stop there. Right now, as journalism funders are inviting a wider swath of philanthropic organizations to fund local news, there is fresh opportunity for stakeholders in communities to convene around shared priorities and interests.

To that end, Knight joined Wells Fargo in sponsoring the first NC News & Philanthropy Forum in Charlotte last week. The event’s goals were straightforward: Help local funders understand how journalism could fit within their priorities, and help publishers understand how these funders think and operate. Successful partnerships – especially with corporate philanthropy – require a strong base of mutual understanding.

“I try to attend each Knight Media Forum. The NC News & Philanthropy Forum was the perfect way to bring those discussions closer to home,” said Glenn Burkins, founder and publisher of QCity Metro. “This event was long overdue.”

Charlotte stands out among Knight cities as the place to pilot a locally focused convening of funders. There’s a healthy network of publishers and support organizations, including the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative and North Carolina Local News Workshop – which co-organized the day-long affair with Knight’s Charlotte Program Director, Charles Thomas, who has been a strong partner to the journalism community.

The panel on Making an Impact on Local Communities with (left to right): Shannan Bowen, NC Local News Workshop; Glenn Burkins, QCity Metro; Christian Monterrosa, The Pivot Fund; Anna Pogarcic, EducationNC; Angelica Santibañez, Enlace Latino NC. (Photo by Chris Rudisill)

Those organizations made the day’s conversations more tangible and forward-looking. “The future of journalism in Charlotte must be supported, collaborative, community-driven and trusted — that could be seen in the room on Tuesday,” said Chris Rudisill, director of the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative.

That “room” comprised more than 50 news leaders and funders, who engaged in a series of panels meant to deepen shared understanding between the arcane worlds of journalism and philanthropy.

"Showing and telling about the people and organizations who are reaching more people with trusted, useful news and information makes the nebulous-sounding work of ecosystem building concrete,” said Lizzy Hazeltine, Director of the North Carolina Local News Lab Fund.

Ju-Don Marshall, the President & CEO of Charlotte public radio station WFAE, said that: “As many of these funders prioritize direct services to the community, we need them to understand the critical role our newsrooms play in identifying the needs in our communities and prompting solutions — often in direct alignment with their organizations’ goals.”

Looking ahead, Hazeltine zeroed in on how success begets success. “When we have a shared story about community-level impact, it's much clearer how our interests as funders align and how we can work together to accelerate good work already in progress,” she said.

Getting everyone into a room last week was a great step, but it is just part of a multi-year journey. Plans are underway for the next event in Charlotte, and we’d love this event to inspire similar efforts around the nation.

Read more about the event in the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative’s weekly newsletter.

* Leading with a quote from your boss’s boss is not sucking up when they’ve already announced they’re stepping down.

Other news around the horn…

Impact

🏀 Hoosiers win with more local news. In these days of media layoffs, gloom and doom, it’s nice to find some bright spots of growth and hope. The Hoosier State is one such place. An event earlier this month celebrated the growth in Indiana nonprofit and for-profit news, with the American Journalism Project (AJP) helping to launch the Indiana Local News Initiative with $10 million in funding. Part of the Initiative’s mission is to collaborate with existing news outlets and fill gaps. For instance, TheStatehouseFile.com received a $180,000 grant from Lumina Foundation to eliminate its paywall. “It’s really exciting that Indiana is playing a leading role in ensuring that in a generation from now, dozens and dozens of nonprofit news organizations play a vital role in the civic life of our communities,” said AJP’s Michael Ouimette.

💡Deep South publishers push back against growth mentality. There has been a fallacy at the heart of digital news that scale is more important than impact. For years, we’ve heard about the push for more eyeballs, more clicks and more followers, when the real success of newsrooms comes from serving communities. That’s the big takeaway from the recent Deep South News Sustainability Meetup in Jackson, Miss., produced by LION Publishers. “Growth for the sake of growth introduces community mistrust. What does scaling look like as a matter of community engagement rather than pure growth?” asked Andrea Hart of MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. The meetup included brainstorming solutions to challenges for Deep South publishers, including using a customer relationship management (CRM) system, thanking donors and emphasizing a publisher’s unique value.

Tech

🤖 How AI can help reporters cover public meetings. In 2021, a Microsoft employee named Mark Talkington started a local newsletter, the Palm Springs Post, and later created an artificial intelligence-powered reporter named Paul. Working with a former Microsoft engineer, Talkington fed Paul all of the news stories he could find about Palm Springs as well as information out of city government. When Paul “attended” a public meeting on Zoom, he created a passable summary of the meeting, but not anything usable for the Palm Springs Post, Talkington told NiemanLab. Talkington doesn’t envision AI replacing reporters, who can provide analysis and context. And the folks at Documenters, who pay citizens to cover public meetings, responded that AI would not help build trust in communities. But Talkington noted that AI is here to stay and reporters should start experimenting with it. Plus, he sees potential “in communities that are true news deserts to at least get some basic information about what city government is up to in their community in a very efficient manner.”

Research

🌍 Global online users prefer social media for news. While many online users might not trust social media algorithms, they are still moving strongly toward accessing news via social media than through news websites and apps. That’s according to a recent global survey from Reuters Institute and Oxford University, the 2023 Digital News Report, which found that about one-fifth of respondents go to news websites and apps directly, down 10 percent from 2018. Young folks in particular are leaving Facebook behind and getting news from YouTube and TikTok. In fact, 44 percent of people age 18–24 use TikTok globally, with 20 percent using it for news. Overall, the report finds fewer people are interested in news, and more are avoiding it altogether, preferring more positive and solutions-oriented stories.s Those canceling subscriptions cited the high cost of living or high prices as the reason.

Cohorts

📸 CatchLight Fellows bring visual journalism back to California. In the many newsroom cuts over the past few years, photojournalists have been among the hardest hit. And that doesn’t make a lot of sense with the rise of visually focused social platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Nonprofit CatchLight has been trying to change that dynamic by subsidizing visual journalists in local newsrooms such as Berkeleyside, CalMatters and Bay City News, according to a recent story in Poynter. One photographer set up a photo booth at a Juneteenth celebration, another captured the story of a middle school student coping with COVID-19 and yet another delved into trust between residents and the Stockton Police Department. Here’s the full roster of CatchLight Fellows.

✨ Scripps Howard supports eight interns at rural outlets. Rural America is filled with news deserts and underserved communities. Scripps Howard Fund and the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) are trying to change that by placing eight interns from diverse backgrounds in local online or broadcast nonprofit newsrooms. They will be assigned to a dedicated staffer at each news outlet, and attend weekly training sessions for 10 or 20 weeks. “Journalism is most effective when those who report the news reflect the diversity of people and communities they cover,” said Scripps Howard Fund’s Mike Canan. “Our partnership with INN not only gives these interns hands-on experiences but also helps provide coverage of communities that are under-reported on.”