NewsMatch, the catalytic, collaborative funding program driving the growth of nonprofit news startups nationwide, kicks off today, with a matching pool of $5.75 million that news organizations hope to leverage to raise close to $50 million from local businesses, philanthropies, and individual donors.
The nonprofit, public-service model for journalism is taking root across the United States, with 320 newsrooms participating in NewsMatch 2022 – the largest number ever – up from 195 in 2019 before the pandemic, when journalists launched a wave of digital news startups. About one-fifth of the organizations in NewsMatch are startups, having been founded since 2020. Local outlets represent more than two-thirds of the participants across 45 states and Washington, DC. An increasing number of nonprofit newsrooms prioritize serving communities of color, rural areas and other communities that have long been ignored or misrepresented by the press. All NewsMatch participants are members of the INN Network – hundreds of nonprofit, nonpartisan newsrooms dedicated to public service.
Over the past several years, the base of support for nonprofit news has broadened dramatically, from a single, national foundation providing matching funds when NewsMatch was founded in 2016 to 17 contributors* to the NewsMatch fund in 2022* and more than 1,000 organizations investing matching funds at the local level last year.
“It’s exciting to see so many regional funders and businesses participating in NewsMatch,” said Joshua Stearns, senior director of the Public Square Program at Democracy Fund, which has funded NewsMatch since 2017. “The erosion of local news touches every part of our society, and NewsMatch is becoming a platform for people all across our nation to contribute to the solution. When you grow local news, you accelerate positive change in your communities.”
Showing the value communities place on trustworthy news, hundreds of thousands of people give to nonprofit newsrooms during NewsMatch, which runs November-December each year and provides funds from the matching pool to amplify individual donations.