Center for Cooperative Media Receives $2.5M Knight Foundation Grant to Expand Collaborative Journalism Nationwide

The Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University has been awarded a $2.5 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to launch and support journalism collaboratives across the United States, marking a significant expansion of the Center’s work in collaborative journalism.

The five-year grant will enable the creation of the Collaborative Media Resource Hub to support 20 journalism collaboratives and provide substantial help to new and existing U.S.-based collaborative initiatives, with the goal of creating sustainable models for local news collaboration that directly benefit their communities. Journalism collaboratives are used to describe a group of journalism and non-journalism organizations that work together on a shared journalistic or storytelling initiative.

“This transformative investment from Knight Foundation will allow us to significantly scale our work in collaborative journalism at a critical time for local news in the United States,” said Stefanie Murray, director of the Center for Cooperative Media. “We’ve spent years studying and supporting collaborative journalism initiatives, and we know that when news organizations work together, they can better serve their communities while building stronger, more sustainable operations.”

The grant will continue the work started under a previous Knight-funded program, the Local Media Project, that was run by the Solutions Journalism Network and spearheaded by veteran journalist Liza Gross. Gross joins the Hub as senior adviser to help provide continuity to the project. Amy Maestas, who also worked previously on the initiative at Solutions Journalism Network, joins the Hub as director.

The grant will support positions to launch collaboratives, including financial support of up to $50,000 and coaching focused on revenue development and sustainability.

The Hub aims to support the creation of four new collaboratives each year over the five-year grant period, with a focus on creating sustainable models that can attract local support and investment. The initiative has set a goal of helping collaboratives raise an additional $2.5 million in local support over five years.

“The future of local news depends on innovation in both journalism and business models,” said Duc Luu, Director of Journalism at Knight Foundation. “The Center for Cooperative Media has proven that local newsrooms are increasingly willing to work collaboratively to serve their communities instead of competing for the latest scoop. Collaborative journalism can enhance news coverage while making their operations more efficient. This grant will help scale that approach across the country.”

The Hub will measure the success of these collaboratives not just by their financial sustainability, but by their impact on their communities. By the second year of operation, at least 50% of the collaboratives are expected to meet agreed-upon community impact metrics.

Since 2017, the Center for Cooperative Media has studied and advocated for collaboration in journalism. The Center publishes research related to journalism collaboration, hosts the annual Collaborative Journalism Summit, maintains collaborativejournalism.org, compiles a biweekly newsletter about partnership in journalism, runs a community of practice for journalism collaboration managers, and has built a database tracking more than 1,000 collaborations.

Organizations interested in learning more about launching or joining a collaborative can email Amy Maestas at maestasa@montclair.edu or Stefanie Murray at murrayst@montclair.edu.

About the Center for Cooperative Media

The Center for Cooperative Media is a grant-funded program of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. Its mission is to grow and strengthen local journalism and support an informed society in New Jersey and beyond.

About Knight Foundation

We are social investors who support a more effective democracy by funding free expression and journalism, arts and culture in community, research in areas of media and democracy, and the success of American cities and towns where the Knight brothers once published newspapers. Learn more at KF.org.