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.  

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.