Category Archives: Analysis

In 2024, the journalism community will recognize just how different the future of local news is going to look compared with its past. That future is already here. A recent Washington Post article reported on the swell of trained journalists and other content creators leveraging social media and messaging platforms to meet audiences where they are. TheContinue reading “The year we see the future of local news won’t look like its past”

Editor’s Note: For the past month, The Pivot Fund has been asking hyperlocal publishers how they’d spend $500 million on local news in light of philanthropic efforts to do just that. Here’s what Mark Trahant, editor-at-large of ICT, had to say. “The idea of a $500 million investment in local journalism is invigorating – andContinue reading “ICT’s Mark Trahant’s $500M Vision for Local News and Information”

Published by the International Society for Online Journalism (ISOJ) “If journalism entrepreneurs are “agents of innovation,” (Carlson & Usher, 2016, p. 563) then the color line compels BIPOC publishers to become architects of necessity, balancing the constraints of digital news production with the information needs of the communities they serve and the demands of theContinue reading “Architects of Necessity: BIPOC News Startups’ critique of Philanthropic Interventions”

The year Wendi C. Thomas founded MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, she cried “not infrequently.” She had multiple moments of doubt mounting in her head. She’d wake up in a panic in the middle of the night, her stomach in knots, remembering how much credit card debt she had to take on to keep herself afloat. Continue reading “Wendi Thomas and Amethyst Davis on the patriarchy of philanthropy”

How does the intervention of philanthropic funding impact the health and sustainability of BIPOC-founded news organizations? And what do we even mean when we use the term “sustainability?“ Those questions were at the core of my keynote speech last week alongside Dr. Meredith Clark, founding director of the Center for Communication, Media Innovation and Social ChangeContinue reading “Ethnic Media is Local News”

One of the best parts about running the Pivot Fund is the successes we see in the BIPOC-led organizations we support. Pasa La Voz in Savannah, GA, is no exception.  Pasa La Voz’s story is incredible. Elizabeth Galarza, its founder, has no formal training in journalism but recognized the gap traditional media in the region left whenContinue reading “Why Journalism in Spanish Matters”

It has been six months since The Pivot Fund announced its inaugural cohort of grantee newsrooms. We’re already seeing significant impacts within our partner organizations and the communities they serve. In a nation dotted with news deserts and plagued by disinformation, the lessons we’re learning from these investments are critically important in tackling the crisisContinue reading “What a difference six months can make”

Last month, at the J-Funders 2022 gathering in Philadelphia, I reminded fellow journalism funders that we can’t achieve equity in news media without taking one important step: giving up power. The event brought together funders who all named important challenges facing our industry like financial sustainability, strengthening democracy and civic engagement. But to tackle these issues –Continue reading “Trust-Based Philanthropy: A Challenge to Give Up Power”

For the first time since 1967, U.S. lawmakers are poised to inject federal dollars into a lagging media ecosystem under the guise of saving local news. There are several pieces of legislation being bandied about in Washington, D.C., but the one getting the most attention at the moment — and perhaps the best chance of passage — is The LocalContinue reading “Could Congress Save BIPOC News Media?”