Welcome

Knight Foundation's signature work is its Journalism Program. Since its creation in 1950, the foundation has invested nearly $300 million to advance journalism quality and freedom of expression.

The Journalism Program has a global reach and clear goals: To protect and expand press freedom and to encourage journalism excellence at home and abroad. They are based on the premise that new media as well as traditional have the obligation to meet the highest standards of journalistic excellence. We define journalism excellence as the accurate, fair, contextual pursuit of truth.

Since 1986, the foundation has made a series of major grants to support midcareer education, primarily journalism fellowship programs at prominent universities, including Miami, Columbia, Harvard, Maryland, MIT, Michigan, the University of Southern California, the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford. All have been independently evaluated and have received high marks for effectiveness. Some have been endowed; others have received operating grants.

Through its training and education priority, the Journalism Program continues to emphasize education for current and future journalists; aims to increase the impact and number of journalists reached by existing programs; and encourages the news industry to increase its investment in training.

The Journalism Program also has established Knight Chairs in Journalism at the nation's top journalism schools.

Journalism Program Goals and Objectives

• Current Strategies and Initiatives:
  • Training and Education
    • Newsroom Training Initiative
    • Knight Chairs in Journalism
    • Knight Midcareer Education Programs
  • Press Freedom and Freedom of Information
    • Journalism in the Americas
  • News and Newsroom Diversity
    • High School Journalism
  • Digital Media and News in the Public Interest
    • Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education

Grant inquiry information

In making a grant inquiry, your first step is to contact our Journalism Program staff. Please do not send your inquiry to more than one recipient.

• Eric Newton, Vice President/Journalism Program, newton@knightfoundation.org.
• Gary Kebbel, Journalism Program officer, kebbel@knightfoundation.org.
• Jose C. Zamora, Journalism Program Associate, zamora@knightfoundation.org
• Jenne Hebert, Journalism Program executive assistant, hebert@knightfoundation.org.

Scan our grants

• Grant Abstracts :
  • Training and Education
  • Press Freedom and Freedom of Information
  • News and Newsroom Diversity
  • Digital Media and News in the Public Interest
    • Knight News Challenge Grants
• Grantees Directory

Journalism Publications

• The Future of the First Amendment: Part III (September 2007)
• All Eyes Forward: How to help your newsroom get where it wants to go faster. (2007, J-Lab and Knight Citizen News Network)
• Journalism 2.0. How to survive and thrive; a digital literacy guide for the information age. (2007, API / The Learning Newsroom)
• News, Improved: How America's Newsrooms Are Learning to Change features the success of strategic professional development at more than two dozen U.S. newspapers. (April 2007)
  • Read the book (PDFs)
  • Read the blog (Typepad.com)
  • Tools and resources for your newsroom
  • Buy the book at Amazon.com
• The Knight Open Government Survey, titled 'File Not Found,' shows that 10 years after E-FOIA, most Federal agencies are delinquent (March 2007).
• The Internet and the Threat it Poses to Local Media: Lessons from News in the Schools
  (Carnegie-Knight Task Force on the Future of News, January 2007)
• Mandatory Testing and News in the Schools: Implications for Civics Education
  (Carnegie-Knight Task Force on the Future of News, January 2007)
• The Future of the First Amendment reports on a two-year, $1 million survey of high school students and their knowledge of the First Amendment (January 2005).
  • Survey Update Part I reflects improved awareness of the First Amendment (September 2006).
  • Survey Update Part II shows that students get their news online (September 2006).
• News in a New America by Sally Lehrman, January 2006. A fresh, thought-provoking analysis of the diversity of American news coverage and newsrooms.
• Media Missionaries: American Support for Journalism Excellence and Press Freedom Around the Globe, edited by Ellen Hume (April 2004).
• 'Keeping Secrets:' Public Information in the Age of Homeland Security, by Pete Weitzel of CJOG (Coalition of Journalists for Open Government) for ASNE (American Society of Newspaper Editors)
• Diversity: Does your newspaper's staff reflect the community it serves? (2003-05).
• The American Journalist in the 21st Century (April 2003).
• Newsroom Training: Where's the Investment (2002).
• Minority Students in Journalism: Recruiting, Retaining, Graduating: Lessons from Six Experimental Programs (2002).

Seeking a grant? Query us.

• Want to "apply" for a grant? Organizations seeking support must start with an Online Letter of Inquiry.