News Releases

Knight New Work Award to Be Presented by FAN in Miami

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Applications for the 2008 award of $50,000 for a new work, which will reach a broad cross-section of the Miami-Dade population, have closed, and the winner will be announced shortly. Watch this page on the FAN web site for the announcement, coming soon.

'Will Community Foundations Fund Local Journalism?'

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Public Journalism Network's Leonard Witt interviewed Knight Foundation Journalism Program VP Eric Newton about how community foundations can help improve journalism in their area.

National Workforce Initiative Gets Funding From Microsoft, Knight

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Hospitals, Schools Push Akron Medical Project

Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

The Akron area's major hospitals, university and medical school are taking another step toward joining forces for research and education. A private foundation is paying for half of the $881,200 to develop the business plan, University of Akron Vice President John LaGuardia told Summit County Council on Monday night. If the city and county provide $100,000, the three Akron hospitals, UA and NEOUCOM would divide the remaining $340,600 cost. Bernstein said the Knight Foundation has been supportive of the project from the start.

Stanford Announces Dozen Knight Fellows

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

The program is sponsored primarily by Knight Foundation.

Twelve U.S. Journalists Named Knight-Wallace Fellows

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Knight-Wallace Fellows pursue custom-designed sabbatical studies and attend special, twice-weekly seminars at Wallace House, a gift from Mike Wallace and his wife Mary. Each Knight-Wallace Fellow receives a stipend of $70,000.

Public Radio Tries to Reignite Its Public: New 'The Takeaway'

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Finding Their Voice: Grant makers seek new ways to share stories

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Jonathan Fanton has solved a conundrum that plagues many nonprofit leaders: He's found a way to be in many places at the same time. While he leads the John D. and Catherine T.MacArthur Foundation, in Chicago, he also runs meetings in Second Life, the online world. As Jonathan MacFound, his "avatar," or ...

NBC News to Help Teach Tools of Digital Reporting

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Straying far afield from its core business of reporting the news, NBC News is getting into the education business.

Knight Foundation Funds ‘Universal Access’

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Over the next five years, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami will invest $25 million to boost civic engagement by expanding digital access. Ultimately, the project will reach the 26 communities in which the foundation's corporate founder owned newspapers. The goal is use internet access to create virtual town squares in these communities to help citizens take advantage of civic, social and economic opportunities.

Muted alarm over Olympics coverage

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

With the Beijing Olympics looming, 150 journalists and human rights activists from 40 countries gathered here over the weekend for some coaching on covering the Games.

YEPAW 365 Program Runs All Year, With Knight Funding

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

In 1990, Leslie Parker Barnes started the Youth Excellence Performing Arts Workshop (YEPAW) with a small group of African-American students in the basement of the Arlington Church of God. The program has grown steadily, and last summer 500 students attended sessions on the University of Akron campus.

Olympics "Catastrophic" for Chinese Press Freedom

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

A Chinese journalist jailed for her reporting told a conference in Paris today (Friday) that press freedom and human rights have worsened in China and that conditions for journalists in the run-up to the Olympics are "considerably more catastrophic" than they were when she was arrested 15 years ago.

Knight Foundation Supports Internews’ Worldwide Network of Journalists

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Knight Foundation has made a three-year grant to Internews Network that will establish an international network of media professionals.

Local News Loss Focus of New Commission

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

As people turn increasingly to the Internet for their news, there is concern whether they are learning enough about what goes on in their communities.

With "the thinning down of newspapers and local television in America, there is measurably less local, civic information available," said Alberto Ibarguen, president and chief executive of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. "So what are the consequences of that?"

The foundation and the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, hope to find out.

A Way to Better the World: 5 Questions with Trabian Shorters

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Trabian Shorters is vice president/communities program for the Knight Foundation in Miami. Previously he was an executive of Ashoka, a global nonprofit group that encourages "social entrepreneurs."

IRS Audits of Largest Corporations Plunge to Historic Low

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

A special new report shows that the audit rate for corporations with $250 million or more in assets has dropped to its lowest point in the last 20 years. The report, based on IRS data, further shows that IRS has shifted audit resources from the larger to the smaller corporations. In an unprecedented action, the IRS also is seeking a court order to bar future access to agency statistics that are essential for this report. The research by TRAC is funded by Knight Foundation.

Knight Journalism Advisor Geneva Overholser to Chair USC J-School

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Geneva Overholser, the award-winning journalist, educator and scholar, will become director of the School of Journalism at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication, Dean Ernest J.Wilson III announced today. She currently sits on Knight Foundation's Journalism Advisory Committee.

Foundation Provides $1.7-Million for a Study on Local News

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Aspen Institute have appointed a committee to examine how the changing news-media market is affecting people’s ability to obtain important information about the cities and towns where they live, reports the Associated Press.

Foundation grant aims to help Duluth neighborhoods

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

On Monday non-profit leaders gathered at the Central Hillside Community Center to celebrate one of its own receiving $500,000 for projects that individually seem so minor, many Duluthians might never no-tice them.

Collectively, this gift from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will fund projects in Duluth that collectively improve the region, so the area becomes a better place to live and work, said supporters.

Free wireless corridor offered in Akron by end of year

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Those plans were shared today by officials from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the city of Akron, and the nonprofit group OneCommunity during a

Akron To Be HQ for Internet Access Initiative

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has pledged up to $25 million over the next five years to help communities across the nation create more ways and ...

Municipal Wireless Is Dead. Here Comes a New Way to Connect

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Then on Thursday, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation said it will put up $15 million over five years to create the nonprofit Knight Center of Digital Excellence ...

Detroit's New Economy Initiative Gets Executive Director

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan has named John Austin executive director of its “New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan,” an eight-year, $100 million program to accelerate the state’s move to an innovation-based economy. Austin, elected vice president of the Michigan State Board of Education, most recently was a nonresident senior fellow in the metropolitan policy program at the Brookings Institution.

The Newseum, dedicated to the story of journalism, opens its new home

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Video: Newseum Opens in D.C., With Knight Funding

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Foundation helping turn Akron into a "center of digital excellence"

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

On Thursday, the Knight Foundation announced it is pledging more than $4 million to provide wireless service to an eight to 12 square mile slice of the city ..

New Museum Tells Media Story

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Part First Amendment memorial, part shrine to the Fourth Estate, Friday's grand opening in Washington, D.C., of the Newseum -- that's a museum dedicated to news -- has been a $450 million investment eight years in the making.

Nine International Fellows Named for Knight Program at Stanford

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Nine foreign journalists have been awarded John S. Knight Fellowships for the 2008-09 academic year at Stanford.

The international fellows include two journalists in exile—an Ethiopian online editor who is currently in exile in London, and a Chinese online editor in exile in North Carolina—and the program's first fellows from Belarus and Iraq.

During their stay at Stanford, the Knight Fellows will pursue independent courses of study and participate in special seminars. In May, the program will announce the selection of 12 Knight Fellows from the United States.

Financial support for the international fellows comes from sources that include the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Lyle and Corrine Nelson International Journalism Fund, and Yahoo! Inc. The 2008-09 program marks the 43rd year that Stanford has offered fellowships for professional journalists.

Blogging Putin at the Salzburg Global Seminar with Knight Support

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Greetings from Salzburg, Austria, where I will be blogging this week from the Salzburg Global Seminar's session on Russia: The 2020 Perspective. I'm here thanks to the generosity of the Knight Foundation, which paid my way. I'm by no means an expert on Russia, but with Vladimir Putin's succesor now chosen and the NATO summit freshly ended, the timing couldn't be better for me to get up to speed.