News and Community

How can we support a vibrant, diverse ecosystem of quality news and information? That’s the question that animated Expert Night for Battery Powered’s winter theme, Journalism and the Media.

On hand to answer were three journalism veterans whose careers have spanned reporting and editing, for-profit and nonprofit newsroom operations, educating the next generation of journalists, and leading organizations that are rebuilding the industry. Their years in the business -- and their deep awareness of its flaws -- have not dulled our panelists’ belief in the power of journalism, their drive for innovation, or their passion for making their chosen field a place of equity and belonging for all.

Here’s what we learned:

Crisis or Crossroads?

Sue Cross, Executive Director of the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), started with a primer on the business challenges that journalism and media have faced globally in the past two decades. “There is a market collapse,“ she said, “something that used to be a business just is not profitable,” and both print and digital outlets are failing. And while it may seem like there is more news, everywhere -- on Google, on social media -- the reality is, there is less actual reporting happening. “Journalism has been hollowed out,” Sue added, noting that in the past 20 years, 60% of newspaper journalism jobs have disappeared, and tens of thousands more in the pandemic.

Along with the shift of advertising and subscription revenue away from traditional media outlets, media consolidation has been a driver of this collapse, with editorial and business decisions now in the hands of a few large entities without strong ties to the communities where their papers are located. Martin Reynolds, co-Executive Director of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education and a former Editor-in-Chief of the Oakland Tribune, noted that the Tribune, like many other papers across the country, is now owned by a global hedge fund that “does not care about journalism - they care about money.”

There are six things that I don’t believe can be about unbridled profit: healthcare, education, music, art, culture, and journalism.

~ Martin Reynolds, Maynard Institute

Jon Funabiki, whose career spans journalism, philanthropy, and academia, turned to the harms that journalism has caused people of color and other marginalized communities, starting with the first colonial newspapers and continuing to the present day. Racism and underrepresentation, he said, are long standing problems that were “baked into the system.” The contemporary impacts can be seen in biased coverage, a lack of news and information in the mainstream that is by and for historically marginalized communities, and an “abysmal” lack of staff diversity in mainstream newsrooms. 

However, journalism has begun reckoning with this harm, especially in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and the murder of George Floyd. For example, some newspapers have made public acknowledgements of harm to Black communities.

A Kaleidoscope of Gazes

Martin added that “so much of diversity in newsrooms is performative,” observing that while the entry level is diversifying, people in positions of power are still overwhelmingly white and male. “That’s not equity,” he stated. 

He gave credit to younger journalists of color who are “now saying, ‘I’m no longer separating myself from the struggle I am seeing and I am covering.’” He pointed out that many reporters have been pulled off of stories. “They’re told, you’re Black so you can’t possibly be objective about this. That’s like saying that white people can’t cover anything! Because so much of what is told is through this white, male, middle class gaze. That’s a legitimate gaze, but there are a kaleidoscope of gazes.” And it’s not just about inclusion -- “you might include your in-laws in the holiday celebration but you don’t really want them there” -- it’s about belonging. 

A Moment of Innovation

So, how is the industry rising to the current moment?

Sue characterized it as a good news/bad news situation. The good news? When you have a declining industry, it’s much easier to change … and change is happening. More than half of journalism startups are founded and led by women. In INN’s network of 360 nonprofit news organizations, 20-25% are led by journalists of color and the overall staff are ~40% nonwhite. The bad news? We are still battling systemic issues, including the fact that the digital platforms so many of us rely on for news (e.g. Google, Apple News) are not surfacing great stories from nonprofit, ethnic and community media outlets -- a challenge INN’s network has taken up.

The panel pointed to the vibrant, if chronically underinvested, landscape of ethnic and community media outlets as a source of both innovation and critical information. Jon shared examples of Bay Area outlets that are not only reporting the news, but are listening and responding to what their communities say they need: El Tímpano, Open Vallejo, El Tecolote. “Community-building is a really important function of news media,” he said. “These are just a few examples of the kinds of exciting things going on at the local level. They are producing great journalism, they are helping to knit communities together, and they are feeding the larger media ecosystem.”

How Can Philanthropy Help?

As nonprofit news outlets have exploded in the past decade, philanthropy has become animportant source of funding for journalism that (in Martin’s words) is “holding its deepest integrity”. Our panels had some thoughts on where Powered’s philanthropic dollars could be particularly valuable:

• Fund local outlets. Jon, who launched journalism funding at The Ford Foundation, observed that while this has begun to change, large national foundations still tend to fund major national outlets like public television and radio. The panel particularly called out local outlets serving communities underrepresented in mainstream news.
• Seed funding. As we see a new nonprofit ecosystem form, funders shouldn’t be afraid of backing startups and small organizations. Sue pointed out that the average number of staff among INN network organizations is six -- and they have a 90% survival rate.
• Investigative journalism. It can take huge investments of time and resources to produce quality investigative journalism. Philanthropy will be critical to the field for a long time. 

And Finally …

Each panelist left us with a piece of reporting from the past year that has stuck with them.

Martin: The 1619 Project from the New York Times, led by Nikole Hannah-Jones; and (bonus book recommendation!)  The Will to Change by bell hooks.

Sue: MLK50’s coverage of Southwest Memphis residents’ fight against the Byhalia Connection Pipeline, with stories by reporter Carrington J. Tatum.

Jon: “A Life in Pieces: The Diary and Letters of Stanley Hayami,” an exhibit and virtual reality experience at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. “An act of journalism not published until 80 years later.”

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Catch the full Expert Night conversation in recording HERE.

To learn more about our winter theme, check out the Issue Brief HERE.

Our Journalism & Media theme continues on February 16 with Organization Night (both a live and virtual option), where our 10 grantees will present their work. You can RSVP for the live event HERE or the virtual event HERE.

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Battery Powered is The Battery's giving program. To learn more or get involved, visit thebatterysf.com/batterypowered or contact [email protected]