Press Forward grants $22.7 million to 22 newsroom projects

Press Forward, the philanthropic coalition that has vowed to grant at least $500 million to local news over five years, announced $22.7 million in grants to 22 newsroom projects on Wednesday.

“We hope these awards can provide local newsrooms, organizations, and journalists with shared resources that strengthen their efficiency and capacity,” Dale Anglin, the director of Press Forward, said in a statement.

Press Forward also announced $20 million in grants to 205 small local newsrooms last fall.

Here are the recipients and descriptions of the projects, which were selected from more than 550 submissions:

• BOMESI, $750,000, “to increase revenue for local news outlets serving Black and diverse communities by expanding a tested ad network that centralizes ad sales and sponsorships from major brands while providing the training and tools outlets need to adopt it.”
• City Bureau, $1.25 million, “to expand and strengthen the national Documenters program, which creates accessible pathways for civic participation by training and paying everyday people to document local government meetings and share their findings with the public.
• Global Center for Journalism and Trauma, $1.25 million, “to strengthen mental health services for local journalists by scaling a program that will address a critical gap in their care,” continuing the work of the DART Center for Journalism and Trauma.
• High Plains Public Radio, $750,000, “to launch the High Plains Civic Media Network, an audience-first, multi-platform, multi-format, regional news and information service for more than 600,000 adults across the High Plains region of Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Colorado.”
• Immigrant News Coalition, $1.5 million, “to formally launch the Immigrant News Coalition, which will test and spread effective revenue models for immigrant-serving newsrooms.” (Co-applicants: Documented, Sahan Journal, El Tímpano, Listening Post Collective)
• Indigenous Journalists Association, $500,000, “to expand its Indigenous Media Initiative, which addresses the vast underrepresentation of Indigenous people in U.S. media by improving coverage of these communities.”
• International Women’s Media Foundation, $1.5 million, “to establish a safety ecosystem within local newsrooms by scaling its Newsroom Safety Across America initiative that addresses the specific needs of newsrooms and journalists within their communities.”
• Internet Archive, $1 million, “to develop a national program that preserves vital local online news content that often goes offline when a publication ceases to exist.” (Co-applicants: Investigative Reporters and Editors, Poynter Institute)
• Journalism + Design Lab at The New School, $1.5 million, “to weave community colleges into local news infrastructure and build pathways for more people to share, discuss, and act on the news.”
• Latino Media Consortium, $750,000, “to support local Latino-serving outlets in reaching sustainability and growth through direct funding, capacity-building assessments, and professional support services.”
• LION Publishers, $1 million, “to strengthen newsroom business operations by providing expertise in financial management and human resources.”
• Meedan, $1 million, “to help newsrooms strengthen relationships with their audiences through AI-powered direct messaging.” (Co-applicant: Deep South Today)
• MuckRock Foundation, $1.25 million, “to create the Transparency Network, which aims to equip local journalists with AI-powered tools and human expertise to improve access to public records.” (Co-applicants: National Freedom of Information Coalition, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press)
• NCRC Community Development Fund, $1.25 million, “to expand its Media Resilience Fund, a loan program offering low-interest, flexible financing to local news outlets, particularly those in underserved communities.” (Co-applicant: URL Media)
• OpenNews, $1.2 million, “to create ‘Emergency Mode for News,’ which equips local newsrooms with a plan and support to keep their communities informed when disasters happen.” (Co-applicants: Newspack, NC Local)
• Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, $1.25 million, “to expand its Local Legal Initiative to Louisiana and Mississippi, providing direct legal support to local journalists with a focus on nonprofit and under-resourced newsrooms.”
• Rocky Mountain Community Radio, $1 million, “to create a shared engineering staff, providing the network’s 20 community radio stations across four states with access to mission-critical broadcast engineers.”
• Spotlight PA, $500,000, “to produce high-quality investigative and public-service journalism for a network of TV partners that reach more than 10 million people.”
• Start.coop, $1.5 million, “to provide worker-owned media collaboratives with back-office shared services, lowering their costs and increasing their sustainability.” (Co-applicants: Defector Media, Media Economies Design Lab at University of Colorado Boulder, Freelance Solidarity Project, National Writers Union)
• Type Investigations, $1 million, “to expand its Springboard Project, which provides hands-on training in investigative reporting and fundraising support for newsrooms in historically marginalized communities.”
• Vita Activa, $500,000, “to provide journalists and media professionals with mental health services tailored to their needs.”
• Voces Internship of Idaho, $500,000, “to expand coverage for Latino audiences by professionalizing and expanding the Voces internship program across the state of Idaho.”

The full announcement is here.