Nonprofit news and the art of the mix

What is the best funding mix for a nonprofit news organization?

It depends on the outlet, its locale, audience and subject matter, of course. But a “new blueprint,” writes Editor & Publisher’s Gretchen A. Peck, is emerging in Washington State, where the newly nonprofit Spokesman-Review is developing a hybrid mix of funding from circulation, advertising and sponsorships, and philanthropy.

So far there is no “ideal funding pie chart,” Hanaa’ Tameez wrote this week for Nieman Lab, detailing a study from Pace University associate professor Katherine Fink which concluded that nonprofit news outlets remained “heavily dependent” on philanthropic funding. That was the case, Fink concluded, even as news leaders expressed interest in revenue diversification.

Still, deep pockets will beckon. Tech and media journalist Simon Owens this week suggested that nonprofit news organizations could do more to raise money from wealthy donors in their communities. He reached that conclusion after doing an in-depth video interview with Julie Rafferty, co-founder of the nonprofit Brookline News in Massachusetts, about how the publication raised $100,000 before it even launched.

  • Related: When funders treat community as an afterthought, news organizations crumble (Pivot Fund’s Tracie Powell, for Inside Philanthropy) 

News In Focus
Headlines, resources and events aligned with API’s four areas of focus.

Civic Discourse & Democracy

>> People who fear the Trump administration are asking editors to remove their names from old news stories. (Poynter)

Kelly McBride, the ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, says she has heard from journalists around the country asking for help on a difficult question: People, including government workers, teachers and green card holders, are asking editors to remove their names from old stories that show them at odds with Trump administration policies. She lays out the process she’s used to help them decide what to do.

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Culture & Inclusion

>> Amid the war on ‘DEI,’ a call to reaffirm values (Second Rough Draft)

Dick Tofel says he’s never met or seen an effective manager who “did not believe in and practice inclusion as a value, whether or not they used the term.” In a call for news organizations to reaffirm DEI values, he writes about each of them — diversity, equity and inclusion — and why it is important for the industry to not only maintain them but also account for “how far we still have to go.”

>> Join our webinar Tuesday: Beyond stress: What journalists should know about burnout

In this self-reflective session, on Tuesday, May 6 at 1 p.m., API’s Sam Ragland will lead a discussion on ways for journalists to reassess and repair their relationships with work. Created specifically for those working in news organizations, this session will help journalists assess where they sit on the stress spectrum, understand what is inside and outside of their control, and self-prescribe a set of actions to combat their unique blend of burnout. Learn more and register here.

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Community Engagement & Trust

>> Study finds engagement journalism training reduced ‘horse race’ political coverage, boosted more substantive content (University of Kansas) 

Journalism engagement training has been effective in helping reduce “horse race” coverage of elections and increasing more substantive content, a new study shows. Three researchers looked at coverage in 2018, 2020 and 2022 from outlets that worked with the Democracy SOS training program and found that the training worked to encourage journalists to reduce “black-and-white coverage of winners and losers.” The study was published in the journal Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly.

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Revenue & Resilience

>> The Washington Post aims to drive double-digit revenue growth by hosting fewer, bigger events (Adweek)

The Washington Post is changing up its events strategy, writes Mark Stenberg, “shifting away from a high-volume virtual strategy toward a model built around fewer, larger, and franchisable in-person experiences.” The intent, chief strategy officer Suzi Watford told Stenberg, is to make live programming and “premium experiences” a more central part of The Post’s advertising operation.

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What else you need to know

👏 Geeta Anand named editor-in-chief of VTDigger (VTDigger)

🏠 How Outlier is helping Detroiters get millions of dollars back from Wayne County (Nieman Lab)

💭 What I wish I’d known when I started reporting on mental health (Poynter)

🔍 Following the ‘exportations’ (CJR)

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Weekend reads

+ Is true crime keeping me in prison? (New York Magazine)

+ Listen: What’s a photograph that stands out in your mind? (KQED)

+ How Ezra Klein’s YouTube makeover points to podcasting’s TV future (Vanity Fair)

+ Here’s how Journalism, likely Kentucky Derby favorite, got his name from a former editor (Louisville Courier-Journal)