CALABASAS, CA – The Investigative News Network (INN) is proud to announce that it has received a grant of $125,000 from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.
The grant will support INN’s efforts to develop editorial and business collaborations among the member organizations, to achieve cost savings and revenue generation across the Network and to raise the level of public interest reporting.
“This generous grant will allow the Network to continue to provide invaluable services to its member news rooms across North America as we focus on expanding the impact of both of local and national coverage” said Kevin Davis, CEO & Executive Director of the INN.
The grant is the second from the Oklahoma City-based foundation, which provided a grant last year to help INN with start-up costs. Founded by Edith Kinney Gaylord, Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation’s mission is to invest in the future of journalism by building the ethics, skills and opportunities needed to advance principled, probing news and information.
INN is a consortium of over 50 nonprofit, non-partisan news organizations conducting investigative reporting in the United States, Canada & Puerto Rico. INN is dedicated to helping our member organizations produce and distribute stories with the highest impact possible, and to become sustainable businesses.
The foundation announced the distribution of $1.5 million in grants to 21 journalism organizations nationwide last week, including those to nine INN members.
“Ethics and Excellence is playing an extraordinary role in nurturing the creation of new and innovative digital investigative journalism across the nation,” said Brant Houston, INN’s board chair and the Knight Chair of Investigative & Enterprise Reporting at the University of Illinois.
The grants to INN members included:
- $100,000 to Rocky Mountain Investigative News Network for support of I-News to produce high-quality investigative journalism across multimedia platforms, expand its mix of offerings to media partners and develop a sustainable revenue model.
- $100,000 to InvestigateWest for support of the Pacific Northwest Network of media partners to provide strong and compelling investigative and public service news coverage in the region.
- $75,000 to St Louis Beacon for an investigative reporting project in collaboration with University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale’s School of Journalism. Students will work with the lead investigator and contribute research and writing.
- $75,000 to Fund for Investigative Journalism for its grant program to provide critical support for freelance reporters who have ideas, sources and know-how but lack the funds to complete an investigative project.
- $75,000 to Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism for support of its efforts to create a replicable, collaborative model for local investigative journalism. The center operates in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism, Wisconsin Public Television and Wisconsin Public Radio.
- $60,000 to FairWarning for support of its online investigative publication focused on safety and health issues affecting consumers and workers, and related topics of government and business accountability.
- $50,000 to WyoFile to expand online, public service news site, to share more content with Wyoming media outlets, to make news site compatible with an array of electronic readers and to enable more collaborative reporting projects.
- $50,000 to InvestigateNY for seed funding. InvestigateNY.org is an investigative reporting center for New York focusing on the television and the Web.
- $50,000 to American University for Investigative Reporting Workshop. Stories are developed by veteran reporters and editors working with School of Communication graduate students, recent graduates and interns. New approaches to investigative work and the business of reliable journalism are explored.