How Press Forward Locals Can Avoid Journalism’s Past Mistakes

Last week’s Knight Media Forum was a coming-out party of sorts for the Press Forward local news initiative, which was launched six months ago. Attendees met the initiative’s inaugural director, Dale Anglin from the Cleveland Foundation, and four new local chapters were announced, bringing the total to 17.

 The events underscored that Press Forward’s future will be built on local funding. Launched with a $500 million commitment primarily from national foundations such as MacArthur and Knight, Press Forward is looking for the next $500 million to come from community foundations and other local philanthropies.

 Mobilizing local funding for local news is a great concept, but execution is everything. Done right, Press Forward Locals can help build a new, equitable future for local journalism. But without skill and intention, they could inadvertently rebuild the flawed structures of a news industry that has historically ignored or stereotyped communities of color.

 Local foundations may be local, but that doesn’t mean they know the small, nontraditional hyperlocal news outlets emerging as critical information sources for communities of color. It will take a radical rethinking of funding practices to support these digital startups, as The Pivot Fund CEO Tracie Powell wrote in Poynter.

There are promising signs. In the Midwest, Press Forward Local members McKnight and Joyce foundations engaged The Pivot Fund to do news landscape analyses, like this one we did in Georgia, as a foundation for their funding strategy. Press Forward’s Guide for Local Funders stresses that BIPOC publishers have been underfunded by philanthropy and mentions The Pivot Fund as one of the organizations countering the trend.

Meanwhile, Press Forward must clarify how it will augment local funding rather than just adding another hoop for local publishers to jump through. We’ve posed that question to Dale Anglin and will let you know what we learn.