PNA Foundation announces grant recipients of inaugural Pa. Lab for Journalism Funding
The PNA Foundation announced three grant recipients of the inaugural Pa. Lab for Journalism Funding, a project formed in conjunction with Local Media Association. The lab was created to teach newsrooms effective strategies for securing funding to support solutions-based journalism projects. Twelve news organizations were selected to participate in the four-month program and submit capstone projects in the first-of-its-kind lab.
The Butler Eagle, SPIRIT Media Group, Inc. and WITF & The Steinman Institute for Civic Engagement will each receive a $20,000 grant from the PNA Foundation to help fund journalism efforts designed to address issues in their communities. The grants will be awarded at the PNA 100th Anniversary Gala on Nov. 14 in Hershey.
Read our Press Release.
View Editor & Publisher’s coverage.
PA Lab for Journalism Funding Participants’ Inspire at LMA Fest
Twelve Pennsylvania news organizations that participated in the four-month PA Lab for Journalism Funding impressed and inspired other newsroom representatives from across the country at the Lab’s culminating “pitch day,” that was held during LMA Fest in Chicago the week of Sept. 24, 2024.
The Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association partnered with the Local Media Association to create a statewide version of their highly acclaimed and successful national philanthropy lab. PNA is the first press association to bring the lab to its state. The PNA Foundation sponsored the lab along with the Knight Foundation and the Google News Initiative. The Lenfest Institute contributed to the curriculum and training.
The Lab was created to train newsrooms on how to raise funding to support reporting projects that impact their communities. Through four cohorts of the national lab, newsrooms have raised over $21,000,000.
The twelve Pennsylvania news organizations in the inaugural PA Lab were chosen in April 2024 by PNA and LMA based on their proposed projects. The lab participants committed to attending virtual group training sessions with instructors every other week, plus individual sessions with very accomplished industry experts. Over that time, the newsrooms conducted listening tours in their communities, developed projects and plans built around community needs, created budgets, learned the language of philanthropy and funding, and ultimately produced a pitch they can deliver to potential funders.
Pitch Day at LMA Fest gave each participant the opportunity to present their idea in front judges from Google News Initiative, Lenfest Institute, Local Journalism Initiative Delaware, and PNA. Judges scored each presentation on the following criteria:
- Importance of the problem to be solved.
- Level of need in the community/audience to be served.
- Robustness of plan for how newsroom will approach the problem.
- Rationale for budget/resources needed.
- Likelihood of meaningful impact/outcomes.
- Scalability of lessons learned for other communities/news organizations.
Below is the list of PNA members who presented their ideas during Pitch Day, along with the topic of their proposed project.
Bucks County Herald – Mental illness and substance use disorders crisis in their community.
Butler Eagle (Eagle Printing Company) – Civics & Civility.
Indiana Gazette – Brain Drain: Declining population.
Latrobe Bulletin – The Flashlight Project: Using community journalism for the greater good.
Philadelphia Sunday SUN – Community forums to amplify Black voices and inform solutions-based reporting.
PublicSource – Building empathy through community journalism.
SPIRIT Media Group, Inc. – Infant mortality and healthcare inequality.
TheBurg – Harrisburg 2030 Reporting Lab (a plan for Harrisburg revitalization)
The Daily Collegian – Title IX.
The York Dispatch – Safeguarding our schools.
Times Leader Media Group – Read to succeed.
WITF and The Steinman Institute for Civic Engagement – Empowering tomorrow’s content creators and consumers.
“I went to the LMA Fest PA Lab Pitch Day expecting to be impressed,” said John Derr, PNA Director of Strategic Partnership, “I did not anticipate being moved. The twelve newsrooms that presented showed the deepest level of commitment to their communities through the thorough and well-designed projects they developed. Despite the business headwinds many are facing, these news organizations are determined to serve their communities through powerful storytelling. They were an inspiration to everyone in the room.”
The PNA Foundation contributed three grants of $20,000 to be awarded to the top three projects as determined by the judges. Winners will be announced the week of October 7, 2024.
Read LMA’s recap of the event here.
Read the initial PA Lab for Journalism Funding press release here.
Not Pictured: Brian Nalepa, Indiana Gazette