A Coalition of Funders Supports Local Newsrooms Across America

This story was produced through the Daily Yonder Rural Reporting Fellowship, with support from the LOR Foundation.

With rural newsrooms nationwide struggling, a push to fund local news infrastructure comes from Press Forward, a coalition of national funders, including foundations like the MacArthur Foundation and the Knight Foundation, coming together to fund journalism through a coordinated effort. 

Beyond its nationwide pursuits, Press Forward also supports local chapters aiming to bring together smaller foundations to continue to fund local news. 

Announced in 2023, Press Forward pledged more than half a billion dollars to support local newsrooms across the country. Local news is vital for government accountability, fighting misinformation, civic engagement, and strengthening social ties.

According to the State of Local News Report for 2024, three-quarters of news deserts are located in USDA-characterized rural communities. Rural communities also are underserved by publications other than print, despite rising print costs. In the past year, more than 30 publications dropped their print publication entirely, going fully digital. 

In the San Luis Valley, in rural southern Colorado, Chris Lopez saw a space for an alternative digital news source, despite the majority of digital-only news sources being housed in urban environments. 

Lopez grew up in Alamosa, Colorado —population 9,833— but spent 30 years working for several newspapers, before returning to Alamosa in 2015. Lopez and his wife, MaryAnne Talbott started the Alamosa Citizen — a digital publication with original reporting and feature stories — in 2021, as an experiment. 

“We felt that there was an opportunity in the market for something more regular, more robust, and told a different type of story than police blotters and things like that,” Lopez said. 

The Alamosa Citizen was one of nine Colorado newsrooms, six of which were in rural communities, to receive $100,000 over two years in the first open call for national Press Forward funding in October. While many publications are discontinuing the print side of publication due to increasing costs and fewer printers, Lopez founded the Alamosa Citizen as an online only publication intentionally. 

Print publications have continually cut their coverage due to a lack of resources, said Lopez, causing frustration in readers who want real news, not a thin newspaper full of ads. Lopez said that the Alamosa Citizen reaches a wider audience than the local print newspaper because of geographic availability. He also hopes to reach a younger audience and instill a lifelong news habit in young readers.

“We’re converting older people to the platforms. Our young audience of 18 to 35 will blow you away in terms of their engagement and activity,” Lopez said. 

Infrastructure Funding

Press Forward is accepting grant applications to support local news infrastructure until January 15th, 2025. These grants will support audience development, operations, revenue generation, and staff. 

Sam Moody, associate director of Colorado Media Project, sees Rocky Mountain Community Radio (RMCR), a coalition of non-commercial radio stations around Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico, as a perfect example of the infrastructure-building work that will support rural news in the Mountain West. 

“Our real benefit of our increasingly digital age is the way that information can and often needs to be shared across communities, especially rural communities,” said Moody in a Daily Yonder interview.

RMCR strengthens the capabilities of each local radio station member, some of which have newsrooms without  full-time reporters, or share staff with other outlets. It provides resources, stories, and support, said managing editor Maeve Conran. Conran shares content created by each station for distribution by the entire coalition. RMCR also facilitates collaborative reporting and idea sharing. 

“We have an opportunity as a coalition to really leverage infrastructure money because we can share resources and infrastructure resources across an entire coalition. It doesn’t just have to go to one station,” Conran said. 

Conran sees Press Forward funding as valuable because it is general operating funding instead of project-specific funding — something that a small rural radio station doesn’t have the capacity to pursue. Rocky Mountain Community Radio plans to apply for infrastructure funding during this round of Press Forward funding. 

Press Forward’s local chapters offer another opportunity for rural news organizations to get funding. In February 2024, Colorado became one of what is now 31 local Press Forward chapters, including other rural regions like Central Appalachia. Colorado Media Project is the home of the Colorado chapter and is in the process of hiring a director for the program, according to Moody. 

Corey Hutchins is a professor of journalism at Colorado College and writes a newsletter called “Inside the News in Colorado”. Hutchins said that news in Colorado used to be siloed until organizations like Colorado Media Project (which he advises) came to be. 

“It’s created a statewide local journalism scene that is collaborative, where partnerships are easily formed, and a place where people involved in local journalism have support in a way I don’t think they had in the past,” Hutchins said.

With rural newspapers closing all the time, like Flagler News in eastern Colorado closing just before the new year, there is even more need for sustainable funding for local news.

Lopez is confident that the Press Forward funding will get the Alamosa Citizen to their five-year mark, but what happens after that is still unclear. “We have to keep building if we’re going to stick around,” said Lopez.