Above image by flash.pro/Edwart Visser on Flickr. In contrast to print journalism and its well-documented struggles, television news has demonstrated remarkable resilience. Local television news viewership has declined slightly in recent years but advertising revenue has increased since 2009. Has TV news found a way of weathering the digital storm that led print journalism to […]
Article · July 7, 2016 by Jonathan Sotsky
When it comes to local journalism, stories describing the challenges the industry faces far outpace ones covering promising developments. This makes recent events in Philadelphia’s news ecosystem all the more intriguing, because while no one seems to have the answer for the best way forward for journalism, we know the status quo is insufficient and […]
Article · June 15, 2016 by Jonathan Sotsky
Photo credit: Flickr user Richard Matthews. A hallmark of my time supporting research and evaluation at Knight Foundation has been a close working relationship with our communications team. This partnership has been a key ingredient for the development and dissemination of a series of successful reports Knight has published in recent years. So when I recently […]
Article · August 21, 2015 by Jonathan Sotsky
Related Link Browse the Interactive Report Now Join the conversation Knight Foundation will host a Twitter chat at 1 p.m. ET on June 11, 2015 to discuss the findings and get public feedback. Follow @knightfdn and use #votelocal to participate. There was significant fanfare about how turnout for the 2014 midterm elections was the […]
Article · June 4, 2015 by Jonathan Sotsky
Over the past several years, an increasing number of governments, businesses, social sector organizations and technologists have supported efforts to make government data more accessible and useful. Knight Foundation has actively supported this growing Open Government movement, funding organizations such as Sunlight Foundation and Code for America as well as hosting a Knight News Challenge […]
Article · April 21, 2015 by Jonathan Sotsky
Last year, Knight Foundation profiled the rapidly growing field of civic tech in a report titled “The Emergence of Civic Tech,” capturing $695 million of investments made between 2011 and 2013 to organizations using technology to spur citizen engagement, increase government effectiveness and strengthen cities. Many were excited by the high volume of activity and […]
Article · April 21, 2015 by Jonathan Sotsky
Radical disruption in the news industry over the past decade has fueled a period of experimentation with new approaches and business models for supporting journalism. Nonprofit news organizations, principally those focused on local, state and regional news, offer the promise of filling the void left by cutbacks by legacy media organizations to state and local […]
Article · April 8, 2015 by Jonathan Sotsky
According to a report released today by Pew Research Center titled “Local News in a Digital Age,” nearly nine in 10 residents across three metro areas studied (Denver, Macon, Ga., and Sioux City, Iowa) follow local news closely. However, the supply of local news and how residents consume and engage with local news varies quite […]
Article · March 5, 2015 by Jonathan Sotsky
Video by Teach for America Knight Foundation made a $6 million grant to Teach for America in 2009 to support their work in Miami-Dade Public Schools to help close the achievement gap in the county’s highest-need schools. The grant was also designed to answer a key question: Do students who are taught by Teach for […]
Article · June 19, 2014 by Jonathan Sotsky
“Why Contests Improve Philanthropy: Six Lessons on Designing Public Prizes for Impact” from Knight Foundation was released in 2013 and complements a new report “The Craft of Incentive Design.” At Knight Foundation we’ve leveraged grantmaking challenges since 2007 to supplement our traditional funding and generate impact in the fields of journalism, arts and community engagement. In May 2013, we […]
Article · June 19, 2014 by Jonathan Sotsky
Photo credit: Flickr user: maximillion. The social sector is undergoing an important transformation when it comes to research and evaluation. Nonprofits have shifted from asking whether they should measure their work to how to most effectively assess impact. Coupled with the emergence of new approaches for collecting and analyzing data, there’s never been more interest and […]
Article · March 26, 2014 by Jonathan Sotsky