Across the United States, local news faces an existential crisis. For over a decade, daily newspapers and other sources of local news have been either shuttered or eviscerated of resources—and the trend shows few signs of slowing down. A study by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism found that the rate of loss of local newspapers accelerated in 2023 to 2.5 per week.
For over a decade, daily newspapers and other sources of local news have been either shuttered or eviscerated of resources—and the trend shows few signs of slowing down.
But amid the gloom, there is some reason for cautious hope: an increasing push by nonprofit institutions to raise and provide funding to support nonprofit local news.
This spring, the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) announced that more than 300 newsrooms around the country raised $47 million from their audiences in a national campaign called NewsMatch. INN, of which NPQ is a member, itself raised $7 million that goes to matching grants to the participating newsrooms.
NewsMatch seeks to leverage funding to empower local newsrooms.
The program matches funds raised by individual, local newsrooms in an end-of-year campaign with funding from a coalition of national and regional funders. NewsMatch says that over the course of the program, 86 percent of matching funds were invested directly into newsrooms as unrestricted grants.
The increase in donations, noted INN in a press release, “coincides with an ongoing period of public distrust in news media, the spread of misinformation, and a need for reliable news, particularly in a presidential election year.”
In addition to coordinating and delivering matching funds, NewsMatch seeks to leverage funding to empower local newsrooms to enhance their own fundraising by providing fundraising support, training, and coaching via INN and its learning partner News Revenue Hub.
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“NewsMatch is a huge asset for startup newsrooms and outlets in small markets, which generally have a harder time accessing major philanthropy,” said Corinne Colbert, cofounder of the Athens County Independent, which serves a rural Appalachian audience in southeast Ohio.
NewsMatch isn’t the only such initiative.
“NewsMatch is a conversation between newsrooms and their communities.”
Over the past 10 years, nonprofits launched several initiatives to bolster local news in America, including an online guide by the INN to help for-profit news outlets convert to nonprofit organizations.
Last year, the funding coalition Press Forward announced a pledge to raise $500 million over the next five years for local news initiatives, the most significant philanthropic investment in local news to date.
Meanwhile, NewsMatch seeks to empower and incentivize local nonprofit newsrooms to challenge themselves to fundraise more effectively within the communities they serve.
“NewsMatch is a conversation between newsrooms and their communities,” said Karen Rundlet, executive director and CEO of INN, which represents some 450 nonprofit news organizations nationwide, in the press release. “NewsMatch is about members of the INN Network sharing the value of their work directly with their communities. News providers are explaining how they contribute to a healthier society and a healthier democracy.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that NewsMatch had raised $47 million for news outlets. That amount was actually raised by participating member newsrooms of INN through the NewsMatch campaign.