Eric Newton, Vice President of Knight Foundation’s Journalism Program, announced Knight’s Investigative Reporting Initiative at the Investigative Reporters and Editors’ annual conference. The initiative will help grantees develop new economic models for investigative reporting on digital platforms, and will begin with a $15 million initial investment. Newton announced Knight’s three new grants to the Center for Investigative Reporting, ProPublica, and the Sunlight Foundation. The Associated Press will also distribute non-profit investigative journalism from these grantees as well as from the Investigative Reporting Workshop to its 1,500 member newspapers. In the past year, Knight Foundation has funded regional non-profit investigative journalism efforts. Other grants went to helping the twelve university journalism schools involved in News 21 make their investigative projects self-sustaining. Knight will continue its endowments to the IRE and Knight Chair in Investigative and Enterprise Journalism at the University of Illinois, currently held by Brant Houston. Knight has also supported community based investigative reporting projects such as Chi-Town Daily News, Minnpost.com, The St. Louis Beacon and Voice of San Diego.