New Voices Project to Fund Community News Ventures

Posted by on August 12, 2005

New Voices Project to Fund Community News Ventures
Deadline: February 8, 2006

New Voices is a program to seed innovative community news ventures in the United States. Administered by J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism (<a href="http://j-lab.org/">http://j-lab.org/</a>) at the University of Maryland and supported by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (<a href="http://www.knightfdn.org">http://www.knightfdn.org</a>), the program is inviting U.S. nonprofit groups and education organizations to apply for funding to launch new community news ventures and to cooperate with J-Lab in spotlighting best practices and lessons learned.

J-Lab will select ten micro-local news projects to receive support. New Voices will help fund the start-up of each project with a $12,000 grant; support them with an educational Web site; and help foster their sustainability through a $5,000 second-year matching grant.

To be eligible, organizations must have tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or be an educational institution (e.g., middle schools, high schools, colleges, and universities).

Funding is available for start-up news initiatives only. Ongoing efforts are not eligible to apply unless the organization is proposing a new venture. Funding is available for print or electronic news initiatives, including online, cable, broadcast, narrowcast, satellite, and mobile efforts. Collaborative ventures are eligible as long as the funded party is a nonprofit or educational institution. Only projects based in the United States may apply.

Successful applicants will benefit a defined geographic or special-interest community and be able to foster an open exchange of journalistically sound ideas, information, news, and opinion in those communities.

Visit the J-Lab Web site for complete program information, application materials, and descriptions of funded projects.