Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibarügen talks about Google's donation of $2 million to support Knight Foundation's media innovation efforts.

It’s a good day when’the biggest company on the Internet tells you that they admire your work. The only thing better is when they tell you they back up the compliment with millions of dollars to help expand your work.

Knight Foundation today is gratefully accepting $2 million from Google to further our media innovation’grantmaking. We’re going to apply half of the gift to the Knight News Challenge, which opened for entries yesterday. The other $1 million will be applied to other grants around news innovation– we’ll announce them as they are developed later this year and next.

In addition to being thankful for the funds, we are grateful to Google for their vote of confidence in us.

The tumult of the last few years is unlikely to subside anytime soon. The challenges we face aren’t small. However, through programs like the Knight News Challenge, the Knight Community Information Challenge and other grants, we at Knight Foundation have tried to take advantage of the opportunities presented by new interactive technologies and practices. We’re glad that Google has seen fit to join with us, and hope to work with others in the future.