The dismissal of a beloved editor and Pulitzer-winning journalist raises questions about the future of the well-funded Houston Landing, and nonprofit news in general.
As media companies slash staffs in search of ever higher profits at a time of ever lower ad rates, household-name philanthropies — Ford, MacArthur, Knight — are steadily increasing their spending on local news, and their regional counterparts are joining in.
NEW YORK (AP) — The American Journalism Project said Thursday that it was awarding $2 million in grants to three nonprofit newsrooms, including one based in New York City that […]
With traditional news organizations continuing to lay off reporters in their efforts to shed costs, nonprofit newsrooms are forming to help fill the gap left when they pull back on their local, civic and investigative reporting. But many of those for-profit news businesses are failing to take advantage of or are not placing full value on nonprofit journalism.
Sam Waterston may not be the head of a news organization, but he plays one on TV. Waterston, who plays ACN News President Charlie Skinner on HBO’s Newsroom, is helping out nonprofit news organization ProPublica with a video calling for donations to help support ProPublica’s investigative journalism.
Recent high-profile acquisitions of big name and community newspapers have been the talk of the news industry in recent months. Unlike the far-more publicized investments of the likes of Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and John Henry, investments in nonprofit news outlets have been far more modest. But Investigative News Network’s Kevin Davis says the nonprofit news sector could benefit from more investment from people of means.
Exclusives
A recent Pew Research Center/Knight Foundation roundtable conference on the future of nonprofit journalism had the feeling of an annual physical. After three hours of poking and probing, the sector was found to be slowly getting stronger but with some serious lingering issues. The biggest issue facing the sector is scale and finding major funding for expanding existing sites and starting new ones.
Embracing Imperfect In Impact Measurement
Kevin Davis, CEO and executive director of the Investigative News Network, says that before a system of standard metrics to measure journalism’s impact can be developed, there first needs to be a clear understanding of who will be using the metrics and for what purposes. “Regardless of what metrics are developed and agreed upon, adopting repeatable methodologies and standards that can be measured objectively over time will be essential in gauging not only the impact of the organization today, but also its growth,” he says.
