Updated: The Knight Foundation’s Information Challenge just announced 24 winners who will split $4.3 million in grant funding to pursue innovative community journalism projects. There’s a neighborhood news service for Detroit kids (KidSpeak Neighborhood News), and a local news site that includes coverage for aging residents in Florida (Gables Home Page, below). There’s also a 211 phone service for an area with little internet access (Central Pennsylvania 211), a grant program to support Chicago’s media innovators (Community News Matters), and an information hub for southeast Michigan to help residents be good stewards of the area’s natural resources (GreenSpace).
“Information is as important to a thriving democracy as clean air, jobs and schools. As leaders, local foundations are taking the initiative to meet those information needs,” said Trabian Shorters, Knight Foundation’s vice president for communities, who leads the challenge. “These projects help ensure that everyone has the information necessary to make decisions about their governments and their lives.”
Note this is not the Knight Foundation’s News Challenge awards, which momentarily confused us. Those will be announced later this year, sometime in June.