The Knight Foundation announced that it will donate $200,000 to the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, a nonprofit group that pays a small staff of journalists to deliver online investigative reports.
The Washington-based Huffington Post Investigative Fund provides open source stories that can be republished by any site at the same time it is published on the Huffington Post. Its mission is to provide high quality investigative reporting that combines the watchdog function of the press and traditional journalistic values with new media channels.
"It’s a worthy test of a new idea, and since we really don’t know how investigative reporting is best supported in the future, an interesting experiment," Knight Foundation journalism program vice president Eric Newton.
The fund’s staff of 11 investigative journalists has delivered 50 stories since its opening this fall, including 20 video reports. The group operates on a budget of $2 million.
Directors of the fund have been drawn from a number of different online and print publications, including the Washington Post, the Washington Monthly and the Huffington Post, and include multiple Pulitzer Prize winners. Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, chairs the fund’s board of directors.
"Everyone who understands the vital role good journalism plays in our democracy is looking for ways to preserve and strengthen it during this time of great transition for the media, and Knight is playing a lead role in this effort," said Arianna Huffington.
The steady migration of readers from print to online news sources has raised concerns over the future of investigative journalism in recent years, as fewer publications seem willing to keep an adequate number of full-time reporters on staff to support investigative reporting efforts. Newspapers eliminated approximately 15,000 jobs in 2009, according to Paper Cuts, a website that tracks newspaper layoffs.
