Today, as we announce the recipients of Press Forward’s first Open Call on Closing Local Coverage Gaps, we are also wrapping up a months-long process that drew on the expertise of 150+ people.
Staff were guided by the insights of our Management Committee and our broad coalition of 60+ funders and journalism serving organizations, as well as the people who gave their time to be on the review panel. Together, they shaped our eligibility criteria, coached applicants on their strategy and materials, and served as application reviewers. For that, we are grateful, as we knew that involving the broader journalism and philanthropic community would bring in additional perspectives and ensure a fair process.
For this first open call, we wanted to share how the process developed and how the final 205 grantees were selected. We hope this information can provide transparency and learnings for all who applied and offer insights that grantmakers can use as they approach open calls in journalism and beyond.
Here are a few key points that guided our journey:
Going small: Being intentional about applicant criteria: For this open call, we wanted to focus on uplifting local outlets that bridge longstanding coverage gaps—whether in rural or urban communities, amongst people of color, or linguistically diverse people. We also intentionally targeted outlets whose budgets are less than $1 million. These smaller outlets don’t typically receive support from national funders, often because these funders lack the contacts, context, and capacity to find and evaluate hundreds of smaller newsrooms nationwide. Press Forward was built to help bridge that gap.
We decided to be agnostic about business models because we were intent on prioritizing our funding to provide access to information to as many people as possible. Outlets in small communities operate with a constellation of models, from family-owned news outlets to new nonprofit start-ups, a diversity that strengthens the field. We decided to fund it all, which resulted in 59% of grantees being for-profit and 40% being nonprofits.
Providing ample support for applicants: Because of our open-ended criteria, we knew we would have many first-time grant seekers among the applicants. And we did – in our first information session, half of the 700 people who signed up had never applied for a grant. So, in addition to two online information sessions, we worked with The Lenfest News Philanthropy Network to provide individualized coaching in English and Spanish. Applicants had access to two sessions: One to develop their strategy for applying and a second to receive feedback on their application. Some 277 applicants participated in 420 sessions, with overwhelmingly positive responses from applicants.
Our growing network of Press Forward local chapters also helped by encouraging their local outlets to apply and hosting webinars on the open call or info session watch parties.
Reviewing applications and ensuring a diversity of perspectives
First and foremost, we did not expect the number of applications we received: 931. We had initially planned for 80 reviewers to read fewer applications. When we saw the final number, we recruited more reviewers—for a total of 113—increased the number of applicants that each evaluated and increased reviewers’ compensation to a $1,000 honorarium.
Our team and the reviewers, who are listed below, also immediately noticed the strong quality of the proposals. While Press Forward initially expected to fund 100 newsrooms, due to both the number and high quality, we pivoted to double the number of awardees and the amount we are investing to a total of $20 million split among 205 newsrooms.
To get to our final list of recipients, we:
- Provided reviewer training: We borrowed the North Carolina Local News Fund Lab format for training our reviewers. We emphasized our rubric for scoring, which we had published publicly. We asked reviewers to look at each outlet’s plans for sustainability and track their record for collaboration, commitment to listening to their community, and leadership.
We also gave each reviewer access to Lever for Change’s anti-bias training to help them identify their unconscious bias.
- Ensured applications were evaluated by people with a range of expertise. In the first round of evaluation, each application was assigned to three reviewers, including a journalism leader and a funder. We wanted to ensure a multitude of perspectives and a well-rounded view of the applications, so that each application was viewed fairly.
In addition, we divided the applications into four categories by budget and tax status:
- nonprofits with budgets under $500,000,
- nonprofits with budgets above $500,000,
- for-profits with budgets under $500,000 and
- for-profits with budgets above $500,000.
This way, reviewers evaluated applications in one category and compared them to others with similar criteria.
- Conducted a second round of review to ensure a balanced and equitable group of grantees: The reviewers narrowed the list of applicants from 913 to the top 400, and their views held the preponderance of weight in our decisions. In the second round, the Press Forward staff, including veterans in philanthropy and journalism, narrowed the list further and made the final decisions to ensure a balanced list for maximum impact across the country. We considered the quality of applications and the philanthropic and media landscape in an area, amongst other factors. These were challenging decisions.
By the time we finished the process, at least five people had fully reviewed each application. The final list of recipients includes news outlets from every state, Puerto Rico, and Guam, with 40 percent of recipients from BIPOC-led newsrooms and about 25% of others serving rural communities.
We learned a lot from this process and the feedback from applicants, and we will incorporate these insights into future open calls.
Our next open call is focused on Local News Infrastructure, and through it, we are seeking to seed, iterate, and expand innovations in operations, audience, people, and revenue. Applications will open Nov. 13; you can find more information and the program guidelines on our website on that date, and make sure you’re subscribed to the Press Forward email list to receive a notification.
For this first open call, we’d like to thank our Management Committee, our local chapters for offering input on outlets in their areas, The Miami Foundation for providing grantmaking expertise and conducting due diligence on applicants, and the range of organizations that provided expertise including INN, LION, Tiny News Collective, The Lenfest Institute for Journalism and others. We couldn’t have done this without reviewers who dedicated countless hours to evaluating the applicant.
A big and heartfelt thank you to all!
Christina Shih is Press Forward’s Associate Director. Kristina Kujawa is Press Forward’s grant specialist.
Reviewers and Field of Expertise
Ashley Alvarado, News organization
Anika Anand, Journalism support organization
Ayinde B. Merrill, Philanthropy
Courtney Bengtson, Philanthropy
Aura Bogado, News organization
Shannan Bowen, Journalism support organization
Wendi C. Thomas, News organization
George Camacho, Sr., News organization
Nicole Carr, News organization
Felicitas Carrique, Journalism support organization
Neil Chase, News organization
Bene Cipolla, News organization
Sue Cross, Journalism support organization
John Davidow, Journalism support organization
Jesus Del Toro, News organization
Elaina Di Monaco, Journalism support organization
Frances Dinkelspiel, News organization
Ethar El-Katatney, News organization
Michelle Faust Raghavan, Journalism support organization
Andrea Faye Hart, News organization
Teri Finneman, News organization
Corey Ford, News organization
Taryn Fort, Philanthropy
Todd Frank, News organization
Thomas G. Davidson, Philanthropy
Bridget Gallagher, Journalism support organization
Jesus Garcia-Gonzalez, Philanthropy
Ramona Giwargis, News organization
Susan Gluck Pappajohn, Journalism support organization
David Grant, Journalism support organization
Kevin Grant, Journalism support organization
Kimberly Griffin, News organization
Hilda Gurdian, News organization
Jesse Hardman, Journalism support organization
John Hernandez, Journalism support organization
Jere Hester, News organization
Lisa Heyamoto, Philanthropy
Cierra Hinton, Journalism support organization
Daniel Hu, News organization
Maudlyne Ihejirika, Philanthropy
Anna January, News organization
Robert K. Elder, Journalism support organization
Jo Ellen Kaiser, News organization
Andrew Katusin, Philanthropy
Jonathan Kealing, Journalism support organization
Scott Klein, Journalism support organization
Amy Kovac-Ashley, Journalism support organization
Mia Lobel, Journalism support organization
Karen Long, Philanthropy
Tristan Loper, Philanthropy
Janie Lorber, Philanthropy
Andrew Losowsky, News organization
Kathy Lu, Journalism support organization
Megan Lucero, Journalism support organization
Mukhtar M. Ibrahim, Philanthropy
Ryan M. Eller, Philanthropy
Rashad Mahmood, Journalism support organization
Alma Martinez, News organization
Francisco Martinez, Philanthropy
Joy Mayer, Journalism support organization
AX Mina, Journalism support organization
Mitra Kalita, News organization
Jennifer Mizgata, Journalism support organization
Shawn Mooring, Philanthropy
Holly Morehouse, Philanthropy
Fiona Morgan, Journalism support organization
Katina Mortensen, Philanthropy
Samuel Muñeton Jr., Philanthropy
Stefanie Murray, News organization
Raju Narisetti, Journalism support organization
Jessica Nguyen, Philanthropy
Anna Nirmala, Journalism support organization
Mauricio Palma, Philanthropy
Annelise Pierce, News organization
Apryl Pilolli, Journalism support organization
Jennifer Preston, Philanthropy
Brandon Quester, News organization
Stephanie Rapp, Philanthropy
Stacy Reed, Philanthropy
Tim Regan-Porter, Journalism support organization
Fran Reilly, News organization
Damaso Reyes, News organization
Martin Reynolds, Journalism support organization
Mike Rispoli, Journalism support organization
Sue Robinson, News organization
Carmen Rojas, Philanthropy
Kelsey Ryan, Journalism support organization
Stephanie Schenkel, Journalism support organization
Will Schick, Journalism support organization
Christine Schmidt, Philanthropy
Jagmeet Singh Mac, Philanthropy
Suyin So, Journalism support organization
Silvia Solis, News organization
Robin Sparkman, News organization
Kimberly Spencer, Philanthropy
Todd Stauffer, Journalism support organization
Naomi Tacuyan Underwood, Journalism support organization
Bridget Thoreson, Journalism support organization
Tyler Tokarczyk, Philanthropy
Johanna Ulloa, Philanthropy
Tomas Uriostegui, Philanthropy
Allen Van Noppen, News organization
Liliana Velazquez, Philanthropy
Michael Venegas, Philanthropy
David Vitse, Philanthropy
Jasper Wang, News organization
Graham Watson-Ringo, Journalism support organization
Sisi Wei, News organization
Barbara Wetsig-Lynam, Journalism support organization
Ashley Woods Branch, Journalism support organization
Lauren Woods, Philanthropy
Karen Gadbois, News organization
Richard Watts, News organization