Press Forward’s network of funders has invested more than $400 million in local news in the two years since its launch, and you might see this impact in your community if you get news from outlets such as Montana Free Press, Fort Worth Report or Mission Local in San Francisco. That’s because while two-thirds of grants went to newsrooms around the country, more than half the dollars went to journalism support organizations such as American Journalism Project, a venture philanthropy for nonprofit newsrooms, which has invested in dozens of nonprofit newsrooms around the country, and Report for America, which has supported hundreds newsrooms by providing talented journalists, training and funding.

In a time of severe challenges for local newsrooms, and digital transformation, these organizations create a “multiplier effect” on the field, providing important training and coaching to shore up their operations, and also build needed infrastructure that newsrooms, especially smaller ones, can’t create on their own. Many, like American Journalism Project and Report for America, are intermediaries that provide funding to newsrooms alongside support.

“Supporting local news infrastructure means creating catalytic growth opportunities for local newsrooms. We want outlets to tap into resources that help them grow, expand their reach and build sustainable business models for the long term,” said Amalie Nash, vice president for journalism at Knight Foundation, which funds the American Journalism Project.

We talked to four of the top funded intermediaries in the Press Forward network — AJP, Report for America, Racial Equity in Journalism (REJ) Fund and the Local Media Foundation — to find out how they view their role in the field and how their funding has had an impact.

Here are four ways they have made a difference with funding from Press Forward’s Network:

1. Re-granting money to help newsrooms become sustainable.

Many intermediaries fund newsrooms directly, re-granting much of the funding they get. The important part is that the money is tied to hands-on support that helps the newsrooms become sustainable for the long haul. AJP CEO Sarabeth Berman said that the American Journalism Project’s primary focus is on building strong newsroom business models for the future, alongside giving some of the largest investments to newsrooms, averaging about $1 million each over three years.

The impact has been extraordinary, with the first 28 funded newsrooms growing median annual revenue by 118% to $2.6 million, Berman said. Plus, those newsrooms collectively hired 253 new journalists (a 94% increase in staffing), and their revenue grew by $53 million. “We’ve been very rigorous about tracking the impact of our dollars — and this shows how we are growing the field,” Berman said.

One example is Fort Worth Report, which diversified its revenue streams thanks to 49% growth in newsletter subscribers, going from 68,000 in 2024 to more than 100,000 in 2025. American Journalism Project funding helped Fort Worth Report’s hire a chief revenue officer, who helped place ads across newsletters, boosting sponsorship revenues for the news organization. (You can find more stories of newsroom and community impact in this report.)

Borealis Philanthropy’s Racial Equity in Journalism Fund attracts dollars that are then re-granted to BIPOC-led newsrooms serving communities of color. Alicia Bell, director of the fund, said that they give unrestricted grants for at least three years to each newsroom, creating financial security in an unstable media environment. Every newsroom it has supported since 2020 is still open for business, Bell said.

“When year after year the Medill maps [from The State of Local News] are talking about how news organizations are falling apart, the fact that all these news organizations [we have funded] still exist, and are still figuring out ways to grow and sustain — I think that’s huge,” Bell said.

One example of impact that Bell mentioned was with Documented, a nonprofit newsroom for immigrant communities in New York. Since entering the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund cohort in 2019, the news outlet has reached financial stability, expanding its staff from two to 17 full-time workers. Plus, it has grown its budget by more than 10 times, from $161,000 in 2019 to more than $3 million today.

2. Expanding editorial impact through capacity-building.

With a $20 million grant from Knight Foundation in 2024, in alignment with Press Forward, Report for America (RFA) was able to expand its reporter corps program that builds editorial capacity and grow its local news sustainability program that helps newsrooms fundraise.

Kim Kleman, the group’s executive director, said that the goal of the sustainability program is to help partner newsrooms raise $100 million over seven years. In its first year, Report for America blew past its $17 million goal and helped newsrooms raise more than $23 million. One bonus for newsrooms: The group charges nothing to for-profit newsrooms to use them as a fiscal sponsor, a rate that can be as high as 10%.

One newsroom that has benefited is Mirror Indy, a nonprofit outlet that is part of Free Press Indiana, which attributed $500,000 in 2025 revenue due to the support they received from Report for America. Mirror Indy staff reported that the one-on-one coaching and support from the local news sustainability program helped strengthen its mid-level and major giving strategy.

“Working with Report for America to raise revenue has been genuinely valuable, especially because the support has been tactical and operational, not theoretical,” said Sterling Davis, director of individual giving at Free Press Indiana.

Plus, Report for America has had great success in building editorial capacity at hundreds of newsrooms around the country. Here are some key stats that Kleman shared about RFA since 2017:

• The group has placed more than 750 reporters in 450 newsrooms, and
• Has helped newsrooms raise $60 million in donations
• Has provided $24 million in direct salary support to newsrooms.
• 87% of alumni reporters are still working in journalism and
• 55% of alumni in the most recent cohort were hired by their host newsroom.
• Roughly half of corps members now and historically are journalists of color

The result is both immediate reporting capacity and a longer-term journalist pipeline that strengthens the field. Kleman notes that RFA does a great job recruiting talent, especially in rural areas where it’s often hard to find reporters with journalism degrees. “That is a huge benefit Report for America brings as well,” she said. “Our applications recently closed for reporting corp members and we have 23 applications for every one of our open positions this year.”

3. Building field infrastructure and professional capacity.

The Local Media Association (LMA), and its associated Local Media Foundation, have run various accelerators, labs and programs to support newsrooms in boosting revenues. Plus, many of these programs include training to make sure key staff take lessons out into the field when programs end. Those programs include the Lab for Journalism Funding, the Knight x LMA BloomLab, the Branded Content Project and many more.

“We certainly feel that we are delivering $2 worth of value to the industry for every dollar that we’re receiving in funding,” said Jay Small, co-CEO of LMA. “The combined lab activities, convenings, one-on-one consultations and training helps local news organizations raise their own funding. We feel that we’re adding opportunities for direct funding by teaching news organizations how to go get it.”

This graphic from a recent LMA impact report shows some of those results:

Plus, LMA launched a new shared services program for the BloomLab to support Black-owned publishers with fractional help for technology, revenue and funding.

“An important role that we play is to provide services that would not be possible for an individual newsroom to be able to source themselves,” said Julia Campbell, co-CEO of LMA. “The fact that we have the ability to pool those resources and bring things to market helps us amplify the value.”

4. Catalyzing philanthropic investment in local news.

What’s more, these intermediaries bring more funders into the field. The American Journalism Project has been funded by numerous foundations and donors, and has also catalyzed funding when it has launched startups in various markets. One good example is the Los Angeles Local News Initiative (now called The L.A. Local), which launched with $15 million in funding from the project along with 11 other national, regional and local funders. That’s a similar model to what the American Journalism Project did in other markets such as Ohio and Indiana, and with the Capital B network covering Black communities.

The Racial Equity in Journalism Fund has similarly helped bring in more funders to the field, especially for BIPOC-led newsrooms. Bell said that they’ve brought in funders through rapid-response funds such as during the recent federal immigration actions in Minneapolis.

“We’ve had folks who’ve come in and said, ‘You’re our first journalism grant. We’re trying to learn,’” she said. “And I’ve seen those folks go from us being their first journalism grant to then investing directly in newsrooms, whether it’s at a local level or at a national level. And I think that that shift has also been really, really impactful and really necessary.”

Mark Glaser is a communications consultant for Press Forward, Knight Foundation, The Lenfest Institute and Tiny News Collective and was the founder and executive editor of MediaShift.org. He was formerly the director of business and program development for the New Mexico Local News Fund. He runs the Wind Power Media consultancy out of Santa Fe.