Knight Awards $15 Million in Grants for Investigative Reporting

By: Joe Strupp The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is giving $15 million in grants to help develop new digital models for investigative reporting, the foundation announced.

The grants, which span programs already in existence and others yet to be formed, "will promote both local and national investigative reporting in order to help provide the vital stories that citizens need to run their communities and their lives," according to a release.

"Communities are harmed by what they do not know. A community can't clean up a toxic dump, or remove a corrupt official or right any other wrong if its citizens do not know about it," Eric Newton, Knight Foundation's vice president for journalism, said in a statement. "We're awash in information, yet it seems to be getting harder to find good investigative reporting."

The three newest grants include:

* $1.32 million to the Center for Investigative Reporting "to launch a new multimedia investigative reporting project in California that encourages print, digital and student journalists to collaborate on stories."

* $565,000 to Sunlight Foundation "to develop web tools so the public can easily access information on Congressional lawmakers, from their campaign contributions and votes."

* $1.01 million to ProPublica "to help the investigative reporting organization create a sustainable business model."

Robert Rosenthal, the Center for Investigative Reporting executive director, said the project will "make a difference for Californians."

"We will not only expose issues but inform the public. Our collaborative model will be part of the solution for the crisis facing journalism today," Rosenthal added in a statement.

The Sunlight Foundation will use its grant for development of tools to "dramatically increase online access to crucial public information about the workings of our government, improve data-driven reporting by journalists and citizens' ability to hold elected officials accountable," Ellen Miller, the foundation's executive director and co-founder, said in a statement.

Richard J. Tofel, general manager of ProPublica, said: "Our mission is to do investigative journalism with 'moral force,' and our principal task remains to create great stories that have meaningful impact. Yet, that requires resources, not only as a catalyst, but over the long run. This innovative grant from Knight challenges us to chart and follow a path to financial sustainability for ourselves and as a model for others."

The announcement was made during Investigative Reporters and Editors' (IRE) annual awards luncheon in Baltimore.

Other major grants already active under this initiative are:

* News21 ($4.87 million): to help 12 university-based investigative reporting projects look for a model of self-sustainability.

* Boston University ($250,000): to create a regional, university-based investigative reporting unit that draws on reporters from the local print, broadcast and digital press.

* Center for Public Integrity ($454,000): to improve the center's expertise in multimedia content and to pioneer new ways to raise money for investigative projects directly from the public.

* University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ($1.5 million): to endow a Knight Chair in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting.

* Investigative Reporters and Editors ($2 million): to create an endowment to permanently train journalists in the areas of watchdog and computer assisted journalism.