October 15, 2007
Foundations Start Project to Spur Investigative News Reporting
By Suzanne Perry
A group of philanthropists led by Herbert M. and Marion O. Sandler, co-founders of the Golden West Financial Corporation, plan to start a nonprofit news organization that will conduct investigative reporting and provide articles free to other news outlets.
The new organization, known as ProPublica, will be headed by Paul E. Steiger, the former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, and start operations in January.
The move reflects a growing concern within the foundation world about cutbacks in investigative reporting and other public-interest journalism as traditional newspapers shrink their staffs in an effort to remain economically competitive in the Internet era.
Mr. Sandler, in an interview, said he was worried about declining readership of newspapers, the “corporatization” of the news media, and journalism’s focus on celebrities at the expense of serious issues such as the war in Iraq and global warming.
“There are a series of trends that are not happy trends, for people who care about a strong informed electorate and a strong democracy,” he said.
“The number and variety of publishing platforms are exploding in the Internet age,” Mr. Steiger said in a statement. “But very few of these new entities are engaged in original, in-depth reporting. In short, sources of opinion are proliferating, but sources on facts on which those opinions are based are shrinking.”
The Sandlers, through their family foundation in San Francisco, have agreed to spend up to $10-million a year for at least three years on the project, said ProPublica’s general manager, Richard Tofel, former assistant publisher of The Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Sandler said that represented the foundation’s initial commitment, but that the grant maker normally supports projects for long periods.
“Unless there’s some extraordinary change in circumstances, which we haven’t really encountered very frequently, we’re long-term funders,” he said.
Other foundations that are providing smaller sums of money are the Atlantic Philanthropies, in New York ($25,000 to start, with the possibility of more later); the JEHT Foundation, in New York ($25,000), and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ($250,000), representatives of those grant makers said.
Mr. Sandler will serve as chairman of ProPublica, and the board will have several foundation representatives as members, including Alberto Ibargüen, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, in Miami; and Rebecca Rimel, president of the Pew Charitable Trusts, in Philadelphia.
ProPublica plans to operate in New York with a staff of 24 fulltime reporters and editors. Mr. Tofel said the organization is now in the process of recruiting the other journalists.
Mr. Sandler said he has always hated seeing the “powerful prey on those without power” and wants to support journalism with “moral force.”
While he is a donor to Democratic Party causes, he said ProPublica will be nonpartisan and attack malfeasance wherever it lies—including the foundation world.
“If everybody doesn’t hate us, then we’re not going a good job,” he said. “That would be my test. We’re not here to make friends. We’re here to help sustain and strengthen a democracy.”
Some foundations are already giving money to journalistic projects such as the Center for Public Integrity, in Washington, an investigative-reporting organization, and the Center for Independent Media, also in Washington, which supports online local-news publications in several cities.
The Knight Foundation has contributed $250,000 to MinnPost.com, a nonprofit daily online news publication in Minneapolis that will start operations in November. Mr. Ibargüen of Knight says the foundation, which supports a wide range of news-media projects, also plans to create a grants program soon to help community foundations provide money to bolster local journalism.
The Sandlers sold Golden West to the Wachovia Corporation in 2006 and donated $1.3-billion from the sale to the Sandler Family Supporting Foundation.
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This could be a very important service. As it develops, I hope it will delve into the many nonprofits that are either avoiding or ignoring the role of board and allowing an oligarchy of top staff to run organizations—often to the benefit of the staff in terms of exorbitant salaries and perks.
— Philanthro Joe Oct 15, 05:05 PM #
The Sunlight Foundation applauds this venture. It will certainly have a huge salutary impact on the health of our media, and by extension the health of our democracy. Our blog post on ProPublica: http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/afflict_the_comfortable_and_comfort_the_afflicted
— Gabriela Oct 15, 06:22 PM #
Terrific news and sorely needed! I hope by the caliber of the journalists they recruit it will help ensure the integrity of the reporting and thus be widely utilized by news organizations. I also hope they can add a component that promotes media literacy K-12.
— Ann Lehman, Zimmerman Lehman Oct 15, 07:57 PM #
This is the most hopeful and encouraging item I’ve seen in any news medium in a long time. Maybe there IS a future for democracy in 21st century America….
— Yancey Oct 17, 11:11 AM #
I hope ProPublica will be instrumental in educating the nonprofit sector in the role of the media in regards to the issues and constituent bases that impact their work.
Robyn Fern Perlman, CoreStrategies for Nonprofits, Inc.
— robyn fern perlman Oct 18, 02:15 PM #
THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST TERRIFIC INFORMATIONS I HAVE READ ON THE NET. I HOPE THAT JOURNALIST WILL BE RECRIUTED FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD TO HELP ENSURE THE THAT CURRENT ISSUES ARE REPORTED.
— NINDI TARLEY Oct 23, 10:03 AM #