Jennifer Thomas

Jennifer Thomas, who has helped fund and develop innovative ways to revitalize Northeast Ohio, is Knight Foundation's new Akron program director.

Previously, Thomas headed the Cleveland-based Civic Innovation Lab, which funds civic, social and technology start-ups. In 2008 alone, the lab's investments and activities generated $9.4 million in economic output.

Thomas also founded ClevelandClicks, a social networking group for tech entrepreneurs.

'Jennifer has spent the last decade turning creative business and social ideas into reality. At Knight Foundation, she will find and create opportunities to inform and engage this community in its ongoing transformation,' said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation's vice president for communities.

ASNE's High School Journalism Initiative, a program funded by the Knight Foundation, has far exceeded its predicted unique monthly visitors on its site my.hsj.org'

Check out the chart below.'

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According to the grantee, there are two keys to this success: heavy promotion of the monthly Got News? Get Clicks. Win Money! contest, which encourages student sites to do their own marketing, and getting indexed by Google News.

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' --Marly Falcon, Knight Foundation contributing blogger

Stop the Presses: The American Newspaper in Peril, a documentary that traces the early history of the American newspaper, outlines what's at stake in the current crisis and peeks into the future of in-depth and investigative reporting.

The documentary includes several interviews from people from the news industry, including Eric Newton, vice president of journalism at the Knight Foundation.

The documentary recently aired on PBS and is available on DVD'.

''''''''''' --Marly Falcon, Knight Foundation contributing blogger