The Chicago Community Trust has announced the next step in the evolution of its Community Information Challenge project. Matching the $250,000 in funding it received from Knight, the CCT will distribute $500,000 to 12 local organizations to transform the news and information landscape in the Chicago region.

According to the official release, the grants fall into five broad categories:

• Projects designed to improve the flow of information in high-need communities: This includes $45,000 to sponsor a student journalism collaboration between Columbia College and the Chicago Tribune, $35,000 to expand neighborhood coverage on the local site Gapers Block, $45,000 to train high school and college journalists to provide coverage for a new Spanish-language news site,' and $35,000 in training and equipment for citizen journalists - all targeted to underserved areas.


• Projects designed to strengthen information sharing, learning and unique perspectives by and for specific groups: This includes $30,000 to boost the Chicago-area community of Latino journalists, $60,000 to engage hundreds of young journalists to report on how youth are faring in the current economic climate, and $45,000 to fund a community media workshop to support local community and ethnic media.


• Projects designed to create and build new business models: This includes $50,000 to support one of the nation's first L3C journalism co-ops and a $30,000 grant for Northwestern University grad students to help two local community news ventures develop sustainable business models.


• A project designed to support investigative journalism and civic engagement: $60,000 will go to train "reporter monitors" to cover local municipal meetings.


• Projects designed to improve technology platforms and aggregation of news and information: This includes $35,000 to help the Beachwood Reporter develop its business model and $35,000 to enable Brad Flora to improve and expand his Windy Citizen news aggregator.

'The response to this program demonstrates without a doubt that the Chicago region is loaded with talented people and smart organizations determined to find new ways to serve the public's information needs in these times of enormous change in the media landscape,' said CCT President and CEO Terry Mazany, according to the official release.' 'The Chicago area has become a real laboratory for development of the future for community news and information.'

 

You can read more at the CCT site, and more local coverage of the announcement from Google News.

This morning, Knight announced more than $5 million in grants to spur new economic foundations for Detroit by boosting the city's Creative Corridor, increasing job training, and providing digital access to underserved communities.

Here are details on the six grants from the press release:

• $1.08 million to the Cranbook Educational Community to strengthen Detroit's Creative Corridor by creating a partnership between the Cranbrook Educational Community and the Arts League of Michigan. Together they will host joint exhibits and programming.


• $1.025 million to the Detroit and Southeast Michigan Fund for Innovative Workforce Solutions to train workers for skilled jobs in the region's health and green sectors by creating a new funder's workforce collaborative, managed by the United Way of Southeastern Michigan.


• $1.01 million to the College for Creative Studies to help create an art and design campus at the new Taubman Center, a former General Motors design facility.


• $866,000 to the Detroit Public Library to help meet Detroit's information needs by expanding free Internet access at the Parkman Branch library through a new technology and literacy center.


• $810,000 to the Detroit Connected Community Initiative to enhance residents' ability to use the power of the Internet to improve their lives by providing high-speed Internet access to two low-income Detroit neighborhoods, Central-Woodward-Northend and Osborn-Northeast.


• $500,000 to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to expand and diversify its audiences by launching a community concert series at places of worship, schools and malls.

You can read more about the initiatives in the press release, and in this article from Crain's Detroit Business.

 

At the beginning of October, the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy made headlines with its report "Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in a Digital Age." Today, the FCC announced it would act on that report by hiring journalist and entrepreneur Steven Waldman to "lead an agency-wide initiative to assess the state of media in these challenging economic times and make recommendations designed to ensure a vibrant media landscape."

From the press release:

Earlier this month, the bipartisan Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy called for 'new thinking' to 'ensure the information opportunities of America's people and the information vitality of our democracy' and proposed FCC action. The Pew' Project for Excellence in Journalism has highlighted the dire circumstances for newspapers, and' both the Knight report and a recent study from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism called' for a full reassessment of the media marketplace both inside and outside of government,' including at the FCC. [...]

 

'A strong consensus has developed that we're at a pivotal moment in the history of the media and communications, because of game-changing new technologies as well as the economic downturn,' said [FCC Chairman Julius] Genachowski. 'Highly respected entities have called on the FCC to assess these issues. At such a moment, it is important to ensure that our polities promote a vibrant media landscape that furthers long-standing goals of serving the information needs of communities."

In response to the announcement,'Knight Foundation CEO and President Alberto Ibarügen said, "Now comes the hard work of building a national, digital grid and ensuring that every American has digital broadband access. We have formed an outstanding partnership with Aspen Institute on this and expect our ongoing work together to continue to yield results."

 

Read more coverage of the announcement from USA Today and elsewhere.