Opinion: Grant Makers Back Big Media but Ignore Small Innovators

Major daily newspapers have recently picked up big foundation grants for reporting projects, but small and innovative journalism efforts often go begging for support, a New York Times columnist says.

David Carr, media writer for The Times, spotlights Homicide Watch, a reporting initiative started two years ago by a husband-and-wife journalist team in Washington, D.C., that developed a database to track and report on every murder case in the District of Columbia.

Homicide Watch has attracted significant press coverage, and founders Lauren and Chris Amico applied for funding from the Knight News Challenge, the Robert R. McCormick Foundation and other media donors, to no avail. In the meantime, Mr. Carr notes, the Ford Foundation recently made grants of $500,000 to The Washington Post and $1-million to the Los Angeles Times to strengthen reporting on certain issues.

“Shouldn’t financing meant for journalistic innovation go to the green shoots like Homicide Watch and not be used to fertilize giant dead-tree media?” Mr. Carr says. “I am all for putting more reporting boots on the ground, but the existential dilemma confronting media will require new answers, not stopgap funds for legacy approaches.”

Read a Chronicle of Philanthropy opinion column on the Ford grants to major media.