How can a newsroom best use $100,000? Three Press Forward grantees discussed their real-world cases of using grants for long-term good last week during LION’s annual Independent News Sustainability Summit in St. Louis. “A grant is a gift, but it’s also an opportunity,” Graham Ringo, Press Forward grantee engagement and support manager, said as she opened the panel. The three … Read More
Impact snapshot from a Press Forward grantee newsroom Who: Lisa Snowden, editor-in-chief and co-founder, Baltimore Beat Where: Baltimore, Md. What: Baltimore Beat was started in 2017 after the demise of Baltimore City Paper, a 40-year-old alt-weekly newspaper. It is a Black-led newspaper and online news outlet. The Beat became a nonprofit in 2019, and received a gift of $1 million … Read More
The release of Commoner’s new white paper, “This is Local News Now,” couldn’t be better timed – or more hopeful. Press Forward commissioned this piece months before the federal government defunded public media. But the central thesis of the report gains even more relevance with the impending shutdown of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is already prompting large-scale reimagining … Read More
By Mark Glaser Public media has been a stalwart provider of local news in communities around the country for decades. Now the system is being severely challenged after the loss of $1.1 billion in federal funding and the closure of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And that’s particularly dire in rural and Native communities, where the share of federal funding … Read More
When Kimberly Spencer became director of the Colorado Media Project (CMP), home to Press Forward Colorado, she had one clear priority: listen first. Spencer, who stepped into the role in February 2025, spent her first two months meeting with newsrooms across the state to ask what roadblocks they’re facing. Some answers were expected — like revenue challenges and hiring concerns. … Read More
Impact snapshot from a Press Forward grantee newsroom By Mark Glaser Who: Nancy Flores, editor and publisher, Austin Vida What: Flores relaunched an online magazine that had been shuttered for five years, reimagining it for a new generation of bi-cultural Austinites with a solutions journalism lens. Austin Vida is a digital Latino news and culture outlet. Austin Vida has curated … Read More
By Mark Glaser In 2019, when workers at sports site Deadspin were upset with its private equity owners and management control over its editorial direction, they quit and, in 2020, struck out to start Defector Media, a worker-owned cooperative. More recently, when public media station WAMU shut down DCist in 2024, a group of laid-off workers started The 51st, eventually … Read More
Journalists are in a difficult bind: As they come under increasing attack online and in person, they also have an ingrained culture of getting the work done and getting the story out without considering their own safety or mental health. “Journalists often internalize burnout as a rite of passage,” said Luisa Ortiz Pérez, executive director of Vita Activa. “Many reporters … Read More
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 … Read More
Impact snapshot from a Press Forward grantee newsroom Who: Javier Marin, executive chairman, El Planeta Where: Based in Boston; serving Massachusetts. What: Since 2004, El Planeta is the leading Spanish-language news organization in Massachusetts, serving over 600,000 Latinos through print, digital, social and community platforms. It provides culturally relevant journalism and reporting on news, public policy, health, education and immigration, … Read More
