Community funded journalism is surging - do you have a plan?

We’ve been bullish on journalism funded by philanthropy for a number of years now. In fact, it’s one of LMA’s four core pillars for our 2019-2021 strategic plan. Like all new business models that emerge in our industry, this concept was met with skepticism by many people when we first started talking about it, and even now.

That skepticism is hard to understand given the number of reporting positions that have disappeared in the past decade.

In 2019, I knew of only a few companies that were actively involved in this space, besides public broadcasters and digital startups. Today I know of hundreds of local news organizations that are focused on journalism funded by foundations, high-net-worth individuals, corporations and the public. As journalism jobs continue to decline, I am encouraged by this surge of activity that is focused on putting reporters back in local markets to cover important community issues. 

At the Borrell Miami conference in March 2020, Alan Fisco, president of The Seattle Times, shared some of that company’s success stories in this space. The Times launched its community-funded journalism efforts in 2013 with a lab dedicated to public education. By 2020, it launched three more labs that collectively funded 17 newsroom employees and accounted for more than $2.5 million.

Since that time, The Seattle Times’ numbers have skyrocketed. In May of this year, The Times received a $1 million investment from Microsoft Philanthropies, allowing the newspaper to create three new local reporting positions for a three-year period. According to the news release, the funds will be used for “a reporter covering city, regional and state politics, with a focus on how geographic and cultural communities throughout the region are affected; a reporter covering the post-COVID economic recovery, with a focus on downtown Seattle, neighborhood business districts and the intersection with local governments and a graphics reporter focused on presenting news and trends in engaging visual formats.” 

Just one month later, Ballmer Group invested more than $1.1 million in support of The Seattle Times’ behavioral and mental health journalism project. According to that news release, “The dedicated project will have an editor, two reporters and an engagement editor, with support from photography, video and graphics teams.” 

Both press releases stated, “All reporting will be under the editorial independence and control of The Seattle Times.” Many people worry that journalism funded by philanthropy comes with strings attached. This is simply not true if you properly manage the terms and communicate clearly.

At this point in the conversation, many people in our industry respond by saying they are not The Seattle Times and don’t have the resources or the market size to take advantage of this opportunity.

That’s why we launched the LMA Lab for Journalism Funding, with support from the Google News Initiative last fall, and contracted with The Seattle Times to serve as faculty. We wanted to dispel that myth. Sixteen publishers, mainly in smaller and mid-size markets, participated in the six-month experience led by Frank Mungeam, LMA’s chief innovation officer. As of today, they have collectively raised more than $3.1 million for journalism projects.

On the smaller side, the Record-Journal in Meriden, Conn., has raised more than $100,000 for its Hispanic communities reporting lab. The company is in the process of hiring its second bilingual reporter. The Sun Herald in Biloxi-Gulfport, Miss., just raised $36,000 for a six-month reporter to cover the vaccine crisis (Mississippi is No. 50 in the nation when it comes to vaccination rates). It’s a big deal for a newsroom of nine to get funding for an extra reporting position.

Still not convinced this is for you?

Let me share more examples:

• Ten Word in Black publishers have been able to create a mini-education beat in each of their markets thanks to funding of $250,000 from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Walton Family Foundation. This covers stipends for 10 education reporters, a shared data journalist to support their work and three virtual events. 
• LMA’s COVID-19 Local News Fund raised $1.74 million for more than 200 local news organizations last year which allowed them to keep pandemic coverage at the forefront in their communities. 
• The Fresno Bee has more than 1/3 of its newsroom funded by philanthropy. 
•  Another publisher in LMA’s funding lab, The Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C., has now surpassed $500,000 in funding for its new investigative series, Uncovered. In mid-February, it was at $45,000. These funds can be raised quickly when the right topic is chosen that resonates with the funding community. 

One more data point to share: According to Sarah Armour-Jones, author of Media Impact Funders’ “Community Foundations & Journalism: Funding Data from 2009-2019,” community foundations gave a total of $6.5 million in journalism grants in 2014. By 2018, that total was $26.3 million — an increase of 304%. 

While $26.3 million is a big number, I can’t wait to see the data on 2020. It was a huge year and a turning point for community-funded journalism — and 2021 is looking like a major growth year as well. These numbers don’t include the national foundations or Facebook and Google, who also fund a lot of journalism projects worth a lot of money.

Looking ahead, we think all local media companies should have a strategy to take advantage of this enormous opportunity. The caveat is that it only works for organizations that have properly invested in their newsroom. Strong local leadership is also a must-have to leverage relationships and build trust. While the early success stories are coming from newspapers and digital sites, we think that broadcasters should not hesitate to enter this space.

Soon we will publish a comprehensive playbook from the Lab for Journalism Funding and will open applications for our second lab. If you want to be on a list to receive more information, simply email [email protected].