Courtney Bengtson, chief strategy officer at the Wichita Foundation
With a population just under 400,000, Wichita is Kansas’s largest city. Nationally, though, it ranks 50th in size — big enough to be a hub, but not always large enough to attract national attention or funding.
That presents unique challenges when it comes to supporting local journalism: fewer resources, limited access to national networks, and reduced opportunities for journalists. But Courtney Bengtson, chief strategy officer at the Wichita Foundation — home to Press Forward Wichita — has found a creative, effective way to bridge that gap: partnering with journalism support organizations.
Journalism support organizations — or JSOs — offer training, tools, and community for journalists and newsrooms. Key examples are groups like Local Independent Online News Publishers (LION), which helps local news entrepreneurs build sustainable business models, and Tiny News Collective (TNC), which supports emerging founders in launching small, community-based newsrooms.
“There’s something really special about mid-sized communities working with organizations like LION and TNC,” Bengtson said. “They have smaller staffs, they’re scrappy, they want to be experimental — just like we are. And they’re the experts. So there’s a level of partnership that you can’t get locally.”
Even before joining Press Forward in 2023, the Wichita Foundation had a strong track record of collaborating with JSOs. That work has since expanded and deepened. Here’s a look at a few of those partnerships and what Press Forward Wichita has learned along the way.
Partnering for sustainability: LION Publishers
Bonita Gooch, editor in chief of The Community Voice
In August 2024, the Wichita Foundation launched a pilot program with LION to provide Sustainability Audits for four Wichita-Based news organizations: The Community Voice, Wichita by E.B., Wichita Life ICT, and Kansas Leadership Center’s The Journal. In addition to covering the full cost of the audits, the foundation also funded one-year LION memberships for each outlet.
LION’s current audit process includes an in-depth questionnaire, a one-on-one interview with an expert analyst, and a final report summarizing each newsroom’s strengths and opportunities for growth. The goal is not just to assess where a news organization stands, but to provide a roadmap for its future.
For Press Forward Wichita, the partnership offers more than just support for grantees. The chapter received copies of each newsroom’s audit, which helped the chapter “understand what needs we should be considering as we’re making future investments,” explained Bengtson.
The entire program cost less than $20,000 — a relatively small investment with outsized impact. The pilot has been so successful that LION is now exploring similar models in other communities. “I can’t express the ease that [working with LION] has provided us,” Bengtson said. “They’re reputable, they have credibility in the ecosystem, and it’s great to expose people who aren’t aware of them to the work they provide.”
Partnering for innovation: Tiny News Collective
Representatives of Planeta Venus, TMBP Media and The SHOUT, as part of the Wichita Info Challenge.
In 2023, the Wichita Foundation launched an ambitious local news experiment in partnership with Tiny News Collective. Inspired by TNC’s national startup competition, the foundation worked closely with then-interim leader Heather Bryant to create a local version: the Wichita Info Challenge.
Out of 26 promising applications, three Wichita-based news startups were selected to receive $30,000 in funding and two years of TNC membership: Planeta Venus, TMBP Media, and The SHOUT.
The program’s early success led to its renewal and expansion in 2024. TNC is now providing strategic planning, sustainability coaching, and leadership development tailored to each newsroom’s goals. Press Forward Wichita also made a second round of investment based on the outlets’ early impact and growth.
“Our work with Wichita Foundation and chief strategy officer Courtney Bengtson has been the perfect example of how TNC can partner with local funders to help fertilize news deserts with diverse news founders around the nation,” TNC Executive Director Amy Kovac-Ashley said in a press release. “We look forward to partnering with other Press Forward local chapters to focus on finding and nurturing other community-based, independent entrepreneurial outlets.”
Partnering for investment: American Journalism Project
Before Press Forward was launched, the Wichita Foundation was already exploring bold ideas to support local news. In 2020, the foundation joined forces with the American Journalism Project (AJP) in a co-investment totaling $3.85 million over three years to establish The Beacon, a regional network of nonprofit newsrooms across Kansas and Missouri.
Launched in 2019, AJP funds nonprofit local news through a mix of grants, business support, and startup incubation. After hearing AJP’s announcement at the Knight Media Forum, Bengtson reached out to explore how nonprofit journalism could work in a city like Wichita. That initial conversation sparked a deeper collaboration, including a community needs assessment — one of AJP’s first.
The result was the launch of The Wichita Beacon in 2021, seeded with a record $1.1 million investment from the foundation’s News and Information Fund. The newsroom, focused on public service journalism, introduced up to nine new reporters to the region.
Although The Beacon is still in operation in Missouri, The Wichita Beacon shut down in 2024, in part due to staff turnover and disagreements about mission. Still, Bengtson views the experience as worthwhile. “We learned a lot through the process, which we openly talk about,” she said. “Culture matters. Leadership matters. Location matters. And so does clear communication between funders and grantees.”
While the initiative ultimately changed course, it sparked interest in and brought new talent to the region. Some former Wichita Beacon reporters are still working in Wichita newsrooms; another reporter now works at Signal Cleveland, also an AJP-funded newsroom.
“We learned a lot about how to work with partners going forward,” Bengtson said. Those lessons are already being applied through Press Forward Wichita.
Not every partnership — and not every newsroom startup — leads to long-term success. For Press Forward Locals, experimentation and risk-taking are part of the job. What matters most is learning from each experience and using those insights to build a stronger, more sustainable future for local news.
It’s also a reminder that chapters don’t have to do the work alone.
“The leadership of all of the JSOs we’ve used are just phenomenal — they’re trustworthy people,” Bengtson said. “We’ve been able to speak directly with the people that are running those organizations and say, ‘Hey we have this idea,’ and nobody has ever said, ‘No, that’s going to be too hard,’ or ‘That doesn’t seem realistic for us.’ They’re open to trying.”