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I wrote last August about the financial challenges that newspapers face, and particularly about how The News-Gazette might begin to evolve to a new business model, incorporating elements of philanthropic support for our news gathering and reporting efforts.
Since that column, there is news to report both locally, and as this issue pertains to local journalism nationally. Concern about the state of local journalism has grown as local media organizations shrink or disappear.
A few weeks after the August column ran, a coalition of some of the largest donors and foundations in the country announced the creation of Press Forward. The press release from Press Forward issued Sept. 7 stated the purpose was to be “a national initiative to strengthen communities and democracy by supporting local news and information with an infusion of more than a halfbillion dollars over the next five years.”
The release went on to say that over the past 18 years, over 2,200 local newspaper have closed, leaving an estimated 20 percent of Americans living in “news deserts,” with no reliable source of local news and events. Press Forward sees its mission as reversing this trend, which it says has coincided with a more divided country and less trust in its institutions.
Some of the well-known funders of Press Forward include the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Knight Foundation, and the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, among the initial 22 participating organizations. These are the heavy hitters of American philanthropy.
Grant criteria will be announced in early 2024, and applications accepted soon after. We’re particularly interested that one of Press Forward’s funding priorities is “strengthening local newsrooms that have the trust of local communities.” We believe we fit that priority.
On the local front, we have added to our subscription renewal notices the ability to make an additional contribution to help maintain our local newsroom. We’ve also added a Donate button to our website. Since these went up in October, we’ve been blessed with over $1,800 in contributions from 35 generous readers. I want to thank every one of those people for their support.
We have also partnered with the Community Foundation of Rockbridge, Bath and Alleghany to create a fund benefiting the newspaper under the umbrella of the foundation. That allows donors to make a tax-deductible contribution. Those interested in doing so may send that to The News-Gazette Foundation Fund, c/o CFRBA, 7 W. Washington St., Lexington or by going online to the Community Foundation’s website to cfra. fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/ fund?funit_id=2023.
We intend to move forward along the lines I talked about last August – keeping the newspaper financially viable through an increasingly hybrid revenue model of traditional income from advertising, subscriptions and niche publications coupled with funding from philanthropic sources. We’ve also budgeted tighter on costs for 2024, and projecting additional revenue from digital advertising and niche publications.
I know we don’t have all the answers, and probably don’t even know some of the questions. Though the path forward may require course corrections, the ultimate goal for the future is keeping this local newspaper thriving under local control. Of that, there’s no question.
