Struggling news organizations have benefited in recent years from a growing number of philanthropic efforts to support journalism. Most of that funding is directed toward news gathering — which may seem logical in an era when newsrooms are shrinking rapidly.
The American Journalism Project is taking a different approach, and it has raised $46 million to give a jolt to reporting efforts nationwide.
Created last year, the organization aims to build financially stable, nonpartisan news outlets across the nation by supporting their business and revenue operations. The idea is that resources for the newsroom will follow once news organizations have stable, diverse sources of funding.
The effort comes at a time when newsrooms in Los Angeles, Tampa, Detroit, San Antonio and others across the nation are shedding staff due to the economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis.
American Journalism Project’s goal is to borrow from other successful efforts to build a cadre of leaders who innovate to change systems in trouble. For instance, it says one model is Teach for America, which has sent millions of teachers into struggling school systems and inculcated many of its alumni with a desire to stay in public service.
And today it builds on that idea by announcing its new chief executive is Sarabeth Berman, who was previously head of public affairs at Teach for All, the global network created by Teach for America to spread its ideas.
Berman worked for several years in China and has experience raising money in an environment where there are plenty of wealthy people but where a philanthropic ethos is largely lacking.
She said she hopes she can bring what she learned in her previous jobs to people founding and building nonprofit news sites.
“We imagine there’s going to be lots of innovation in building revenue, and we’re looking forward to supporting that,” Berman says.
Civic Life
Elizabeth Green and John Thornton, the co-founders of American Journalism Project, believe that by tapping the expertise of socially oriented entrepreneurs — especially people with MBAs and other forms of financial expertise — the project can help spark a revival in local news.
Sometimes these financial and business experts will be locals; in other cases, the American Journalism Project will coax the right people to take their expertise to far-flung communities where they can be part of building something that will improve civic life.
“Journalism is very much in need of that mentality and approach,” says Green, who founded Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization that operates in seven cities to cover efforts to improve schools, especially those serving children who have historically lacked access to a quality education. Chalkbeat has raised $27 million from foundations since it’s inception.
Broad Support
The American Journalism Project’s approach of providing strategically placed financial support to help local news outlets grow has already drawn support from the Knight Foundation, Arnold Ventures, Emerson Collective, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, the Democracy Fund, and the Facebook Journalism Project.
The project announced in December its first grants to 11 news organizations totaling $8.5 million.
Thornton, who also founded the Texas Tribune, says the American Journalism Project has raised more than $46 million so far. (Thornton and his wife, Erin, are among the financial contributors.)
The project hopes to hit $60 million soon and then launch a second round of fundraising. The money so far has gone toward beefing up established newsrooms, but future projects may involve creating new organizations from the ground up.
Thornton cited CPI, a news organization in Puerto Rico, Mississippi Today, and VTDigger as early success stories. All three are providing important local news about the coronavirus crisis, and VTDigger is the only publication covering the Vermont state legislature, Thornton says.
Berman, who starts her new job in May, realizes she has a big challenge ahead of her, especially with the coronavirus taking a heavy toll on newsrooms. “We’re living in a crisis right now for local news,” she says, “at the moment when we need it the most.”
