What

The Knight News Challenge is a contest launched by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation offering $25 million in awards for ideas and projects that use digital news or information to build and bind community in specific geographic areas. As Eric Newton, the foundation’s vice president of journalism programs, describes it, the contest combines “nerds, news and neighborhoods.”

Why

Knight Foundation has created this five-year initiative to explore new ways of using digital media to accomplish what newspapers did so well in the 20th century: Provide news and information that foster community in towns and cities.

Winners

This year’s winners will be announced on May 23, 2007 at the Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek Interactive Media Conference & Tradeshow in Miami. They range from individuals to corporations and were chosen from among 1,650 applicants. They will receive a total of $12 million, including several multi-year awards.

Applications

Applications for the 2007 Knight News Challenge can be submitted at www.newschallenge.org starting July 1. Winners are selected after a review process that includes recommendations by a panel of experts in digital media. Deadline is Oct. 15, 2007.

About Knight Foundation

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism excellence worldwide and invests in the vitality of the U.S. communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Since 1950 the foundation has granted more than $300 million to advance journalism quality and freedom of expression. Knight Foundation supports ideas and projects that create transformational change.

Questions

For more information about the Knight News Challenge contact Marc Fest, Knight Foundation director of communications, at [email protected] or visit www.newschallenge.org.