Press Forward deploys nearly $600 million in local journalism

By Elena Vasquez

Press Forward announced Tuesday that it had invested nearly $600 million in journalism organizations, about two years ahead of schedule. The nonprofit launched in 2023 to strengthen local news as outlets struggled with economic and technological change.

Press Forward Executive Director Dale Anglin said the organization’s work remained far from complete. Anglin said Press Forward will continue raising and investing money while expanding the range of initiatives that support journalism.

“The industry is going through an incredible transformation,” Anglin told the Associated Press. “It took 20 years to get to this point — if not longer. It’s going to take us to get out of it.”

What is happening to local news access?

Northwestern University’s “The State of Local News 2026” counted 238 news-desert counties this year, a 12% increase, as advertising and audiences continued to decline. Northwestern defines a news desert as a county with no locally based professional sources of news. Although dozens of newsrooms opened this year, more than two newspapers closed for every outlet launched, the report found.

How is Press Forward financing local news?

Press Forward launched with donations from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Democracy Fund and 19 other funders. The nonprofit now counts 144 funders. Anglin said she had success convincing more funders to support the organization. Anglin has argued that journalism needs longer-term support comparable to arts and education funding in a community.

Press Forward established a $21 million impact-investing fund, a financing vehicle for small loans that outlets would likely not obtain elsewhere. Its 50 local chapters have invested $87 million to strengthen journalism in their communities, including $53 million during the past year.

“The challenges in local news were really kind of universal,” Anglin said. “But it turns out, as we have learned over the last three years, that a lot of the solutions are local.”

What does the pooled-fund model change?

Press Forward Chicago Executive Director Tracy Baim said the chapter believed it had developed part of the solution to journalism’s funding problems. Press Forward Chicago’s pooled fund combines donations from multiple organizations and directs them toward specific initiatives, while the chapter also accepts traditional donations.

“It is a way to tiptoe into journalism funding,” Baim said. Baim said many foundations, especially smaller ones, considered support for individual outlets too intimidating. She said potential links to controversial projects, or fears of appearing to influence coverage, kept some foundations away.

“A pooled fund mitigates those risks,” Baim said. Baim said Chicago further minimizes donor risk by distributing the donations among multiple outlets.

Last year, 12 donors put nearly $1 million into Press Forward Chicago’s first pooled fund, which funded increased immigration reporting and distributed the money to 12 organizations: the national outlet ProPublica, major local outlets Chicago Public Media and Block Club Chicago, and smaller outlets serving Latino and Chinese communities.

Baim said the donations allowed outlets to add reporting, editing and presentation capacity right before the Department of Homeland Security launched its “Midway Blitz” immigration operation in Chicago. Press Forward Chicago’s second pooled fund focused on education and enabled outlets to increase coverage of the Chicago Board of Education elections.

“We are making these outlets stronger,” Baim said. “We’re not just giving an organization a grant to cover stuff. We are amplifying their work so that they can get new subscribers and that’s a pipeline of potential donors.”

Can philanthropy sustain local news?

Press Forward treats sustainable growth as its next phase. Knight Foundation President and Chief Executive Maribel Perez Wadsworth called that phase more significant than co-founding the nonprofit.

“Announcing half a billion dollars in national funding toward journalism was important in terms of demonstrating the urgency and the importance of supporting local journalism,” Wadsworth said.

Wadsworth continued: “But the more important thing, ultimately, is to really catalyze and create deeper awareness at the local level about the essential nature of access to reliable news and information as a public good.”

The Associated Press reported that donors of both sizes were making journalism a priority because reliable information supports other initiatives. The Ford Foundation, described as one of the world’s largest grantmakers, said supporting journalism would become a priority as it overhauled its giving to focus on democracy’s building blocks.

The much smaller nonprofit Public Media Co. made trustworthy local information a cornerstone of its effort to keep public radio stations operating after ongoing federal funding cuts. Wadsworth said local and regional funders working together to keep outlets open offers a more sustainable answer to their budgetary problems.

“Philanthropy writ large is not a business model,” Wadsworth said. “And it’s not sustainable to believe that philanthropy is just going to always support whatever the thing is, no matter how important.”

What must change next?

Anglin said there was “no silver bullet” to solve journalism’s economic problems. She argued that philanthropy can strengthen news outlets while they develop a new, sustainable business model.

Press Forward plans to pursue public policy changes, encourage cooperation and resource-sharing among outlets, and provide infrastructure and grants that build reporting capacity. Its independently operated chapters have addressed a wide range of needs.

Earlier this year, Press Forward’s Minnesota chapters helped defray costs for outlets covering a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis. Press Forward’s Kentucky chapters trained local residents to become reporters.

“You can’t nonprofit your way out of this problem,” Anglin said. “We understand that some things will still close. But we are building for the long term.”

The next test is whether pooled funds, impact loans and shared infrastructure can turn short-term support into durable local reporting capacity in the 238 counties now classified as news deserts.