JACKSON, Miss.—As part of a groundbreaking initiative to revitalize local news ecosystems, the MacArthur Foundation announced Monday that the Mississippi Free Press is a part of its inaugural Press Forward funding cohort. The MFP is among eight innovative newsrooms across the U.S. selected for the foundation’s first round of local-media support, as well as nine intermediary organizations that assist with newsroom growth and sustainability.
“This first set of grants includes funding for infrastructure support and shared services, along with direct support for eight local newsrooms that engage in sustained, deep listening to serve their communities with news and information,” the MacArthur Foundation said in its Dec. 18, 2023, Press Forward announcement.
This selection showcases MFP’s commitment since its March 2020 launch to community-centered and equity-driven journalism that centers people across Mississippi instead of power brokers in the capital city. “Being included in a cohort of truly exemplary organizations with such collaborative journalism colleagues means the world to our team,” MFP CEO, editor and co-founder Donna Ladd said after the foundation’s announcement. “It’s exciting to do this laser-focused work to listen to, report on and serve the people of Mississippi who are so often ignored.”
Inclusion In Staffing, Sources Key to Impact
The Mississippi Free Press is committed to filling crucial information needs in the state and helping address gaps in coverage in urban, suburban and rural areas, while ensuring that equity and inclusion are foundational principles not only in the systems-focused content produced but also in the newsroom’s makeup. With these priorities, the MFP helps model and foster a media landscape that better reflects the diverse perspectives and experiences of our audience. This dedication to equitable inclusion contributes to a more robust and informed public discourse where journalists seek out and listen to Mississippians across the state’s 82 counties directly and through solutions circles the MFP convenes around the state.
That trust-building starts with a basic principle from which the MFP does not waver. “We have the state’s most inclusive newsroom,” Kimberly Griffin, co-founder and publisher, said. “I say it repeatedly: Our team looks like Mississippi, and that’s vital both for building trust and understanding the communities we cover. We find great people, most of whom grew up in our state, and train them to do award-winning and impactful journalism about a state they care deeply about.”
Ladd points to the MFP’s extremely diverse readership and donor base across Mississippi and the U.S. as a core strength. “We have worked hard over two decades at the Jackson Free Press and since Kimberly Griffin and I started the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press in March 2020 to build such an inclusive reader base who, in turn, teach us so much about what they need us to consider, investigate and report. We reject top-down journalism wholeheartedly.”
The MFP’s founders seek out healthy collaborations where participants are respected and heard equitably, Ladd added. “Competitiveness has long hurt journalism and the people we’re supposed to serve. We’re not here to be the only statewide journalism outlet. We are here to help our state and all its people by being a part of a strong and innovative local news ecosystem we help create and grow,” Ladd said. “To us, ‘statewide’ means much more than covering the inside of the Mississippi Capitol or horse-race election coverage; it is about building trusting reporting relationships with people and fellow journalists on the ground in 82 counties to better unpack their needs and report whether policy and leaders are helping meet them.”
Rapid Growth in Revenue, Staff
The Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, the nonprofit that publishes the Mississippi Free Press, has grown rapidly since an initial $50,000 gift and a few small donations in early 2020. In 2022, 65% of revenue came from individual donors, a fact that is now helping drive national philanthropy interest and support. “That’s remarkable and a testament to the trust we’ve built in our state,” Griffin said about the MFP’s loyal donor base starting at $1 gifts. “In fact, we have donors in every state across the U.S. We don’t take any of it lightly. We’re excited that Press Forward is joining this incredible community of donors and funders.”
The combined support of local and national readers with larger philanthropy, in turn, creates good journalism jobs and retention in Mississippi for people who grew up here and know the state best. The MFP is up to 14 employees with interviews for three additional jobs underway now. All but three have worked with the founders at least four years with several more than a decade. “Operations grants help us sustain our work and expand our newsroom to more folks who care about Mississippi and its people,” Griffin added. “Ongoing individual support will help us to continue growing national grant dollars that help deepen our reach in our home state.”
The MFP will announce two other national operations grants in the near future and recently learned it is getting a second Report for America journalist in 2024 to cover environmental issues across Mississippi.
A coalition of Press Forward partners has created a national pooled fund for local news hosted at The Miami Foundation. For national funders lacking dedicated journalism program officers, the pooled fund model offers a seamless giving channel and a means for donors of various sizes and types to engage in a shared effort. The coalition will share information about funding opportunities in 2024.
Individual donors can give to the non-profit Mississippi Free Press at mfp.ms/donate. Story tips go to tips@mississippifreepress.org. Media outlets or community organizations interested in observing or partnering in solutions circles can write solutions@mississippifreepress.org.
