System/Policy
WYPR, news startup agree to editorial, operational partnership
|
WYPR and The Baltimore Banner plan to collaborate on news coverage while exploring ways to integrate their operations.
System/Policy
Nonprofit newsroom dissolves over allegations directed at founder
|
After a journalist tweeted about “massive red flags” during a job interview, FairWarning’s board called it quits.
Local That Works
Voice of San Diego’s guide to public schools gives audiences more of what they want
|
“We have never produced a product that people were this excited about and wanted this much,” says Scott Lewis, VOSD’s chief editor.
Programs/Content
Midwest nonprofit news outlet seeks to boost engagement-based journalism
|
The engagement fellow will focus on diversifying MCIR’s audience by involving community members in the newsroom’s editorial process and fostering conversations about its coverage.
Development
Knight News Match raises more than $1.2 million
|
“This is yet another sign that the public is willing to pay for quality journalism,” said Jennifer Preston, Knight Foundation’s VP of journalism.
Programs/Content
Missouri’s KCUR expands public media coverage of Kansas
|
With reporters from the Topeka-based Kansas News Service, public stations in the region will boost coverage from the state capital and other communities.
Nonprofit news
Mississippi Today startup pursues role of government watchdog
|
The news nonprofit has been covering budgeting issues and contentious legislation coming out of the capitol.
Nonprofit news
Nonprofit news site Oakland Local will suspend production, search for new management
|
Co-founder Susan Mernit stepped down to pursue another project.
Quick Takes
Knight Foundation study finds uneven growth among news nonprofits
|
“Nonprofit news organizations offer the potential to become part of the bedrock of a strong local news and information ecosystem,” the report said.
Quick Takes
Friday roundup: ACL performers play for scale; NPR tweaks newsmag rules
|
Also: INN launches a site to track news about nonprofit journalism.
Programs/Content
Nonprofit Marshall Project gears up for putting criminal justice reform on national agenda
|
The Washington Post had a blockbuster front-page investigation with a lengthy Aug. 3 story about an unreliable witness in a Texas execution case. But the story came from a new kid on the block. “The Prosecutor and the Snitch” was the first story to be published by The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news site focused on criminal justice reform. The Marshall Project, named after former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, plans to officially launch in October.
Programs/Content
Temple University axes nonprofit news site AxisPhilly, shifts focus to other ventures
|
The Center for Public Interest Journalism at Temple University shuttered nonprofit news website AxisPhilly June 13 after two years of reporting that earned national recognition but failed to meet the school’s expectations for local impact. Yet CPIJ, which is operated by Temple’s School of Media and Communications, is embarking on another digital news venture. It is helping to launch Brother.ly, a Philadelphia-focused news startup headed by Jim Brady, former editor-in-chief of Digital First Media. CPIJ launched AxisPhilly in 2012 with a two-year, $2.4 million grant from the William Penn Foundation. The site’s first director, Neil Budde, left after the first year as CPIJ looked to restructure the site to make it self-sustaining.
Development
MinnPost, Voice of San Diego set high membership goals with support from Knight
|
The two nonprofit newsrooms will split a $1.2 million grant from the foundation over two years.
Programs/Content
Omidyar and Greenwald’s new journalism venture will be incorporated nonprofit
|
First Look Media, a new journalism organization backed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and headed by former Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald, will include a 501(c)3 nonprofit as part of its structure. The company, announced in June with $250 million in promised capital from Omidyar, will comprise several entities, including a for-profit division dedicated to exploring new media technologies. According to a Dec. 19 announcement, the still-unnamed nonprofit-journalism side of the company will create a digital publication. Funds from the technology wing will support the journalism, which will retain editorial independence.
Development
Diversified revenues are key to sustainability, Knight study finds
|
Nonprofit news organizations have made significant progress in developing healthy and sustainable revenue streams, according to a recent study by the Knight Foundation.
Nonprofit journalism
St. Louis pubmedia merger moves ahead
|
St. Louis Public Radio and the St. Louis Beacon, a nonprofit news site, have negotiated a merger agreement that will be taken up by the University of Missouri System’s Board of Curators at its next meeting in November.
Programs/Content
Nonprofit newsrooms struggle with long-term funding, Pew study finds
|
Finding long-term, sustainable funding remains a top concern of the country’s nonprofit news outlets, according to the results of a new study published Monday by the Pew Research Center.
People
InsideClimate News wins Pulitzer for coverage of 2010 oil spill
|
The nonprofit InsideClimate News won this year’s National Reporting Pulitzer Prize for its investigative series The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Biggest Oil Spill You’ve Never Heard Of. Reporters Elizabeth McGowan, Lisa Song and David Hasemyer took on a seven-month investigation about a 2010 oil spill in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River. The winning package consisted of a three-part narrative and follow-up articles delving deeper into the circumstances of the oil spill. “It was an important story, and we told it well through the eyes of the people who experienced it and who are investigating it,” said David Sassoon, founder and publisher of ICN. Sassoon started ICN six years ago as a blog with just two people.
Quick Takes
Columbia Journalism Review profiles Texas Tribune
|
The Texas Tribune, the nonprofit public policy journalism website that recently received a $1.5 million Knight Foundation grant, is the subject of an extensive piece published April 15 in the Columbia Journalism Review.
Programs/Content
Report: IRS needs to change “antiquated” approach to nonprofit news startups
|
Taking too long to confer 501(c)3 status to startup nonprofit news organizations not only undervalues journalism but also has stymied new approaches to community journalism when they are needed most, according to a report released today by the Nonprofit Working Group of the Council on Foundations. The group was created by the Council on Foundations with a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to study the impact of the IRS’s recent approach to granting nonprofit status to media organizations. The report cites the IRS’s “antiquated” methods of granting tax-exempt status as hobbling efforts to create new media outlets. “Over the last several decades, accountability reporting, especially at the local level, has contracted dramatically, with potentially grave consequences for communities, government accountability, and democracy,” said Steven Waldman, chair of the Nonprofit Media Working Group, in a prepared statement. “Nonprofit media provides an innovative solution to help fill this vacuum, but only if the IRS modernizes its approach.”
The group pointed out five problems with how the IRS currently handles tax-exempt requests, including taking too long, undervaluing journalism and failing to “recognize the changing nature of digital media.”
The group recommended that the IRS address the problems by counting news and journalism as “educational” under tax-exempt rules.