Exclusive: Knight Foundation invests $25M in American Journalism Project
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The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation this week will announce a $25 million investment in the American Journalism Project, a venture philanthropy dedicated to local news, executives told Axios.
Why it matters: The money represents the largest grant AJP has raised since its 2019 launch and one of the largest journalism grants the Knight Foundation has ever allocated to a single organization, said Sarabeth Berman, CEO of AJP.
The big picture: An uptick in newspaper closures last year has left more than half of the nation's counties with just one or no local news sources.
- Over the past few years, more philanthropists have stepped up to fill that void, investing in community-based nonprofit newsrooms in places like Tulsa, Cleveland, Houston, New Orleans, and Baltimore.
- AJP, which specializes in raising philanthropic funds for nonprofit newsrooms, has mobilized over $68 million in local philanthropy to support local news initiatives.
- "I know there's a lot of reporting in that philanthropy is slowing down, but we're not seeing that," Berman said. Philanthropists have become "the most important stakeholders for the future of local news," she noted.
Zoom in: The money will be used to grow AJP's reach from supporting 50 local newsrooms today to 60 over the next three years, Berman said.
- It will also be used to build a new unit within AJP called the Knight Resiliency Lab, which will provide local news organizations with "essential expertise and support ... to grow stronger and more sustainable for the long term," said Maribel Pérez Wadsworth, president and CEO of the Knight Foundation, in a statement.
- The lab will focus training and resources on areas such as audience development, major donor fundraising, building membership models and revenue diversification.
Between the lines: The new funds represent the Knight Foundation's commitment to AJP, which it helped launch with $20 million in funding in 2019.
- Since then, AJP has raised more than $200 million to support a portfolio of 50 nonprofit news organizations across 36 states.
Zoom out: AJP's model is unique in that it provides long-term operational support for its partner newsrooms in addition to growth capital.
- That support can be directly linked to stronger journalism, Berman noted. AJP-funded newsrooms Mississippi Today and City Bureau have won the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting.
- The first 22 organizations to partner with AJP have added over 200 journalists to their staffs, per AJP.
What to watch: More local newsrooms are shifting from for-profit to nonprofit businesses to tap into the growing pile of philanthropist cash.
- Today, around 48% of the Institute for Nonprofit News' members are local news organizations, up from about 20% in 2017.
