NewsLanc.com is Not Unique! Foundations and Donors are Funding New Journalism Ventures

According to the The Christian Science Monitor, 2/12/08:

"...The Voice of San Diego, a nonprofit online media outlet, doesn't have enough journalists to field a softball team. Yet it has managed to take on the powerful with the panache of a scrappy big-city paper.

"It provides 'the best coverage of city politics that we've had in years,' raves Dean Nelson, a journalism professor at San Diego's Point Loma Nazarene University.

"The success of the tightly focused Voice, which relies on donors, offers a ray of hope for a troubled industry. Plagued by shrinking circulations and advertising, newspapers are shedding staff and downsizing their offerings. Even the pages have gotten smaller.

"By contrast, several nonprofit newspapers – though rare and often tiny – have sprung up in recent years both online and in print, funded largely by foundations and individual donors...."

The entire article can be found here.

According to the New York Times of 10/15/07:

"As struggling newspapers across the country cut back on investigative reporting, a new kind of journalism venture is hoping to fill the gap.

"Paul E. Steiger, who was the top editor of The Wall Street Journal for 16 years, and a pair of wealthy Californians are assembling a group of investigative journalists who will give away their work to media outlets.

"The nonprofit group, called Pro Publica, will pitch each project to a newspaper or magazine (and occasionally to other media) where the group hopes the work will make the strongest impression. The plan is to do long-term projects, uncovering misdeeds in government, business and organizations...."

The entire article can be found here.