Cityside, the nonprofit news organization that publishes Richmondside, announced today that it has been awarded a grant of $600,000 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, one of the country’s biggest supporters of journalism and the arts. The grant is part of the Knight Growth Challenge Fund and will support the growth of Richmondside, Cityside’s newest newsroom. In particular, it will fund community engagement and audience roles to help make Richmondside’s journalism accessible to as many sectors of the Richmond community as possible.
Cityside is one of six local news organizations to receive Knight Growth Challenge Fund grants. The others are The Assembly in North Carolina, The Post and Courier in South Carolina, The Salt Lake Tribune in Utah, Spotlight PA in Pennsylvania and Georges Media/Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate in Louisiana.
“In a year that has been marked by layoffs and headlines about our industry’s decline, we’re supporting publishers who are ready to build something that will serve their communities for the long term,” Duc Luu, Director, Business Sustainability Grantmaking at Knight, said in a statement. “We hope this fund will create a model for other publishers to learn how to leverage their brands, existing operations, partners and resources into additional ways to address a community’s news needs.”
Knight’s newsroom cohort-based approach is supported by Blue Engine Collaborative, which will provide coaching, consulting and other resources to each of the selected publishers.
“Local news can thrive with the right mix of courageous, ambitious leadership, a team deeply in touch with community needs, deep digital capabilities, and the capacity to better serve new audiences,” said Tim Griggs, Blue Engine Collaborative’s founder and CEO. “These first six organizations can prove that local news can find ways to grow to serve more communities, and we’re absolutely thrilled to help them reach their full potential over the next two years.”
“We are very grateful to the Knight Foundation for recognizing Cityside as a local news leader and emphasizing the importance of sustainable growth and community-focused reporting,” said Cityside CEO Lance Knobel. “We look forward to growing the readership and trust of Richmond residents by providing them with the civic information they need to get the most out of their city. Our ultimate goal is to help them participate effectively in Richmond’s local democracy and build identity and cohesion in their community.”
Richmondside was launched on June 25, 2024, joining Cityside’s other newsrooms, Berkeleyside and The Oaklandside, in providing reliable, independent journalism to the East Bay. Its coverage is informed by what hundreds of Richmonders shared, and continue to share, about their information needs through ongoing listening work.
Cityside’s journalism is free to all as a matter of principle. The work is sustained by diverse revenue streams that comprise donations from readers who become members, local advertising, major individual donors, and grants from institutions and foundations. Aside from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Richmondside has also received funding from Google News Initiative, the American Journalism Project, the Hellman Foundation, and the Dean & Margaret Lesher Foundation, as well as individual supporters.
