Funding Newspapers Directly

Veteran journalist David Westphal, blogging for the Online Journalism Review site at the MF-funded Knight Digital Media Center, raises the interesting question of whether foundations should fund newspapers directly in order to improve the quality of local and investigative reporting. He brought the issue up in light of the Knight Foundation's recent grants to community foundations to confront information needs in communities.

Some interviewees raise concerns about the ethics of foundations funding for-profits ventures directly. But as Jan Schaffer of J-Lab points out, foundations have been supporting journalism projects at newspapers for more than 15 years.

Check out Westphal's full exploration here: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/davidwestphal/200901/1627/.