Why Knight Foundation turned down ‘NewsHour’ funding request

The New York Times
In a story detailing challenges facing “PBS NewsHour,” Elizabeth Jensen writes that the program must find a replacement for Chevron’s $2 million sponsorship, which the company decided not to renew for 2012. NewsHour approached the Knight Foundation, which paid to revamp the “NewsHour” website in 2009, but Knight said no. Eric Newton, senior adviser to the president at Knight, tells Jensen, “Our issue with it is that it’s what they usually do. We’re interested in new and different ways of doing things, because one thing you can say about the future of news is it’s not going to be the same. Folks who can be nimble and change are going to do better in the future than those who are slow to change.” || Related: PublicSource, a Pittsburgh-area investigative news site, launches with the help of a Knight Community Information Challenge grant

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  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JI2MBY6SYRL5BH6QMLJKRMGURI N.

    The News Hour has become irrelevant, pointless, limp and timid. I can see no reason to defend it as is. It needs to be totally revamped, with far better journalists.

  • Anonymous

    The Knight Foundation tends to fund projects that are heavy on gee-whiz newness but light on actual journalism. See: Jarvis, Jeff. 

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