Philanthropy Takes Action to Help Meet Community Information Needs
[Source: John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, June 15, 2011]
New metrics, study on tax law launched in wake of groundbreaking FCC report on local information needs
June 15, 2011 – Spurred by the release last week of the Federal Communications Commission’s new report, “Information Needs of Communities,” Knight Foundation, partners and colleagues today announced two new research projects designed to help philanthropy improve its efforts to help ensure communities are informed about important issues.
“This high-quality FCC study contains many important recommendations that deserve debate and action,” said Eric Newton, senior adviser to the president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. “We thought there were two that deserved an immediate reaction – that philanthropy should do more grantmaking in journalism and media, and that tax laws for nonprofit media should be studied to see if they are inhibiting the growth of this important sector.”
In the first project, Knight Foundation will work with Grantmakers for Film and Electronic Media (GFEM), Ford Foundation, the Foundation Center and GuideStar on a research project to develop new ways of measuring whether foundations are indeed increasing journalism and media grantmaking.
Earlier today, the GFEM board voted to endorse the FCC recommendation that foundations do more media projects. Said the organization: “GFEM welcomes the FCC report on the Information Needs of Communities. We believe that a comprehensive solution to the urgent problem of declining public interest media and accountability journalism will require a multi-pronged response involving both public and private sectors. GFEM specifically applauds and endorses the recommendation within the report that calls for increased philanthropic support for nonprofit and public interest media and journalism.”
In the second project, Knight Foundation will fund the Council on Foundations to examine how tax law may be stunting the growth of nonprofit media – and to suggest improvements.
The FCC’s “Information Needs of Communities” report, released last Thursday, was inspired by the Knight Commission’s two-year, bipartisan study which called for fresh thinking to address changes in community information flows caused by the digital age of communications.
In response, the FCC undertook the most comprehensive national look at media policy in a generation. It focuses on practical ways that society can improve the environment for local accountability journalism. Commercial newspapers and broadcasters in the United States have cut more than 15,000 local journalism jobs in recent years as traditional media have struggled to adapt to both the recession and new media economics.
The FCC report recommends that philanthropy take on a greater role in nonprofit journalism and media work. This has been a priority of Knight Foundation, which is devoted to “informed and engaged communities.” The Knight Community Information Challenge, for example, offers matching grants to community and place-based foundations for news and information projects.
The research project with GFEM, Ford, GuideStar and Foundation Center will help quantify the trend nationally. Foundation Center and GuideStar keep large databases of foundation and nonprofit work, and the project will develop technology to mine those databases specifically for journalism and media grants. The tracking information will be publically available, so citizens wanting to support nonprofit media can see what foundations are doing.
Additionally, the FCC report finds that while nonprofit status offers news outlets clear advantages, the federal tax code was not written specifically for information providers and can be both ambiguous and too restrictive in areas such as advertising and political coverage. For example, the report says nonprofits are fearful of losing their tax exempt status if they publish commentary on legislation.
“This potentially chills free speech and makes it harder for a nonprofit media entity to do its job—covering important news and civic issues,” the report says. “Policymakers should recognize that cleaning up the ambiguities in the tax code for nonprofit media is potentially a crucial step toward enabling nonprofit entities to develop sustainable business models.”
The research project with Council on Foundations will create a task force to examine the FCC report’s findings and, if warranted, suggest improvements in tax law.
"We're thrilled that the philanthropic community has responded so quickly to some of the key recommendations in the Information Needs of Communities report," said Steven Waldman, who wrote the report along with an FCC working group. "We found that ambiguities in the tax code could be deterring nonprofit news innovation, so cleaning that up could have a profound impact. Similarly, we called on foundations and citizens
to offer greater support to nonprofit media so tracking who's doing what is an essential first step."
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.
Media Contacts:
Marc Fest, vice president/communications, Knight Foundation, 305-908-2677; fest@knightfoundation.org
