As local news organizations continue to struggle financially, a coalition of charitable foundations is stepping in with a potential solution. The MacArthur Foundation recently announced the new Press Forward initiative, which aims to provide $500 million in funding to help media organizations report on their communities. This commitment is the largest ever seen in philanthropic support for journalism and comes at a critical time when newspapers are closing and credible news sources are disappearing. The funding will be spread out over the next five years, with $100 million allocated each year.
The decline of print media has resulted in a loss of local advertising revenue to tech giants like Google and Facebook, leading to the closure of approximately 2,500 newspapers since 2005. This has left numerous communities without any professional media coverage, creating news “deserts.” To fill this gap, nonprofit news organizations like ProPublica, the Texas Tribune, and Marshall Project have emerged, as well as some daily newspapers like the Philadelphia Inquirer, Salt Lake Tribune, and Chicago Sun-Times, which have converted to nonprofit status with philanthropic assistance. However, the overall need for financial support is still substantial. The Boston Consulting Group estimated that it would take about $1.75 billion to cover the deficits incurred by U.S. newspapers.
To address this crisis, the MacArthur Foundation organized a coalition of 21 charitable foundations, including the Ford Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, Knight Foundation, and Sloan Foundation. The Knight Foundation, founded by newspaper barons John and James Knight, will be one of the largest contributors with a commitment of $150 million. Even the Archewell Foundation, established by Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is participating as a smaller contributor. The initiative aims to fund both new and established news organizations on local, state, and national levels, with a focus on building newsrooms in areas lacking coverage and among historically underserved communities.
While philanthropic investments have increased the number of news organizations, these groups are still vulnerable to market forces. In recent months, organizations like the Texas Tribune and NPR have had to make staff reductions, signaling concerns about their sustainability. The $500 million initiative has the potential to be a “game changer” for struggling news outlets, providing them with a financial runway towards self-sustainability, according to Tim Franklin, who leads the local-news initiative at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He believes this funding commitment sends a powerful message to other potential donors and policymakers that the local news crisis requires urgent action.
Some states have introduced bills to provide tax incentives for local news operations or have funded small projects to support journalists, but these efforts are still limited in scale. Franklin acknowledges that charitable organizations alone cannot solve the local news crisis, and more sustainable support is needed. The Press Forward initiative is seen as a down payment on the future, and the hope is that it will inspire additional support in the years to come.
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