Press Forward must prove itself to the Black press

All right, I’ll say it: I’m extremely nervous about Press Forward, the national initiative to inject $500 million into local journalism nationwide.

Am I hater? A cynical 26-year-old? At the helm of a two-year-old hyperlocal newsroom still waiting on a transformational investment? All of the above?

Two years ago, I quit my job in New York City to move home to Illinois and build the Harvey World Herald. We’re Black-owned, free, the only shop in town, staffed by over a dozen Gen Zers and millennials, and serving what had been a news desert for decades.

The community response has been overwhelmingly positive: Harvey residents join our cause to reimagine journalism, actualize democracy, and build a new institution that works for the public good.

It’s rewarding but not easy. I’ve been vocal about my frustrations with funders, namely funding gaps faced by suburban and rural-based organizations.

Increasingly, the Black press is demanding that Press Forward funders answer for — and rectify — shrewd, extractive, and trifling funding practices that have many newsrooms doubting the effort.

It’s already started. The National Association of Black Journalists joined other affinity-based organizations to call for equity in the funding process.

To be clear, we’ve begun receiving foundational support. And the HWH is beyond grateful that Chicago-area funders are stepping up.

But my hometown — once the economic beacon of Chicago’s south suburbs — has received broken promises and hidden agendas in the decades since racial segregation, white riots, structural disinvestments, and a culture of political corruption have plundered the city of basic resources.

In 2008, local and state officials celebrated a new tax incentive to help rehabilitate distressed land in Harvey. “THIS SITE AVAILABLE.” “15330 Center Ave.” “6,020 Square Feet.” Fifteen years later, a sign downtown announcing the effort remains. The adjoining lot is still empty.

Philanthropy, I believe, isn’t about determining where you will invest. It’s about figuring out where you won’t. Invite-only grant processes. Websites that don’t list staff with direct contact information.

How are the neediest of newsrooms supposed to trust Press Forward when public and private funders involved have already tried to lock us out? We all have stories.

I know so many Black-centered newsroom leaders who’ve expressed doubt about Press Forward behind the scenes. They’ve been told they should keep their comments quiet because they’ll lose out on critical dollars.

I’m clearly taking one for the team. But this is literally the problem. You can’t be open about funders that refuse to pump transformational dollars into the Black Press because they don’t believe Black people can handle large quantities of money because of fears that funders will retaliate.

In this vein, your silence guarantees that city hall reporter. That data journalist. The business development director. That community engagement coordinator. Sounding the alarm means political corruption, for instance, goes unreported. At least, this is what newsroom leadership is forced to consider.

I highly doubt Press Forward-funders will ever name these things.

What’s required of philanthropy in this moment — American newspapers dying out, this country deep-sliding into fascism, journalists killed at alarming rates overseas — extends beyond giving money.

The Black press is demanding structural change. Not lip service. No cap, we should also move the goal post. $500 million is the floor; truthfully, it’s not enough funds.

I’m all game for everyday people giving to local journalism. But if my auntie has to choose between her niece’s newsroom and her diabetes medication, I know what decision she’s making. And I get it.

To that end, I think funders should up their ambitions: $1 billion into local journalism nationwide.

For what it’s worth, there’s an apparent accountability praxis, if you’d call it that: an accompanying advisory board. But anyone who’s sat on those knows they can become messy and ill-structured.

I may very well be a hater, LOL. But I’m also the inaugural board president of a forthcoming effort to build a local news collaborative in Chicago’s south suburbs. I have to think about money more often. We’re building an entire information ecosystem in what is arguably the largest swath of racially segregated, concentrated poverty in suburban Cook County.

The HWH serves the south suburbs’ capital city. Thus, the Black press is at the center of this effort. The demand from residents is clear: Do the work. The HWH and others will continue to demand the same from funders.