Why sustainability should be core to Press Forward
A focus on the business side of local news will lead to stability for the long-term
It’s exciting to think about the potential that Press Forward brings to local news around the country, with more than $500 million now committed over five years. But what happens when that money is spent? Are these newsrooms and the communities they serve going to wonder when “Press Forward 2” will hit theaters?
Of course, there’s no guarantee of a sequel. So we want to make sure to take advantage of today’s Press Forward opportunity to build tomorrow’s sustainable newsrooms. Because every dollar a newsroom earns on its own is one less it needs from philanthropy. And that allows philanthropy to put that money to use elsewhere. That means ensuring that publishers have support for their infrastructure on the business side and staffers that can help with fundraising, sponsorships and community engagement. And a focus on sustainability is ultimately better for publishers, as it keeps them grounded in local support and less impacted by the whims of national funders.
I know some think Knight is too focused on sustainability and feel that comes at the expense of journalism. That is a fundamental misreading of our strategy. We fund sustainability precisely because of the importance of journalism. Being sustainable allows publishers to remain open—and independent. There is no better weapon against those who don’t respect journalism than not needing their support to keep doing it.
We’ve also had some questions about which kinds of newsrooms Knight will support and how. Let me reiterate that we will support nonprofit and for-profit newsrooms, because both will be needed to effectively serve communities vital news and information. For-profit newsrooms can get funding through fiscal sponsors or through the many networks and associations that we fund such as the Report for America, Newspack and Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers.
Also, let’s not disregard the local news infrastructure that Knight and many others have been building for the past few years. The Institute for Nonprofit News, American Journalism Project, News Revenue Hub and others have played key roles in revitalizing local news across the country, and Press Forward must take advantage of that existing infrastructure. Let’s use the roads already built so we can more quickly reach the places where new innovation needs to happen.
One of Knight’s core goals is to continue to build sustainable models for local news that will live on beyond Press Forward—however long it runs. Sustainability does not mean delivering big profit margins; it means delivering more meaningful journalistic dividends to communities.
More on Press Forward from Knight
My colleagues have been generating buzz about Press Forward with their own media hits. Our senior director of journalism, Karen Rundlet, had an excellent opinion piece in Essence calling for support to newsrooms serving diverse audiences: “A healthy and functioning democracy requires all communities to have reliable access to news and information, especially those who have historically been marginalized,” she wrote. “After decades of decline, there is finally a sense of urgency to ensure this momentum is not squandered.”
And our outgoing (in both senses of the word) president and CEO Alberto Ibargüen was recently profiled in The Daily Beast, discussing a need to rethink the for-profit, corporate chain model for local news. “'We’ve got to experiment with a range of different models before we find one that is really sustainable,” he said. “You need for a fourth estate to be independent. You need for them to be able to resist the kind of pressure from government, from advertisers or even from powerful individual citizens. You need for them to be independent in order for this check and balance thing to work. And if they’re not economically independent, then how the hell are they going to be editorially and politically independent?”
Other news around the horn…
Funding
🔎 Press Forward gives us more clues. The collaborative funding initiative provided a few more clues in their first email missive. Clue #1: There will likely be more than $500 million available. After the announcement, “Dozens of donors from across the country reached out, eager to begin or expand their giving to journalism,” the email said. Clue #2: There are three ways the Press Forward funds will be invested: “Aligned Grantmaking,” with individual funders making grants according to their priorities; “Pooled Fund,” with some funders putting their money here, with grant guidelines coming next year; and “Press Forward Local,” with local chapters helping corral more investments from local funders. Clue #3: Press Forward will measure its success in three ways, according to Kathy Im at MacArthur Foundation: Is democracy stronger? Have we made a positive impact in the field? Is philanthropy doing all it can to support local news?
🧀 Cheeseheads FTW! Wisconsin collab gets more funding. You probably didn’t realize that the Green Bay Packers and Microsoft funded local news in Northeastern Wisconsin. Not only have they funded it, alongside community foundations, but they’ve now renewed funding with an additional $135,000 to keep the Northeastern Wisconsin (NEW) News Lab going. The Lab is a regional news outlet with these partners: Green Bay Press-Gazette, Appleton Post Crescent, the Press Times, Fox Valley 365, Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Watch and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s journalism department. Its latest series is “Family Matters,” covering important family issues, including education, senior living and foster care. "If you fund news, in a horizontal way you potentially fund programs to mitigate homelessness, to increase school graduation rates because you fund the ability of the [news outlets] to talk about that to create citizens in a community who are informed," said Mary Snapp, vice president of strategic initiatives at Microsoft.
Research
✨ Nonprofit newsrooms increased diversity. The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) recently surveyed its members and found that overall staff and leadership diversity has improved from 2020 to 2022—with some caveats. INN found that the racial and ethnic makeup of nonprofit news staff now largely reflects the U.S. population and is more diverse than many for-profit outlets. But that diversity is stronger at the staff level than leadership level (see chart above). On the bright side, nonprofit news outlets have a higher proportion of female staff and more women in leadership than in many peer news outlets. But while local BIPOC-led and BIPOC-serving news outlets reported a higher median level of foundation funding than among white-led peers, the national news outlets had it reversed, with white-led organizations getting more funding. INN followed up on the survey by offering five ways to advance diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, including sustained funding for BIPOC-led news outlets, an increase in general operating support, and more diversity at the leadership level of white-led outlets.
Impact
👂🏽Lessons from El Tímpano’s disinformation training. El Tímpano (“eardrum” in Spanish) has been serving the San Francisco Bay Area’s Hispanic and Mayan communities through in-person engagements and text messaging. They’ve also run innovative “disinformation defense” trainings for more than 100 residents to help debunk false information on social media. El Tímpano’s founding director Madeleine Bair wrote about some lessons they’ve learned. She noted that different communities require different kinds of training, with Mayan immigrants actually getting their misinformation from community leaders. They also realized that misinformation was rife in their communities before COVID-19, typically with consumer fraud. And they’ve also found that partner organizations make a difference, including schools, health centers, parent groups and more. As for the biggest deterrent for misinformation? “It is our ongoing Spanish-language news and information service that addresses a root cause of disinformation, particularly when it comes to immigrant communities: the lack of a trusted and reliable source of news,” Bair concluded.
🌾 Rural News Network explores challenges of rural communities of color. There are 14 million people of color living in rural areas of America, and they face many challenges, from pollution to lack of healthcare and broadband internet access. The Rural News Network (RNN) spent three months with 17 journalists and editors at six nonprofit newsrooms covering key issues, resulting in six in-depth stories. The series was funded by the Walton Family Foundation. A story in Flatwater Free Press reported on Native farmers in Nebraska who had dealt with the U.S. taking their land for decades, and are now buying back land. And New Mexico in Depth reported on how the state legislature invested millions of dollars to address the state’s shortage of healthcare workers, especially in rural areas with largely Hispanic and Native populations. But the efforts have fallen short, especially after the governor vetoed a provision in tax legislation. “These stories are important reminders of the ongoing efforts—and the work yet to be done—to close these gaps that make life harder for rural people of color,” said Dan Haugen, managing editor of Energy News Network, and lead editor on the series.
Relaunch
🚀 Connecticut newspaper comes back to life as nonprofit. What began as a Boy Scout troop project in 1952 grew into the beloved Good Times Dispatch (G.T.D.) newspaper based in Kent, Conn. But after it was closed by the Journal Register Corp. in 2009, the town went without a newspaper for 13 years. During the pandemic, some residents decided to bring back the paper as a nonprofit, with long-time editor Kathryn Boughton back in charge. They created a board and recently relaunched the G.T.D. website with the hope that grants, donations and some advertising will make it sustainable. “The Kent Good Times is back and so am I,” Broughton wrote in a special post. “It will be an independent newspaper, delivered digitally to your ‘doorstep’ for the foreseeable future, and is preparing to do what it did so well for 52 years—reporting the issues and events in the town.”
Survey
Survey to Address Journalist Burnout
Feeling fried in your newsroom? Finding sources for reinvigoration? Either way, share your experiences with researchers from SmithGeiger and the Reynolds Journalism Institute.
Take the survey here.
Jobs
Director, Press Forward. Learn more here.
Executive Director, City Bureau. Learn more here.
Membership Director, LION Publishers. Learn more here. Apply by November 5.
Data Journalism, Medill School at Northwestern University. 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.
Associate Director, North Carolina Local News Lab Fund. Learn more here.
Trainings
ProJourn Legal Workshops for Journalists and News Organizations in Spanish
Online and free
November 15 at 1 pm ET on access and transparency
Ida B. Wells Society Investigative Reporting Bootcamp
November 10–11
Atlanta
$25 registration fee; limited to 20 emerging professional journalists
Upcoming Events 📅
New Jersey Ethnic + Community Media Summit
Atlantic City, N.J.
November 10
Reimagining Journalism Summit from Lenfest Institute
Philadelphia
November 13–14
Las Vegas
January 9–12, 2024
Miami
February 21–22
Baltimore
March 7–10
Quote of the Week
“It’s not easy to decide to back away [from Twitter]; there’s still a fear about leaving—a fear of missing out on a great conversation or a new joke. But as a platform becomes less reliable—either editorially or technically—staying becomes more fraught. And as NPR has demonstrated, you may not be giving up all that much if you walk away.”
—Gabe Bullard, former NPR producer, on the negligible effects of NPR and public media stations leaving Twitter, a.k.a. X.
News @ Knight Credits
Written by Jim Brady, with Mark Glaser
Edited by Jim Brady, Jessica Clark and Kara Pickman