News and Information Ecosystems

The Future of Local News

A healthy, multiracial democracy depends on the public being well-informed and ready to take action. Local news is directly linked to active civic engagement, but traditional news organizations are failing to meet community needs, especially the needs of communities of color. If we reimagine news and information as a public good and fund it that way, we can help bridge this gap.

Spreading Proven Models

In the United States, journalism has historically operated as a commercial business that prioritizes profits over people. This model is unsustainable and doesn’t meet community needs.

Over the last decade, new models of news and information have grown across the country. They include hundreds of nonprofit newsrooms, regional organizations building networks and back-end resources, and partnerships that have brought more funding to the local news field.

To encourage a transition to journalism that’s informed by community voices, we work with regional leaders to develop new ways of connecting people with the information they need. We then spread these proven models across the country for others to adapt to their local communities.

The News and Information Ecosystems Initiative invests in:

  • Building and expanding news ecosystems and networks
  • Supporting visionary news organizations and models
  • Strengthening the funding mechanisms and organizations that support journalism

What We Fund

We work with local partners — journalists, ecosystem builders, and funders — to understand the needs of their area through the lens of their local expertise. To date, we have invested with partners in the following regions:

Chicago

In the Chicago ecosystem, we fund a grassroots alliance of independent community media; a funder collaborative supporting local journalists of color; and a transformative local news organization that equips Chicagoans with tools to eliminate information inequity.

Grantees:

Colorado

We fund the Colorado Media Project, which pools local and national funding, to ask hard questions to address inequities in its journalism, and to support the transformation of the state’s ecosystem, including launching a network hub for local news organizations, Colorado News Collaborative.

New Jersey

We fund a network hub for New Jersey’s local news outlets that also serves as a national center with expertise on collaborative journalism, and a joint fund that supports the ecosystem, including the operations of the first-in-the country publicly funded New Jersey Civic Information Consortium.

Grantees:

New Mexico

We fund the New Mexico Local News Fund in collaboration with the Thornburg Foundation, which brings together funding, research, and experts to support the transformation of the state’s local news ecosystem and serve as a backbone connecting the state’s news outlets in collaborative efforts.

North Carolina

We fund the North Carolina Local News Lab Fund, which brings together local and national funders and advocates who care about how community information needs are met across the state, to strategically deploy funding that serves local needs, including launching a backbone hub organization, NC Local News Workshop, to serve the ecosystem.

Oklahoma

We fund the Oklahoma Media Center in partnership with the Inasmuch Foundation. This early-stage center draws in journalists who care about improving the coverage of the region and want to collaborate on reporting that addresses local residents’ needs.

Nationally

We also support national organizations that catalyze local news transformation in communities across the country like the Institute for Nonprofit News, Local Independent Online News Publishers, Center for Community Media, and Lawyers for Reporters. (See our grants database for the full list of Public Square grantees).

Beyond our funding we also work with partners in regions across the country who are strengthening local news ecosystems, including California, Michigan, Ohio, Kansas, Georgia, and more. This ecosystem approach is increasingly seen as a critical strategy for rebuilding and reimagining local news across the country.

To stay up-to-date with our partners’ work across the country, subscribe to our Local Fix newsletter. We love to have conversations and encourage you to reach out to Teresa Gorman, associate director, Public Square program at tgorman [@] democracyfund.org if you have questions or would like to connect (Note: we do not accept unsolicited grant proposals).

Are you a funder interested in investing in local journalism? We’d recommend checking out our Guide to Assessing Your Local News Ecosystem, and considering getting involved with joint fundraising efforts like NewsMatch, Racial Equity in Journalism Fund, or local funding coalitions like the Colorado Media Project. To chat about options and ideas, please reach out to Teresa Gorman.

Staff Working on News and Information Ecosystems

Teresa Gorman

Associate Director, Public Square

Christine Schmidt

Senior Program Associate, Public Square

Learn More About Our Work

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Editorial Firewall Policy

We adhere to a strict policy preserving the editorial independence of all our journalism grantees. In the instance of a grantee approaching a member of our staff for comment, we require them to go through our communications team — not a program officer — and we alert the reporter of the funding relationship. We also request that if they quote a member of our team they disclose our funding of their organization in any story produced.

In addition, the Democracy Fund communications staff does not send pitches to the nonprofit newsrooms we support, and we include language in our grant agreements that we won’t discuss editorial content with journalism grantees or otherwise seek to influence their coverage. However, we may alert newsroom leadership of Democracy Fund developments and news in the course of regular engagement with grantees.

Explore Our Other Public Square Initiatives

Public Square strategies seek to ensure every community in the United States has access to accurate information that encourages healthy, informed, and engaged lives.

Journalism and Power Building

The Journalism and Power Building initiative supports leaders of color and the coalitions and organizations they champion. These leaders are changing journalism and using media to launch movements for equity, justice, and democracy.

Learn more about this effort

Civil and Human Rights Online

For many people, being online means being exposed to a toxic environment where hate speech and false information is unavoidable. As a result, racism, divisiveness, and voter suppression are growing. We can create a more inclusive internet, but first, social media companies must be held accountable.

Learn more about this effort

Equitable Civic Infrastructure

Everything we read, watch, and hear is shaped by policy decisions. But for too long, those decisions have worked for big media and tech – not for our democracy. That’s why we need new media policy that’s driven by our communities.

Learn more about this effort

Democracy Fund champions the leaders who defend democracy and who challenge our political system to be more open and just.

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