Spring 1997
Knight-Ridder to Fund Civic Journalism Projects
The Knight-Ridder newspaper chain has announced that it has completed a three-year partnership with the Pew Center for Civic Journalism by deciding to set aside a “significant” sum of money for public journalism projects in 1997.
It set a March 14 deadline for newspapers to have submitted proposals for that funding.
“The Pew Center has performed a valuable role as a catalyst for public journalism efforts,” said a joint announcement from Clark Hoyt and Marty Claus, corporate vice presidents/news. “Now it’s time for Knight-Ridder to take over that role for our newspapers, to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to public journalism.”
Since its creation in 1993, the Pew Center has contributed more than $1 million to help fund 14 civic journalism initiatives involving Knight-Ridder papers, usually working with other news organizations in their communities.
Those efforts have included the award-winning “Taking Back our Neighborhoods” at The Charlotte Observer, which was a winner last year of the James K. Batten Award for Excellence in Civic Journalism and a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize.
“Knight-Ridder editors and reporters have developed some of the most creative civic journalism projects in the country — efforts that have upheld the core values of good journalism while inviting citizen participation,” said Ed Fouhy, the Pew Center’s executive director. “We have been proud to partner with them and happy to showcase those efforts as learning opportunities for other newspapers.”
This year, the Pew Center is helping to support civic journalism efforts at two Knight-Ridder papers, the Long Beach Press Telegram and the Myrtle Beach Sun News. Both newspapers are pursing projects to help their communities address problems and chart the future.
Much like the Pew Center’s funding guidelines, Knight-Ridder’s guidelines solicit proposals that seek funding to help pay for some of the extraordinary costs of civic journalism ventures, such as polling, focus groups, forums and community coordinators. The money cannot be used to pay for news hole or journalists’ salaries.
“Our partnership with Pew was an important catalyst for pushing forward (our late chief executive) Jim Batten’s concepts of community-building journalism,” Hoyt and Claus said. “With money from the Pew Center, newspapers were able to finance activities that went beyond the normal costs of doing journalism, such as polling and providing community coordinators. Our newspapers were able to produce strong civic journalism efforts that helped citizens focus on common concerns and find viable solutions to community problems.”
“We want to maintain a strong relationship with the Pew Center to further those values we share.”
The corporate commitment to funding public journalism projects next year also enables the chain to sidestep criticism of accepting outside money to experiment with civic journalism efforts, Hoyt and Clark acknowledged in their memo.
“There are no better examples of editors who have maintained their independence — while creating laboratories for developing the next generation of news — than the Knight-Ridder editors we have been privileged to work with,” Fouhy said.
“The goal of a venture-funding incubator like the Pew Center is to see the best ideas grow strong enough legs to stand on their own. If Knight-Ridder’s commitment continues into the future, our highest hopes will have been achieved.”