In June, Alex Ip gathered his staff at The Xylom — a science-news member of INN based in Atlanta — and shared the harsh reality about the publication’s finances.
Despite cutting its budget by about 40%, The Xylom had less than a month of operating expenses in its reserves. The outlet needed to secure $7,500 to avoid running out of money in July.
The fundraising efforts “sort of blew up,” Ip recalled, “and we raised $12,000 in a week.”
That’s about two months of operating expenses, Ip said. The team’s successful fundraising extinguished the immediate financial fire, but they’re still working to ensure increased long-term sustainability.
A recent survey of Institute for Nonprofit News members indicates that more are facing similar short-term financial uncertainty. It suggests that factors such as political backlash and retracted foundation support are pushing some news outlets to the financial brink.
Some outlets have depleted their funding reserves. Several news leaders shared that, without an immediate injection of funds, their outlets could close by the end of the year — if not sooner.
In an effort that Ip spurred, INN surveyed its member organizations about their 2025 financial outlook, audience trends and fundraising. A small fraction responded — 69, about 14% of INN’s 500+ members. In this sample, 15 newsrooms represented the approximately 30% of INN members that operate on very small budgets of $250,000 or less.
Though not a representative sample, INN’s analysis of the survey feedback reveals that some respondents are experiencing significant financial stress, such as revenue shortfalls, decreasing foundation support and dwindling reserves. A majority of respondents, 60.7%, said their reserves decreased, with some outlets reporting double-digit declines. The rest reported that their reserves increased (26.8%) or did not change (12.5%).
The survey results illustrate a disconnect between audience growth and revenue. Almost half of the respondents report financial struggles despite increases in audience size.
A majority of the respondents, like The Xylom, are counting on emergency fundraising to stay afloat.
The overall picture for nonprofit news organizations could also be gloomier than the survey results reflect. INN conducted the survey from June 26 to Aug. 1, before Congress approved defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – which supported more than 1,500 public television and radio stations. The INN Network includes about three dozen public media members, about 7% of INN membership.
“INN members have shown themselves to be resilient through recessions and a pandemic,” said Jonathan Kealing, INN’s chief network officer. “While we are confident in the overall strength of the nonprofit news field, the current climate is presenting new challenges to a small but significant slice of our members – particularly those that are very small or that focus on a specific topic. This should be a rallying call for communities and funders, because this year’s challenges will require the support of philanthropy.”
There are also some positive signs within the grim survey feedback. Some news outlets, including The Xylom, have seen success with emergency fundraisers.
“We continue applying for grants, continue reaching out to major donors, continue just doing everything we can to, you know, be more sustainable,” Ip said.
An ongoing challenge for the struggling news organizations is finding solutions to maintain or regain a sound financial footing. Some INN members have pursued mergers and partnerships as a way to remain strong.
Aiming for long-term viability amid today’s economic uncertainty
There are numerous challenges for funding journalism, but no panacea. Solving the fundraising puzzle also involves hard lessons, particularly for news leaders who don’t have a background in business.
A lot of newsroom founders are good at building editorially driven products to fill an information gap, Ip said. Ip has a background in journalism and engineering, but not one in business.
“I learned about how to be a good reporter, how to be an ethical reporter, how to do freelancing, how to build relationships,” Ip said. But “how does that translate to keeping the jobs of my colleagues?”
There can be a disconnect between the priorities of potential donors. That’s also true for an editorial-minded news leader compared to a business-savvy one.
Some things a newsroom does will matter more than others for potential donors, said Steve Schewe, former publisher and CEO of Eden Prairie Local News (EPLN). “One of the things that people think local news outlets like ourselves do well is reporting on emergencies. But that doesn’t necessarily incline them to give as much,” he said. “There’s this idea of connecting to the community, and that’s the sweet spot for both Eden Prairie Local News and the proclivity of people to want to invest in a local news operation.”
EPLN focuses on holding people to account as well as community connections.
It could take four or five years to develop key relationships and build trust, said Keri Mitchell, founder of the Dallas Free Press. There’s no way to fast-track that work, she said.
Responses to INN’s survey also indicated the importance of having multiple revenue streams.
With funding journalism, “no one is doing just one thing,” Mitchell said. She said most newsroom leaders she knows are simultaneously using membership or subscription models, seeking foundation support, selling advertising, trying subscription models or engaging major donors.
“You’re basically throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks,” said Mitchell, whose news outlet was a finalist for the LION Financial Health Award in the medium/large revenue tier. “The goal is diversified funds, because if you get too reliant on one particular source of income or one particular foundation, that’s when you face a severe risk of going under.”
Some respondents to INN’s survey noted that their access to unrestricted grants helped ensure their financial stability.
When responding to questions about funding challenges, some respondents said donor fatigue and the loss of one-time specific grant funds caused or contributed to shrinking revenue. They suggest that more individual major donors are being cautious with their discretionary giving amid uncertainty about the nation’s economy. Losing one-time grants or funds for elections coverage is leaving large gaps in some outlets’ budgets.
The most common survey response about what caused or fueled outlets’ revenue declines was a perception that large foundations may be shifting away from funding journalism.
Some national funding that was once available for local newsrooms is gone. There’s more competition for the dollars that remain, some news leaders said. Political factors, such as anti-media sentiment and distrust, also make fundraising challenging. Small, niche or hyperlocal publications may also focus on topics that aren’t a priority for large foundations.
“A lot of people are rightly worried about what their bank accounts are going to look like in the next few months or few years with a lot more general economic volatility with Trump in office,” said Brian Zayatz, managing editor of The Shoestring. “A lot of people are citing inability to have extra money as a reason why they’re not donating to The Shoestring. And I’m certainly very sympathetic to that. We’ve always wanted to have a product that people can access no matter their financial means, so that’s definitely a challenge.”
Zayatz is exploring business sponsorships — securing donations while maintaining editorial independence — as another revenue stream for The Shoestring.
Schewe acknowledged the uncertainty about the economy and the financial outlook for news organizations. Despite that uncertainty, he’s optimistic about EPLN.
“We’ve established a real bond of trust with the community that we serve, and we see that being paid off or coming back to us in a significant way when we raise money,” Schewe said.
Seeking unrestricted review for more robust news options
Increasing the number of less competitive, unrestricted grants for journalism would also help, some news leaders said.
There should be more grantmaking programs like INN’s NewsMatch, Zayatz said. The Shoestring has leveraged the training, resources and match dollars from INN’s NewsMatch. “That’s really huge for us,” Zayatz said. “I just wish that there were more opportunities for news outlets like The Shoestring to get on an escalator where we can grow our local donation side, and at the same time, we can expect a consistent or even an increasing amount of money from the philanthropic sector.”
EPLN launched in 2017, and INN’s NewsMatch helped the publication “keep the lights on,” Schewe said. EPLN has grown significantly since then, increasing its revenue by about 55% in the past year alone. NewsMatch continues to be an important part of that growth.
“One of the really brilliant ideas that I think INN has had over the last couple of years is to create this incentive to do a local community matching fund,” Schewe said. “So we have about, I would say, 30 people who give us between $1,000 and $5,000 a year.”
Complex and time-consuming grant applications can be overwhelming for smaller news organizations.
“We don’t have that kind of expertise in-house, and it’s just too much of a gamble to invest that time into it,” Zayatz said.
Smaller news organizations may also lack in-house business expertise and the funding to hire someone. In some cases, nonprofit news outlets within a community are banding together to support each other, figuring out collective ways to report the news and fundraise. Similar efforts, such as Press Forward Locals, connect news outlets with donors and foundations in their communities.
Such resources are not yet available in many areas of the country — even a large city like Atlanta where Ip and The Xylom are based. That reality leaves news organizations “hanging,” Ip said, forcing them to figure out complicated business challenges as best as they can.
A less robust news ecosystem also limits the vetted news available to communities, particularly coverage that is hyperlocal or focused on specific topics.
Ip asked, “What about the folks that do issue based news or investigative news that is even more important right now?”
“For example,” he continued, “we cover NIH cuts, we cover CDC cuts, we cover Trump’s attacks on language describing climate change in governmental documents or the removal of data for certain important measures that most journalists that are traditionally trained in just J-school are not technically equipped to cover.”
News outlets need funding for business operations as well as reporting. In that context, sustainability would also include growing and improving news coverage to better serve the audience. It involves paying employees a living wage instead of relying on volunteers or part-time staff. Funding could also help news outlets pay for resources such as market research — something Zayatz wants for his team — to inform a business proposition for funders and donors.
In conversations, several newsroom leaders said they want to pay journalists and other staff a living wage. They also noted the importance of articulating an organization’s value proposition and funding needs, good or bad.
When starting nonprofit work, Mitchell said, people sometimes advised her to “fake it ‘till you make it.” Act as though things are OK even if they aren’t.
Journalists push for transparency and maybe should require that of themselves, she said.
“I feel the pain, trust me, of my colleagues who are looking at numbers and going, ‘I don’t know if we’re going to be around,’” Mitchell said. “It is hard, but there is a difference when you go to a funder as Chicken Little, the sky is falling, and go to a funder with a budget and a plan.”
“What we’re trying to do is tell the story of, here’s where we are, here’s how we got here, and we need you to support us both,” Mitchell. “Because we’re doing really good work that’s really impactful, and because if you don’t support us, we may not be around for the long haul. “It’s both/and, it’s not either/or.”
It’s also possible for news organizations to flounder or fail even if they try approaches that have worked for others.
There’s not an incredible formula that’s guaranteed to work… That’s what’s so hard, is that you’re doing this work because you believe in it, because you can’t do anything else, because you won’t do anything else. And yet it may not work.
Keri Mitchell, Founder, Dallas Free Press
“There’s not an incredible formula that’s guaranteed to work,” said Mitchell of Dallas Free Press. “That’s what’s so hard, is that you’re doing this work because you believe in it, because you can’t do anything else, because you won’t do anything else. And yet it may not work.”
“I’m grateful for all of the people and the organizations who are trying their darndest to help as many of us as possible do this incredible work and live into this news future that is still a bit unknown, but it’s getting clearer.
The work can be “awful, and it’s hard, and it’s exhausting — but it’s worth it.”
