The public policy panel at the Press Forward Workshop in Miami included three grant partners (left to right): Kyle Huelsman of the Colorado Media Project, Emily Bradbury of the Kansas Press Association and Rashad Mahmood of the New Mexico Local News Fund. Photo by Patrick Farrell for Press Forward
At Press Forward, we know that community-minded individuals, institutions and businesses all have a role to play in ensuring reliable public access to trustworthy local news and civic information — and we’re proud to be part of a nationwide movement that is catalyzing more public awareness and philanthropic support for local news.
We also firmly believe that donations, grants and sponsorships alone are not enough to uphold and empower a free and independent press: Our nation has always supported news and information for an informed public, and today communities deserve public policies that support a healthy Fourth Estate that stands watch, asks tough questions, and explains complicated issues that are hugely important to people’s daily lives.
Today I get the honor of announcing Press Forward’s first investments in public policy. It’s particularly exciting for me, as seven years ago this month I was among a group of civic leaders in Denver who helped launch the Colorado Media Project (CMP) — whose motto since then has proudly proclaimed, “Local news is a public good.”
We launched CMP, which is now the home of Press Forward Colorado, with a simple idea: The hollowing out of traditional community newsrooms at a time of digital disruption has created a perfect storm that local journalists can no longer weather alone. We recognized early on that it would take all of us — coalitions of civic and community leaders, educators, students, lawmakers and other advocates — to join with innovative local news leaders who are creating public service newsrooms of the future.
Our first public policy investments
In selecting Press Forward’s first five state-level public policy grantees, we looked for groups in various stages of coalition building, policy development, outreach and education. They present a broad range of approaches from across the U.S. that we can learn from — and with — over the coming years:
Colorado Media Project: Home to Press Forward Colorado, Colorado Media Project is catalyzing a broad-based coalition to advance a multi-year public policy strategy, with a goal of securing state funds to strengthen local newsrooms in the next few years.
Kansas Newspaper Association: In this conservative state, the trade association is collaborating with small businesses to advocate for an advertising tax credit, aiming to boost ad revenue for newsrooms.
The Lenfest Institute for Journalism: Pennsylvania’s four Press Forward local chapters are collaborating to explore legislation in Pennsylvania that benefits small businesses and drives job creation, with specific outcomes for local journalism. The initiative will focus on building coalitions, supporting coordination and outreach, and engaging in the legislative process.
New Mexico Local News Fund: Home to Press Forward New Mexico, the organization used funding to advocate for expansion of its Local News Fellowships & Internships program in 2025. In 2026, the fund plans to continue its efforts to pass a tax credit bill for local news.
North Carolina Local News Lab Fund: Home to Press Forward North Carolina and Press Forward Charlotte, this organization is in the early stages of its policy exploration and is conducting a landscape scan of opportunities in municipalities.
Additionally, Press Forward is funding two stalwart national organizations, Rebuild Local News and Free Press, to support state-level efforts. Both organizations have a track record of success, and are actively leading large coalitions of advocates who are uniting to defend public access to reliable news and increase public investment in healthy local news ecosystems. With this funding from Press Forward, both plan to work closely with local leaders in many of our 36+ local chapters to convene residents and advance policies in their communities.
We believe that our remarkable network of Press Forward Local chapters are uniquely positioned to spark, support, and strengthen the local debates about public support for local news.
Our principles and process
These grants represent the first time Press Forward has initiated a round of funding by invitation. In total, we have committed $3.45 million from our Pooled Fund to support the nonpartisan, place-based public policy efforts of these seven organizations. And this is just the beginning.
So we’d like to take a moment to explain our process, as it’s an example of how our network is working together to support both grassroots and grass-tops efforts to strengthen reliable local news.
Last fall, our Public Policy Working Group of new and established local journalism supporters started by adopting four policy principles to guide our investments:
- Prioritize original, community-centered local news
- Maximize long-term, sustainable revenue sources
- Promote local ownership and leadership
- Protect journalistic independence and integrity
A smaller group then conducted an informal landscape scan, talking to national field leaders to get a sense of where state-level efforts and new opportunities could use some fuel. Most importantly, we looked for existing groups with strong leaders who were ready to take a coalition-building approach, engaging with community groups and other advocates, in addition to local newsrooms.
One of the aligned funders helping to lead this process made a generous investment of $5 million to Press Forward’s Pooled Fund — which we have used to seed this first round of public policy grants, and are now leveraging as a challenge to inspire matching contributions.
To cap the process, our Public Policy Working Group recommended a slate of grantees, which were reviewed and approved by Press Forward’s staff and management committee.
National context and what comes next
As we advance this important public policy work, we recognize we are doing so in a moment when the U.S. Congress is considering a bill to claw back $1.1 billion in federal funding for local public radio and TV stations in communities across the U.S. Such cuts could lead to unprecedented loss of service — especially for otherwise isolated rural communities that rely on public media for original local news, infrastructure and emergency information. We understand that to advance policies that can support an informed public will require both proactive organizing and defensive coalition building.
Fortunately, there is still strong bipartisan support for public media and budding signs of hope at the state and local levels. As Jon Allsop recently pointed out in The New Yorker, “Below the federal level, a groundswell of state-based initiatives … have started to funnel support to local news …. The Trump era could even come to be remembered not for reinforcing the taboo around greater public investment in media but for catalyzing a move toward more of it.” Many other countries invest significantly more than ours in assuring their citizens receive high-quality civic news and information, while maintaining protections necessary to assure the media’s independence.
That’s the place of hope Press Forward would like to seed with a growing coalition of supporters and funders, as our coalition of funders continues to invest in organizations that are defending, developing and advancing public policies that support sustainable, independent, reliable local media, through these three avenues:
- Grants and alliances at the state and local level that build on the success and lessons of our initial state-based partners. These will continue to be invitation-only and recommended by our Public Policy Working Group members and local chapters, and informed by both emergent and longer-term opportunities.
- Grants and alliances at the national level that build on the good work of Rebuild Local News and its coalition of 50 organizations representing over 3,000 newsrooms and 15,000 journalists, and Free Press and its partners in the Media Power Collaborative. We are actively looking for more allies with strong nationwide networks whose members understand the importance of reliable local news, especially nonpartisan advocacy organizations outside the journalism field.
- Funder coordination, training and capacity building. When considering grantmaking to support coalition building and public policy efforts, different types of funders have different legal obligations they must follow. Our Public Policy Working Group is providing members of our funder coalition with the space and training to develop their own approaches, within a solid framework.
If you are a funder who would like to join us, or a potential ally currently working on public policy for local news, fill out our interest form and select “public policy.”
Melissa Milios Davis is the network manager for Press Forward. She was previously vice president for strategic communications and informed communities at the Denver-based Gates Family Foundation and the director of the Colorado Media Project, which raised more than $6 million to support local news in the state.