Despite what you may have heard, local news isn’t dying; it’s being reborn. A new generation of nonprofit news organizations is changing the way we sustain local news in this country. We are proud to partner with more than 40 nonprofit news organizations — across 32 states — that are growing, diversifying their revenue, and providing essential journalism for communities.
In 2023, news voids continued to spread. Financial challenges forced local newspapers to shed more journalistic talent, leaving many papers without the resources they need to provide sufficient local news and civic value to communities. Despite that, we’re thrilled to report that nonprofit local news is growing. These organizations are ushering in a reimagined future for local news– one in which values-driven newsrooms produce high-quality, nonpartisan, independent, and accessible information in service of and sustained by their communities.
Our belief in this model has been reaffirmed throughout 2023. In this Year in Review, you’ll read about our progress — we’ve expanded our portfolio of investments; we helped launch two flagship startups in Indiana and Houston and an Akron-based newsroom of Signal Ohio; we conceived and launched a new Product & AI Studio; we are incubating several new startup teams; and our portfolio is growing its revenue and expanding its journalism.
We are immensely proud of our grantee partners leading this inspiring work. Here, we are pleased to share a glimpse into our progress in pursuit of a sustainable and trustworthy local press that helps us see our neighbors, decodes what’s happening around us, and holds those in power to account.
GRANTEE COVERAGE
These are some of the many critical stories our grantee news organizations published that uncovered important issues, demanded accountability from those in power and centered community voices.
BY THE
Numbers
Since 2019, we’ve committed $48.3 million in grants to support the launch, expansion and sustainability of our portfolio of 41 grantees (37 established organizations and four startups currently in incubation). In just four years, AJP has funded nearly 20 percent of the Institute for Nonprofit News members focused on local or statewide news.
We mobilized an additional $59.6 million from local philanthropy to launch market-specific local news initiatives. This summer, we completed the first set of grants we made in 2019: $8.5 million for 11 local news organizations across the country with dedicated venture support over 36 months. Over the course of their three-year grants, this cohort grew their combined revenue by $15 million (a 4.9x return on our investment), grew their news budgets by 66 percent, and saw inspiring growth across their different revenue streams. We share more about the impact of our first cohort of grantees on our blog.
AJP is committed to building a portfolio of grantees that is reflective of and serves the diversity of our country. Forty-five percent of our grantees’ staff identify as people of color or multiracial. Forty-nine percent of grantees have a person of color leading the newsroom; in the nonprofit news field overall, 18 percent of newsrooms are BIPOC-led, according to the Institute for Nonprofit News.
In 2024, we’ll publish our newest impact report, which will reflect portfolio financials from 2023.
The data in the graph above excludes editorial staff at our public media grantees (LPM and WFAE) as well as the national newsrooms at our multi-local organizations (Capital B, ICT, The Marshall Project, and Open Campus), and the teams in our local news incubator.
$48.3M
committed in grants
$59.6M
catalyzed to launch new local news organizations
41
grantees, including four organizations in incubation and six launched from scratch
110
new editorial roles added between 2022 and 2023
$15M
increase in revenue across AJP’s first cohort of grantees over three years
$169M
raised nationally and in local markets since AJP’s inception
THE PRESS
In 2023, AJP and our grantees continued to earn attention:
At Emerson Collective’s Demo Day 2023, AJP CEO Sarabeth Berman highlights the remarkable reporting from our grantees, including Wisconsin Watch, and other signs of promise in local news.
CATALYZING THE GROWTH OF
Nonprofit, local news
We are dedicated to building sustainable nonprofit local news organizations across the country. Our vision is clear: to advance an independent, resilient and ubiquitous civic press that represents, informs and engages every member of the diverse public it serves.
We fundraise at the national and local level, partner with communities and entrepreneurs to launch new newsrooms, and coach the leaders who support a thriving nonprofit news field. Our program team works with philanthropists and nonprofit news leaders to advance a thriving, sustainable local news field, focusing on these four areas:
Expansions, growth and new initiatives
Equipped with stronger organizations and increased revenue, our portfolio is expanding its editorial reach, bringing high-quality journalism to wider audiences and new geographic regions.
This year, The Marshall Project announced its plans to launch a second local news operation in Jackson, Mississippi; ICT opened a news bureau at the University of Montana in Missoula as the first in a series of planned expansions; and Louisville Public Media added new journalists to their statehouse team to provide more free, in-depth coverage of the General Assembly across all 120 counties of Kentucky. City Bureau’s Documenters program also expanded into new communities; Documented expanded its work to cover more communities by introducing reporting in Haitian Creole and Chinese; and Block Club Chicago is expanding its investigative work. And that’s not all — Cityside, Civic News Company, Montana Free Press, Open Campus, San Jose Spotlight and Spotlight PA also announced their plans to launch local newsrooms in additional communities.
This year was also a banner year for AJP-led startups: Houston Landing launched in February, hitting the ground running with impactful, locally rooted original reporting, including highly regarded climate coverage during Houston’s hottest summer on record. And Signal Ohio is expanding — this year it raised $5 million to support a second newsroom in Akron. In September, Cleveland began prosecuting dozens of landlords for ignoring lead hazards that posed a risk of poisoning children, thanks to Signal Cleveland’s investigatory series on the subject. Most recently, we unveiled our newest project in Indiana, Free Press Indiana. This effort exemplifies our commitment to a holistic ecosystem approach: The initiative will form a new news organization in Indiana, a new Capital B newsroom serving Gary, and additional capacity for existing outlets.
Portfolio spotlight: Building a news organization from the ground up — our work in Ohio
In early December, Signal Ohio launched its second newsroom, Signal Akron. The growing nonprofit newsroom network will give Ohioans throughout the state access to free, accountability journalism and community resources. Here is a look at rebuilding local news in action:
2020: Following an exploration of Cleveland’s literacy challenges by the Cleveland Foundation and Knight Foundation, local stakeholders in northeast Ohio engaged AJP to lead an information needs study of the area, including community listening and local ecosystem assessments. Our analysis and research showed numerous information gaps, including in reporting and accessibility, and notable distrust in local mainstream news sources.
2021: AJP worked together with local stakeholders on a significant capital campaign to raise nearly $6 million to start a new, statewide network of nonprofit newsrooms beginning in Cleveland, initially known as the Ohio Local News Initiative. With support from a large coalition of local philanthropies and organizations, AJP assembled a founding board and conducted public searches for local leadership, including community input, to build the Cleveland newsroom.
2022: The public search for a Cleveland editor-in-chief resulted in the hiring of Lila Mills, a former Cleveland-based journalist, widely respected community builder, and leader of the Cleveland Documenters, a local site in City Bureau’s award-winning Documenters Network, which trains and pays residents to cover public meetings. The initiative merged the Documenters program into the Cleveland newsroom, enabling an expansion of the program, and hired a talented team of local journalists who launched Signal Cleveland with AJP incubation support.
2023: Rita McNeil Danish, a former judge and city attorney for multiple cities in Ohio, joined Signal as CEO, and the organization transitioned to an independently operated 501(c)3 with its own business and operating teams. In February, Signal Ohio announced its second newsroom in Akron, raising over $5 million in support and bringing the organization’s total funding to more than $13 million. Signal Akron launched as a publication in December, with a combination of accountability and community journalism, and a local Documenters site as well.
Signal’s work has had an immediate impact on its community through its innovative combination of ground-up community engagement and accountability journalism, including reporting that led to the prosecution of dozens of Cleveland landlords over lead safety. Its Documenters program led to a series that uncovered millions of dollars of public funds that were not deployed as promised. And its explanatory and service journalism have gained traction among Clevelanders, serving as a resource on issues vital to daily life in the city.
Today, Signal Ohio’s coalition includes nearly 800 donors, more than 500 trained Documenters, and over 25 newsroom staff, including some of the most highly regarded journalists in the market. Its staff spend time in neighborhoods traditionally underrepresented in mainstream media, and its newsrooms partner with local organizations and have a growing presence on social media platforms to reach as many residents as possible.
“Signal has established itself as an indispensable source of community news and information for Greater Cleveland that stands apart from traditional news outlets. I am a faithful reader of Signal’s e-newsletter, and I must say that the reporting from Signal is something you can’t get anywhere else.” — Connie Hill-Johnson, Cleveland Foundation board chair
“The work I did for Documenters changed my perspective on life in a major, major way. When I was observing meetings, and reporting on folks, I realized none of these people were superhuman…And when my own tweets [were] the catalyst for a citywide conversation about race and juvenile justice, I was amazed to learn I didn’t need to be “important” [to] do good or to make a positive difference.” — Alicia Moreland, Cleveland Documenter
REPORTING WITH IMPACT
Highlights from our portfolio
We’re focused on building sustainable local news organizations because we know that outstanding independent journalism can’t thrive without resources. Here’s a taste of the important reporting our grantees are delivering in communities across the country:
Mississippi Today’s award-winning Backchannel series
In May, Mississippi Today’s Anna Wolfe won a Pulitzer Prize for The Backchannel, an ambitious series on a sprawling welfare scandal that reached into the highest echelons of state government. The Backchannel is an example of the type of journalism that results from a news organization — and its reporters — being deeply rooted in a community.
Photo courtesy Mississippi Today
VTDigger’s pivotal flood reporting
Vermont-based VTDigger provided vital coverage of the state’s recent and unprecedented floods, with a team of journalists that worked around the clock to give locals up-to-the-minute flood coverage. The organization has published more than 200 flood-related articles since July, amassing record page views from Vermonters following along.
Photo courtesy VTDigger
Spotlight PA’s Penn State coverage
The Penn State Transparency Tracker is an ongoing effort by Spotlight PA to document and share the ways in which the university is, and is not, being transparent with the community. Due to its special “state-related” designation, Penn State is not subject to open records laws beyond the public disclosure of basic financial information. Through its investigative reporting series, Spotlight PA published an investigation into the university’s failed ethics policies and misconduct reporting systems. It also investigated the Penn State football team’s failing academic ratings. This series was recognized as part of SPJ Keystone’s Excellence in Journalism Awards.
Photo courtesy Spotlight PA
Flatwater Free Press on controversial law enforcement practices
Dogged reporting from Flatwater Free Press uncovered a controversial trend in Seward County, Nebraska, law enforcement. Reporter Natalia Alamdari followed a tip from a reader and found that Seward County officers were repeatedly conducting civil asset forfeitures along I-80 without charging or convicting affected drivers with a crime. The reporting contributed to a national conversation and was cited in a Washington Post editorial.
Capital B: spotlighting issues facing Black communities
Capital B’s rural issues reporter Aallyah Wright helped bring national recognition to the story of Patrick Braxton, elected the first Black mayor of Newbern, Alabama, a majority Black town long-led by white political leaders. Capital B covered efforts to block Braxton’s leadership, including locking him out of the town hall, the town’s mailbox and the town’s financial accounts. The story brought record views to Capital B, and is one of many examples of the newsroom’s reporting bringing national attention to issues facing Black communities, and doing so with a local lens.
Photo courtesy Capital B
Documented’s wage theft database
Documented and ProPublica partnered on a series investigating the New York State Department of Labor’s failure to recover nearly $80 million in stolen wages, unveiling the largest database tracking wage theft in New York. Before launching the investigation, Documented went out into the community and asked about what people wanted the news outlet to cover; the No. 1 topic was wage theft. As reporters began collecting the stories of individual workers, the Documented team saw the opportunity to create a public resource that could help warn workers and help them build collective power. Without cooperation or transparency from the New York State Department of Labor, Documented undertook a four-year freedom of information legal challenge with the state. In the end, Documented and ProPublica produced a decadelong database covering more than 33,000 cases of wage theft.
WE’RE ENDING 2023 WITH
41 Grantees
Our portfolio of grantees includes 37 established organizations and four currently under incubation. In January, we’ll announce our next round of grantees, growing the number of local news organizations we support.
Included in our portfolio is our first cohort of grantees, who completed their grant cycle in 2023. The American Journalism Project will continue to partner with these organizations through capacity-building opportunities and in our community of learning. We’re proud of the work they’ve done so far and are excited to see their continued growth and success!
“We simply would not be where we are today without the support of AJP, and this has changed the future for our organization in a positive way. We believe we have the foundations of a long-term sustainable enterprise moving forward and will continue to lean into the AJP support network we have built over the past three years to continue our growth and development.” — AJP grantee in response to annual portfolio survey
Thank you to our board, supporters and advisors.
Board
Joe Natoli, Board Chair
EVP and CAO, Baptist Health South Florida and former Publisher, Knight Ridder
Rosental Alves
Professor, Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, University of Texas at Austin
Jelani Cobb
Dean and Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism, Columbia Journalism School
Jeff Cohen
Executive Vice President of Communications, Arnold Ventures
Michelle De La Isla
CEO, Hack.Diversity and former Mayor, City of Topeka, Kan.
Teresa Gorman
Associate Director, Public Square, Democracy Fund
Peter Lattman
Managing Director, Media, Emerson Collective
Hilary Schneider
Strategic advisor to the Board of Directors, Shutterfly
Maria Thomas
Startup Advisor/Investor
John Thornton, Co-founder
Co-founder & Partner, Elsewhere Partners
Supporters
$1,000,000+
$200,000 to $999,999
Arthur Vining Davis Foundations | Simone Coxe | Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation | Ford Foundation | The Hearthland Foundation | William & Flora Hewlett Foundation | Kaplen Brothers Fund | Henry Luce Foundation | Lumina Foundation | Patrick J. McGovern Foundation | Present Progressive Fund | The Schmidt Family Foundation | Erin and John Thornton | Natasha and Dirk Ziff
$5,000 – $199,999
The Alderyn Fund | Allen & Company | Howard M. Austin | Pam & Larry Baer | Baskin Family Foundation | Harris A. Berman & Ruth E. Nemzoff Family Foundation | Eliot Brown | Dana Devon and Neil Sand | Four Pines Charitable Foundation | Freedom Forum | Ann B. and Thomas L. Friedman Family Foundation | Girl Reporter Fund | Inasmuch Foundation | Jampart Charitable Trust | Katherine Kovner | Lakeside Foundation | Erica and Jeff Lawson | The Listgarten Family Fund | Dr. Michelle and Mr. Daniel Lubetzky | Laura and Scott Malkin | MERGEM Fund | Roger Miles | Patrick Miller | Miranda Family Fund | Joe Natoli | The staff at The New York Times through its employee-giving campaign | Rockefeller Brothers Fund | Rust Charitable Foundation | Schwab Charitable | Lucien Simpfendoerfer | Eric Sorensen | Karen Tarnow | Maria Thomas | Marianne Victor | Walton Family Foundation | R. Ted Weschler | Wyncote Foundation | Mitchell and Elaine Yanow Charitable Trust | Brian and Susie Zachman Charitable Fund
Local Philanthropy Partners
A special thank you to our local philanthropic partners that have provided funding to help identify and address information gaps in their communities.
Arnold Ventures | California Community Foundation | Central Indiana Community Foundation | Cleveland Foundation | Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln | Grand Rapids Community Foundation | Hillman Family Foundations | Houston Endowment | Emily Kaiser | Kalamazoo Community Foundation | Leonetti/O’Connell Family Foundation | Lumina Foundation | W.K. Kellogg Foundation | Waco Foundation | Walton Family Foundation | Wichita Foundation
Advisory Circle
- Laurence Baer, Chief Executive Officer and President, San Francisco Giants
- Farai Chideya, Host and producer, Our Body Politic
- Marsha Cooke, Vice President, ESPN Films and Executive Producer, 30 for 30
- Simone Coxe
- Pamela Maffei McCarthy, Deputy Editor of The New Yorker 1992-2020
- Graciela Mochkofsky, Dean, Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism
- Dr. Anya Schiffrin, Senior lecturer, Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs
- Evan Smith, Senior Advisor, Texas Tribune and Senior Advisor, Emerson Collective
- Richard Tofel, Principal, Gallatin Advisory LLC and former president, ProPublica
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