The group launched in 2023 with donations from the John S. And James L. Knight Foundation, the John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Democracy Fund and 19 other funders. It now counts 144 funders. Executive Director Dale Anglin says that growth came from explaining why journalism needs longer-term support, the way arts or education do.
The money is moving in several forms. Press Forward helped set up a $21 million impact investing fund with Social Finance and the Knight and MacArthur foundations, which gives outlets small loans they would likely not get elsewhere. Its 50 local chapters have invested $87 million in their own communities, including $53 million in the past year.
Anglin says the job is far from done. The group will keep raising and investing money, and it will add new kinds of initiatives. "The industry is going through an incredible transformation," she told The Associated Press. "It's going to take us a while to get out of it."
The need is steep. Northwestern University's "The State of Local News 2026" found that news deserts, meaning counties with no locally based professional news sources, grew 12% this year to 238. Dozens of newsrooms opened, yet more than two newspapers closed for each new outlet.