Walking Targets
Movement journalism has been a source of hope. But political attacks and funders’ retrenchment have put it at serious risk.
Last month, Prism, which “investigates systems of power with communities most impacted by injustice at the center of our reporting,” announced that it lost a cumulative half million dollars of philanthropic support this year and is in need of twenty-five thousand dollars by the end of the summer to continue. As a young, Black, first-generation Nigerian organizer who has written for the site, I was crestfallen. Amid so many headlines eulogizing the news industry, Prism, which started up in 2019, had been among a number of movement journalism organizations that provided a source of hope.
Related Knowledge Center: State of the business model
The traditional journalism business model has long since collapsed, and news organizations have shrunk or disappeared entirely. While a number of promising experiments are under way, the public has not shown a willingness to buy what news organizations are selling.