A successful civic nonprofit news site blossoms in Charlottesville

Street Fight
Run by a former school board chairman and civic activist rather than a journalist, Charlottesville Tomorrow has operated since 2005 with an annual budget of roughly $250,000; the last few years, they’ve produced a good deal of the land use/development/planning coverage for The Daily Progress, a local newspaper. Recently, the site received a $100,000 Knight Foundation News Challenge grant to ramp up community engagement, an effort well-matched to the city, which is home to the University of Virginia. With a large group of well-to-do retirees, land use is a big issue and that demographic has provided funding.