Propping up the news: Journalism funder doubles planned grants for local outlets

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NEW YORK (AP) — A group of journalism funders said Wednesday that it would give grants totaling $20 million to 205 small, local news outlets across the country, roughly double what it intended to do when it sought applicants.

Press Forward said it sifted through some 930 applications before settling on its grants. The group said 40% of its new grantees are organizations headed by people of color, and a quarter are serving rural communities. Most outlets are getting $100,000 in general operating funds.

That's real money for organizations like Black Iowa News, founded during COVID to deliver news about the pandemic; the Nome Nugget, a newspaper that covers a wide swath of western Alaska; and Radio Indigena, which tries to connect California's migrant communities with newscasts delivered in Indigenous languages.

The group doubled its original funding plans because “we felt that the need was now,” said Dale Anglin, president of Press Forward, which raises money and awareness of struggling local news outlets. Outlets with annual budgets of less than $1 million were eligible.

“I think the public only sees the big journalism leaders like The New York Times and Associated Press,” said Anglin. “We forget that small is important, small still exists, even if some of them are hanging on by a thread.”

Thousands of local news outlets across the country have either closed or stripped down staffing due to economic problems over the past two decades, and philanthropies are trying to lend a hand.

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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.