By Josh Stearns and Teresa Gorman, Photo: Wichita Beacon, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, November 16, 2021
First the good news: Philanthropy is starting to respond to the demise of local journalism with the urgency it deserves. In the past few years, major national efforts, such as the American Journalism Project, Report for America, and NewsMatch have generated well over $200 million in philanthropic giving to news organizations across the United States. NewsMatch’s annual gift-matching campaign, which kicked off November 1, raised a record $47 million in individual donations in 2020 alone.
Some local foundations are also stepping up, recognizing that the projects they support in areas such as health, hunger, the environment, and the economy, need local journalism to succeed. New data from Media Impact Funders shows that community foundations made $1.1 billion in media grants since 2009, out of a total of $19.6 billion from all U.S. foundations.
Despite such progress, too many philanthropic organizations, especially at the local level, have yet to make the connection between their work and the necessity of maintaining vibrant journalism in their cities and towns. That needs to change. Since 2004, more than 1,300 communities in the United States have lost local newspapers. When we lose local news, communities struggle and democracy as a whole suffers: Voting rates decline, climate problems worsen, fewer people run for office, and government waste grows.
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