It’s encouraging to hear from media entrepreneurs who see a promising future for the funding of quality journalism. And the message we heard last week from the leaders of the American Journalism Project is that they are discovering lots of previously untapped revenue sources.
The key, of course, is to produce quality journalism. There is a huge appetite for it among the public, and there are foundations and other donors eager to help make it happen.
Elizabeth Green, founder of the American Journalism Project, and SaraBeth Berman, its new CEO, described their venture philanthropy initiative during a session on new ideas for funding public service journalism, at the International Symposium on Online Journalism at the University of Texas, Austin.
They have received a $20 million grant from the Knight Foundation to build toward their goal of raising $50 million to support civic news organizations at the local level.
And while their major donors include familiar media names like the Emerson Collective and Craig Newmark Philanthropic Fund, Green said that on the local level, they are generating donations from community foundations and donors interested in funding better coverage of particular public issues, such as education, social justice, public safety, the environment, transportation, and so on.
An accidental discovery
Green, who co-founded Chalkbeat as a niche publication covering education in New York City, said she discovered early on that the market-based business model of advertising would not fund her operation.
However, very soon, people from other cities were asking her to set up education bureaus in their cities. To her surprise, local civic organizations were stepping forward with money. Today, Chalkbeat is in seven cities, generates $12 million in revenue, and has 67 employees. Philanthropy represents 85% of their revenues.
Green wanted to expand more rapidly, but what was lacking, she realized, was growth capital. This led her to found the American Journalism Project as a nonprofit venture philanthropy initiative. Their grants currently support 11 organizations in nine states and Puerto Rico.
Berman said their average grant is $1 million for three years. The money can be used only to develop capacity for marketing, revenue generation, administration, and functions other than journalism. The idea is to invest in the part of these organizations that can help them achieve long-term viability.
The billion-dollar global goal
Nishant Lalwani, the managing director of Luminate, a global nonprofit which supports independent media as part of its mission to empower people “to build just and fair societies,” is looking to capture a bigger share of foreign aid.
Luminate recently released a report, produced by the BBC’s international development charity, to make the case for establishing a global fund to support independent media. Lalwani said that currently only 0.3% of overseas development assistance goes to support media. He said if that figure rose to 1%, it would provide $1 billion to develop media around the world. This is his five-year goal.
An independent multilateral fund like this would ensure that independent media will not be dying out all over the world, he said.
The panel’s moderator, Anya Schiffrin, emphasized that media organizations will need public money as well. The private sector will not be able do it alone. This will require news organizations to develop protocols to prevent government interference in editorial decisions–tricky and difficult, but not impossible. The BBC is a model.