PRESS RELEASE: Poynter, Press Forward Central Appalachia create program for local news funders
Poynter, Press Forward Central Appalachia create program for local news funders
Funders will share knowledge with peers to expand philanthropy for news that strengthens local communities
Hazard, KY - The Poynter Institute, a global leader in journalism, and Press Forward Central Appalachia are pleased to announce the launch of a peer-focused course for funders of local news in six states in the Central Appalachia region.
The effort will bring experienced funders of local news organizations together to share lessons and best practices to accelerate their work and deepen their impact on local news and their communities.
The learning cohort will be led by faculty members of the nonprofit Poynter Institute who run its Workshops for Local News Funders. Poynter’s program is supported by the Knight Foundation, and provides free workshops and tools to help funders and potential funders invest in local news.
Poynter is partnering with Press Forward Central Appalachia, a project of the Appalachia Funders Network, which is working to strengthen local news industries and support community and business ecosystems throughout the region.
The free, six-month course will include sessions on what is working in local news funding, how to build trusted partnerships with newsrooms, communicating with stakeholders – including foundation boards – about the work, how to measure impact, and more.
The Central Appalachia course is the first Poynter cohort for funders at multiple levels of engagement with news, journalism and media funding; the program will expand to other regions in 2026.
Sessions will be led by Poynter’s Megan Griffith-Greene, who runs the Workshops for Local News Funders program, and Poynter’s senior vice president Kelly McBride. But sharing of knowledge by peers is a key part of the process.
“Many funders, even those doing great work, still feel isolated from others doing this work, and that they have to figure this out alone,” Griffith-Greene said. “We want to make sure they can learn from each other and have the tools to make their funding more effective and have a greater collective impact.”
Press Forward Central Appalachia is motivated in part by findings from the Appalachia Funders Network. Recent AFN research, from The State of Funding in Appalachia and A Roadmap for Asset-Based Investing to, most recently, The State of the News Business in Central Appalachia, reveals a common thread: Communities thrive when they have equitable access to resources, strong civic participation and trusted local information. Closing the philanthropic gap and investing in news and civic infrastructure are key to building a more resilient, informed and connected Appalachia.
This Learning Journey opportunity also comes at an exciting time for Press Forward Central Appalachia partners, as they prepare to roll out the first round of open call funding from the initiative’s Rural News Fund.
Stephanie Hyre, co-chair of the Rural News Fund’s Coordinating Committee and chief program officer at the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, said she is excited to participate in the Poynter Institute Learning Journey.
"Our foundation has dabbled in funding news and nonfiction storytelling for some time, but we are still developing our strategy and exploring portfolio alignment. Research shows that supporting news and narrative work is connected to a community's civic health and economic development opportunities,” she said. “I’m eager to learn from our peers and other experts about their local news and narrative strategies and consider how we can apply those lessons in our work.”
The course is available to funders interested in or already investing in the news and journalism ecosystem of Central Appalachia, comprising the mountain counties of Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, West Virginia and North Carolina, per Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) subregional designations.
The past year has seen growing effort and enthusiasm for funding of local news, through the creation of the national Press Forward organization and local chapters assembling funders who care about the benefits of reliable, accurate local news, including government accountability and community engagement.
Poynter’s Workshops for Local News Funders works across the country, in partnership with the national Press Forward local news funding effort. The main goals are to equip funders with the skills and frameworks to assess news organizations, understand journalism ethics and practices, and identify funding models that have real impact while respecting journalistic independence.
The Central Appalachia peer training cohort is a way to accelerate that work, Griffith-Greene said.
“Trusted local news and information makes communities stronger,” said Griffith-Greene. “There’s great work being done in Central Appalachia; we want to make sure the lessons being learned help funders across the region in real time.”
Jess Mullins Fullen, Programs and Learning Manager at AFN, said that Appalachia Funders Network has several members who already are funding local news and involved in the Press Forward Chapter, but may be approaching it in different ways.
“Our goal is to bring everyone to the same table. A table built on trust, community driven storytelling and shared care for our communities,” Mullins Fullen said. “It’s about creating visibility of our shared efforts and learning from one another, so that local news isn’t just funded, but truly rooted in place.”
Media Contacts
Jennifer Orsi
Vice President, Publishing and Local News Initiatives
Poynter Institute
jorsi@poynter.org
Kalista Pepper
Membership and Development Coordinator
Appalachia Funders Network
About the Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute is a global nonprofit working to address society’s most pressing issues by teaching journalists and journalism, covering the media and the complexities facing the industry, convening and community building, improving the capacity and sustainability of news organizations and fostering trust and reliability of information. The Institute is the gold standard in journalistic excellence and dedicated to the preservation and advancement of press freedom in democracies worldwide. Through Poynter, journalists, newsrooms, businesses, big tech corporations and citizens convene to find solutions that promote trust and transparency in news and stoke meaningful public discourse. The world’s top journalists and emerging media leaders rely on the Institute to learn new skills, adopt best practices, better serve audiences, scale operations and improve the quality of the universally shared information ecosystem.
The Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), MediaWise and PolitiFact are all members of the Poynter organization.
Support for Poynter and our entities upholds the integrity of the free press and the U.S. First Amendment and builds public confidence in journalism and media — an essential for healthy democracies. Learn more at poynter.org.
About Press Forward Central Appalachia
The Appalachia Funders Network (AFN) is a collaboration of more than 75 philanthropic institutions, financial organizations, and CDFIs across six states, working to accelerate an equitable transition in Central Appalachia. Together, AFN members steward over $461 million in annual grantmaking and use strategic learning, investment, and advocacy to strengthen the region’s resilience, infrastructure, and civic leadership.
Building on this foundation, AFN launched the Press Forward Central Appalachia chapter in 2024 in partnership with Invest Appalachia and Media Growth Partners as part of a national effort to revitalize local news and information ecosystems. Through this work, and through the Rural News Fund, Appalachian funders are investing directly in the future of local journalism across rural Central Appalachia. These initiatives are designed to ensure that rural communities, often those with limited broadband access and experiencing civic disconnection, have a strong, trusted media presence and a voice in shaping their own narratives. Together, they represent a commitment to ensuring that Appalachian communities are not only informed but included in the storytelling and decision-making that drive a just transition for the region.