Press Forward Alaska launches with leaders of the national movement

April 19, 2024 — Prospective donors, community leaders and journalists gathered in Anchorage for the launch of Press Forward Alaska this April. Events took place during "J-Week," the annual conference of news professionals hosted by the Alaska Press Club. The Atwood Foundation and Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism hosted John Palfrey of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Jim Brady of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and Judy Woodruff, senior correspondent for the PBS NewsHour. 

The three traveled to Anchorage to highlight why high-quality local journalism is critical to help support well-informed, strong communities, and how the Press Forward initiative, including the Press Forward Alaska local chapter, is working to make a difference. A panel of Alaska journalists focused on efforts already in place in the state to bring more local news to our communities, and to keep current news operations going. Brady and Palfrey also toured the Alaska Native Heritage Center and spoke with Alaska community leaders who discussed Alaska’s unique economic, political, and cultural dynamic compared to other states.

“There’s a tremendous amount to be done in this field of journalism,” said Ira Perman, Executive Director of the Atwood Foundation, the founding partner of Press Forward Alaska, “and as much as the Atwood Foundation wants to do more, we are still a very modest sized organization.” He said the Press Forward model of gathering more funders to support local journalism was an easy one to get on board with.

Palfrey, President of the MacArthur Foundation, remarked to the crowd of gathered journalists that while for decades, publishing newspapers was a wealth-growing enterprise, as it was for Bob Atwood, the former publisher of the Anchorage Times, and the Knight brothers, of Knight-Ridder newspapers, that’s no longer the case. Leaders of the Press Forward movement hope that philanthropy will help news organizations find new partnerships and revenue models to be self-sufficient in the new news ecosystem, where news organizations compete with a vast number of online platforms for subscription dollars and ad revenue. 

“Nonprofit is a tax status, not a business model," Palfrey said. "Philanthropy is a revenue stream, not a business model.”

Brady, Vice President of Journalism at the Knight Foundation, said the goal of the initiative is to give news organizations a boost to find new sustainability measures that work in their communities. 

“There may be places that just need some level of philanthropy forever, but we would love for that not to be 100 percent,” Brady said. 

He noted that his grants team at Knight Foundation looks for signs of sustainability in applications that ask for more money in the first year, and less in subsequent years, as a business model takes hold. “Take a big chunk up front, start to build a business, and you should need less over time,” he told the crowd of gathered journalists and executives. 

Press Forward held its first national open call for funding just over a week after the Press Forward Alaska events. The call is aimed at small news organizations filling gaps in underrepresented communities, and is open to news organizations in Alaska.

Leaders of the Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism fund, which is implementing much of the Press Forward Alaska work, heard from journalists and publishers struggling to keep their outlets afloat during the launch and throughout the Alaska Press Club conference.

“This whole thing is in crisis, let’s just be honest,” said David Hulen, editor at the Anchorage Daily News, during the panel discussion on news sustainability. “Big organizations, small organizations – some might be positioned a little better than others, but the whole thing is really kindof in trouble and that’s why we’re here.”

“We’ve got to find ways for there to be more journalists working in Alaska,” he said.

The ACEJ board followed up on the launch events with a strategy planning session focused on structure and governance for the Press Forward Alaska initiative, and the Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism fund, which will help meet the news and information needs of Alaska’s communities for the future. 

“When The Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism was created, almost five years ago, nothing like Press Forward existed,”  Lori Townsend, chair of the fund’s advisory board said. “Now that there’s momentum behind building that financial support to do this work, we have to make sure that we set things up to best support our communities, and to build connection and trust along the way.”

For more information, contact Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism director, Kortnie Horazdovsky.