Case Study

Want to build a thriving news ecosystem? We’re here to help

A new series sharing lessons about building thriving news ecosystems in Philadelphia and beyond

By Katie Hawkins-Gaar & Erin Mishkin 

February 19, 2025

This post is part of “Building a Thriving News Ecosystem,” a series from Knight Communities Network, a Lenfest Institute community of practice for local funders creating thriving news ecosystems.

Imagine this: A citywide coalition of media outlets, community groups, residents, and elected officials work together to encourage civic engagement, inform voters, and promote civic action. More than a dozen nonprofit and for-profit local news organizations across the region receive capacity-building support. A community-grounded accelerator program empowers BIPOC media entrepreneurs through training, one-on-one coaching, and grantmaking. A constellation of mid-career media professionals of color gain hands-on career development support. 

This is what The Lenfest Institute for Journalism has created in Philadelphia. It’s what a thriving news ecosystem looks like. While every community is different, thriving news ecosystems, like ours in Philadelphia, should have: 

• A diverse network of news and information sources — big and small, nonprofit and for-profit, across multiple platforms, reaching multiple communities. 

• Large-scale, community-wide initiatives that drive impact. 

• Sustainable media models, backed by a mix of revenue sources, including advertising, reader revenue, philanthropic fundraising, etc. 

• Meaningful community engagement ensuring all groups are represented and heard. 

• A robust pipeline of skilled journalists, training the next generation of news professionals — in the newsroom and beyond. 

• A culture of collaboration and innovation — a shared understanding that no one has all the answers or can do this work alone. 

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News ecosystems matter because communities rely on accessible, accurate, and equitably produced local news and information to thrive. In a time of growing news deserts and fragmentation, access to trusted news is more vital than ever. 

Here in Philadelphia, we’re proud to be part of a thriving news ecosystem — and even prouder of the role The Lenfest Institute has played in building and sustaining it. Now, nearly a decade since the Institute was founded, and with the launch of the Knight Communities Network initiative, we are sharing our insights on nurturing a strong news ecosystem so other cities and regions across the U.S. can thrive, too. 

The Knight Communities Network, led by The Lenfest Institute and funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, is a new community of practice designed to support local journalism funders in building sustainable news ecosystems in their communities. The Network will initially launch in eight cities — Lexington, KY; State College, PA; Tallahassee, FL; Charlotte, NC; Gary, IN; Miami, FL; Wichita, KS; and Philadelphia — but the lessons will extend far beyond those locations. Over the next year, we’ll be publishing takeaways, resources, and lessons learned from the Institute’s past and present initiatives, as well as real-time insights from the Network. 

News ecosystems are not static, and ours in Philadelphia is always evolving and growing. And while we have learned a ton, we have plenty to learn from our partners and are looking forward to applying lessons from the Network in our own work and sharing their insights with the broader field. 

How do you build a thriving news ecosystem? 

This is the guiding question for our series. We’ll break down the key elements of Philadelphia’s successes (and struggles) and provide a playbook for other cities and regions looking to build their own thriving ecosystems. 

Many resources are available for defining and assessing news ecosystems — and we don’t want to reinvent the wheel. Instead, we aim to share practical lessons on how to move from establishing a news ecosystem to helping it thrive. Drawing from the experiences of the Institute, Knight Community Network members, Press Forward, and other journalism funders, we’ll explore topics such as:  

• How to define and measure a thriving news ecosystem. 

• How to fill coverage gaps by supporting startup media organizations. 

• How to build equity into your grantmaking.  

• How to engage local funders to sustain local news.  

• And much more. 

What to expect 

Finally, we’ll highlight key takeaways from the Institute’s own initiatives, including Every Voice, Every Vote; the Philadelphia Local News Sustainability Initiative; the Philadelphia Media Founders Exchange; the Lenfest Constellation News Leadership Initiative; and the Lenfest Next Generation Fund. 

Creating these programs took time, just as shifting Philadelphia’s news ecosystem from surviving to thriving took time. But in today’s media landscape — with newsrooms shutting down, communities struggling to know what information they can believe, and trust in journalism at record lows — time is a luxury we don’t have.  

By sharing our blueprints and lessons learned, we hope to provide scalable, replicable models that save other journalism funders valuable time and effort. Our goal is to help others learn from our successes — and our mistakes — so they can build thriving, resilient news ecosystems in their own communities. 

We hope you’ll join us for the journey ahead. If you’re a journalism funder interested in learning more and replicating some of the Institute’s successes, we’d love to hear from you. Tell us what resources you need and what questions you have, and we’ll do our best to address them in future posts. You can reach Kristin Traniello, Program Manager for the Knight Communities Network, at [email protected].