News
Report urges funding for Minnesota’s grassroots community news
April 1, 2025
Journalism funders in Minnesota have an opportunity to serve the news and information needs of the state’s growing immigrant communities by supporting small and tenacious grassroots news outlets that have already earned their communities’ trust, according to a Pivot Fund report for the state’s Press Forward Local chapter.
McKnight Foundation, a founding member of Press Forward Minnesota, commissioned the report to ensure the journalism funder coalition’s local strategy is based on a full understanding of the news and information landscape. While the state is still around 80% White, its Black, Asian and Latino communities are growing rapidly. It also has a significant Indigenous population.
The study found that communities have turned to nontraditional media sources, such as social media, digital platforms, and media entrepreneurs within their communities, to access reliable news and information when they were not getting what they needed from traditional media sources in Minnesota.
The Pivot Fund has a unique methodology for news landscape analysis that focuses on how audiences get their news and information. In partnership with Fieldwork, a Minnesota-based market research firm, Pivot held listening sessions and focus groups with over 600 Minnesotans from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Researchers found that many people do not rely on traditional media for local news and 68 percent had turned to social media in the past 30 days to stay informed.
Participants identified a number of hyperlocal outlets as trusted sources of information on issues affecting their neighborhoods, schools, and local government. Pivot vets these outlets for commitment to journalistic values and, since most of them are struggling, assesses what they need to become sustainable.
“A quiet revolution is taking place in local news in Minnesota and the rest of the country as entrepreneurial journalists, some publishing solely on social media, have sprung up to serve communities that were not seeing themselves and their stories in traditional media sources,” said Jean Marie Brown, Pivot Fund research director. “They have to be good business people just to survive, so funding them often produces outsized results.”
“Journalism, like democracy, is strongest when it comes from the ground up,” said McKnight Program Officer Tim Murphy. “As Press Forward Minnesota expands our efforts to sustain and enhance Minnesota’s local news ecosystem, the Pivot Fund’s research broadened our view of the outlets making positive change across the state.”
Robust local news has been correlated with higher voter turnout, less political polarization, and saving taxpayers’ money.
In addition to Minnesota, The Pivot Fund has completed a news landscape analysis in Georgia and Michigan and is working on Wisconsin and Illinois.
Among the impactful, under-resourced local outlets identified in the Minnesota report:
- Asian American communities, including Minnesota’s large Hmong population, have turned to independent media entrepreneurs for trusted coverage. Outlets like 3HmongTV and Hmong Community YouTube TV provide news and cultural content that reflect the values and concerns of the community.
- Similarly, Somali TV and Oromo Diaspora Media have become trusted news sources for East African immigrant communities in Minnesota, offering news in languages like Somali, Oromo, Amharic, and English. These platforms provide essential information to their audiences, from updates on immigration policies to local events and public safety issues.
- Little Earth Residents 411 serves the Indigenous community in the Twin Cities with a private Facebook page that was created in 2014. Its mission is to inform its members “about upcoming events, programs, opportunities and trends happening in and around our communities.” The group now has 3,500 active members and an average of 10 posts a day and 400 posts a month.
- For Minnesota’s Black community, media entrepreneur Georgia Fort founded BLCK Press as an independent outlet, saying that adding diverse staff to traditional newsrooms isn’t enough.
- Conversaciones de Salud, a bilingual (Spanish/English) monthly digital and print magazine, provides education, health information and community solutions to create healthy communities for Latinos in the Twin Cities.
- In greater Minnesota, Project Optimist is a solutions-focused news organization that uses community journalism to unite people and uncover opportunities in rural parts of the state.
The report recommended innovative approaches to funding, including:
- Make grants that are large enough to be transformational by allowing news outlets to hire one or more additional staff
- Support community centers and convenings that serve as news hubs
- Support the trade school model of journalism training
Press Forward Minnesota announced its first round of investments in late January, including five outlets identified in the report. The chapter has received funding commitments from McKnight Foundation, Bush Foundation, the Glen Nelson Center at American Public Media Group, the MacArthur Foundation, the Taylor Family Farms Foundation, and the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation.
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About Pivot Fund: The Pivot Fund centers and invests in BIPOC-led, community news organizations through funding, capacity building, skills-based trainings, and networking opportunities. By pairing these resources with hands-on consulting and coaching, and facilitating collaboration among diverse community news partners, they foster a more connected and culturally competent local media ecosystem. Learn more at https://thepivotfund.org.
About Press Forward Minnesota: Press Forward Minnesota is a statewide movement to re-center local journalism as a force for community cohesion, civic participation, and government accountability, with a focus on racial equity. Press Forward Minnesota is a five-year initiative with the goal of raising $10 million dollars to reinvest in Minnesota’s local news ecosystem. Learn more at https://mcf.org/press-forward-minnesota.
About McKnight Foundation: The McKnight Foundation, a Minnesota-based family foundation, advances a more just, creative, and abundant future where people and planet thrive. Established in 1953, the McKnight Foundation is deeply committed to advancing climate solutions in the Midwest; building an equitable and inclusive Minnesota; and supporting the arts and culture in Minnesota, neuroscience, and global food systems. Learn more at https://www.mcknight.org.